242 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



limited, and the society can thus issue policies for any 

 amount. 



By doing business through the society, policy holders 

 secure the profits on their own insurance, while the local 

 societies which act as agents receive the same commission, 

 at the normal figure of 15 per cent., which the ordinary 

 insurance company pays to its individual agents, the said 

 local societies being free to dispose of this 15 per cent, by 

 paying part back to the members who take out policies, by 

 applying it to their general management expenses, or other- 

 wise disposing of it as they think fit. At least one of these 

 local societies receives in commission nearly 250 a year. 

 The total amount paid out by the society as commission in 

 1911 was 475. The net premiums rose in 1911 to 3,000, an 

 increase of nearly 40 per cent, on the previous year. The 

 losses were somewhat less, and the society was left with a 

 credit balance of 2,133. The bonus for the year was 25 per 

 cent., plus an extra 10 per cent, credited to the personal 

 reserve account of each member entitled to bonus. In 

 January, 1912, the funds invested, in hand or at call available 

 to meet claims on policies, amounted to over 30,000. 



LIVE STOCK INSURANCE. 



Co-operative insurance of live stock is a subject to which 

 the attention of the Agricultural Organisation Society was 

 first called in 1903, and various plans were then projected. 

 Little, however, has been actually done by the Society in 

 this direction. It was known that a number of co-operative 

 cow insurance societies, cow clubs and pig clubs, conducted 

 on mutual principles, were already in existence, but there 

 was a lack of definite information concerning them, and it 

 is only recently that details have become available, mainly 

 through the researches of Sir James Wilson, of the Board of 

 Agriculture. The results of the enquiries made were given 

 in articles published in the Journal of the Board of Agriculture 

 for May and June, 1912, and from these articles the 

 following facts have been taken. 



