730 REPORT— 1903. 



have presided over this Section, notably my immediate predecessor, have delivered 

 luminous and memorable Addresses on the broad principles of Economics, the 

 application and potency of its doctrines, and their serviceahleness to maDkind, 

 with a comprehensiveness of view that is only attainable as the result of deep 

 study, and a brilliancy of exposition that belongs to philosophic insight. I may 

 here, in passino:, express the satisfaction we all feel that at Cambridge, where we 

 are to meet next year, proficiency in Economics and PoUtical Science is now fully 

 recognised as qualifying for academical honours. 



1 have spoken of the subject of Thrift as a small corner of the great field of 

 Economics ; and relatively to the broad field itself it is so ; but it is a subject that 

 deals with large figures and intimately affects large numbers of people. The 2,000 

 Building Societies in Great Britain and Ireland have 600,000 members and 

 sixty-two millions of funds ; the 28,000 bodies registered under the Friendly 

 Societies Act have 1 2,000,000 members and forty-three millions of funds ; the 2,000 

 co-operative societies have 2,000,000 members and forty millions of funds ; the 600 

 trade unions have more than a million and a half members and nearly five millions 

 of funds ; in the 13,000 Post Office and other savings banks there are more than 

 10,000,000 depositors and more than 200 millions invested ; so that upon the whole 

 in nearly 50,000 thrift organisati(Dns with which the Registry of Friendly Societies 

 has, in one form or other, to deal there are twenty-seven millions of persons interested 

 and 360 millions of money engaged. These figures, however, possess no signifi- 

 cance other than that they are very big. Many individuals are necessarily counted 

 more than once, as belonging to more than one society in one clas.s, or to more 

 than one class of societies. Some portion of the funds of Friendly Societies is 

 invested in savings banks, and therefore is counted twice over. Some of the 

 co-operative societies, as, for example, the wholesale societies, have for capital the 

 contributions of other societies, which thus are also counted twice over. On the 

 other band, the aggregate, large as it is, is necessarily defective. It includes only 

 bodies which are brought into relation with the Registry of Friendly Societies in 

 one or other of the functions exercised bj- that department. It does not include, 

 therefore, many co-operative and other bodies which are registered under the 

 Companies Act, nor the Industrial Assurance Companies which are regulated by 

 the Assurance Companies Act, nor does it include the great body of Friendly 

 Societies which are not registered at all. Among these shop clubs hold a 

 prominent position, and these are very numerous. The Royal Commissioners of 

 thirty years ago thought that the unregistered were then commensurate with the 

 registered bodies ; and as one result of the legislation which the Commissioners 

 recommended has been to diminish the applications for registry made by such 

 societies as are subjected by it to the necessity of a periodical valuation of assets 

 and liabilities, there seems no reason to think that unregistered societies are 

 relatively now any fewer than they were then. 



It would .seem, then, that the figures we have cited are well within the mark, 

 and that, used for the mere purpose of indicating the magnitude of the interests 

 involved, they may be relied upon as not over-estimating it. The observation 

 just made leads to the question, why should there be so many unregistered 

 societies? Why, indeed, should there be any unregistered societies? The 

 National Conference of Friendly Societies, which consists wholly of registered 

 bodies, has jusT passed a resolution recommending the enactment of a law that 

 all societies should be compelled to register. Why not ? I think it will not be 

 difficult to find the real answer to these questions. It was given as long ago as 

 1825 by a Committee of the House of Commons in these wise words : — ' It is 

 only in consideration of advantages conferi'ed by law that any restrictive inter- 

 ference can be justified with voluntary associations established for laAvful and 

 innocent purposes. It is for the individuals themselves to determine whether to 

 adopt the provisions of the statute, which offers them at the same time regulation 

 and privilege, or to remain perfectly unfettered by anything but their own will, 

 and the common or more ancient law against fraud or embezzlement," which 

 common or more ancient law was strengthened in 1868 by the Act known as 

 Ru.ssell Gurney's Act. ' For your Committee apprehend that although ^he Act 



