734 REPORT— 1903. 



the passing of an Act in 1894 which empowered Boards of Guardians to grant 

 relief out of the poor rates to members of Friendly Societies, and if They thought 

 fit to exclude from consideration of the amount of relief to be granted the amount 

 received by the applicant from his Friendly Society. That Act has just been 

 followed ill the natural course of events by a bill for taking away from the 

 Guardians their discretion in the matter, and requiring them to grant full relief to 

 the applicant in addition to the weekly sum, not exceeding five shillings, which he 

 receives from his Friendly Society. In other words, they are to provide a pauper 

 who is a member of a Friendly Society with a free income of five shillings a week 

 more than they would grant as adequate relief to a pauper who was not a member 

 of a Friendly Society, however deserving in other respects that pauper might be. 

 Poor-law relief, instt?ad of being a painful and deplorable necessity, is elevated 

 into a reward of merit in the one case, in which that merit has been displayed 

 by ioining a society. A kind of old-age pension is provided for the member, but 

 instead of being an old-age pension without the taint of pauperism, it is a condi- 

 tion of obtaining it that the man must become a pauper. This seems to me to be 

 topsy-turvy legislation. The very bodies whose aim and proud boast it should be 

 that their members never are paupers have been contented to claim for their 

 members the rank of privileged paupers. 



The discussion of the subject of old-age pensions which has now been proceed- 

 ing for the last twelve or thirteen years has had one good efiect in bringing under 

 the consideration of the Friendly Societies the practical methods by which they can 

 obtain these pensions for themselves. The impression that some day and some- 

 how the State would provide pensions for everybody, or at least for everybody 

 who is thrifty, has had a bad efiect ; but the wiser members of the societies have 

 seen that it would be a good thing to substitute for their present plan of continu- 

 ino- sick-pay to the end of life a plan of insuring a certain annuity after a given 

 age. For this purpose they have had to overcome a natural reluctance on the 

 part of the members to lock up their savings in the purchase of deferred annuities, 

 and they have done so with some success, several thousands of persons having agreed 

 tn subscribe for these benefits. It is anticipated that the report of Mr. Alfred 

 Watson on his investigations into the sickness experience of the Manchester Unity 

 of Oddfellows will add force to this movement by showing how great a burden 

 old-age sickness at present is, and how slight an additional sacrifice would secure 

 a deterred annuity. It need hardly he said that it is more desirable that the 

 members generally should do this for themselves than that they should get the 

 State to do it for them. 



Registered Friendly Societies are becoming more popular and more wealthy 

 under the present system. The number of returns from societies and branches 

 increased from :l'3,998 on December 31, 1891, to 26,431 on December 31, 1899, 

 and 27,005 on December 31, 1901 ; the number of members from 4,203,601 to 

 5,217,261 in eight years, and to 5,479,882 in ten years ; the amount of funds from 

 22,695,039/., or 51. 8s. per member, to 32,751,869/., or 6/. 5s. 6d. per member, after 

 eight years, and 35,572,740/., or 6/. 9s. 9d. per member, after ten years. It is 

 necessary to observe, however, that some of the numerical increase is due to greater 

 completeness in the later returns. The increase in ratio is not aflected by this. 

 It may be worth noting that, on the average, the proportion of members under fifty 

 years "of age to those above that age is as 81 to 19 ; and that of the total aggregate 

 "receipts per annum, 73 per cent, goes in benefits, 11 per cent, in management, and 

 16 per cent, is added to capital. The average annual contribution per member is 

 11. Is. 6d. 



Up to this point I have referred merely to the Friendly Society of the ordinary 

 type, the sick club and burial fund. Societies of the collecting group, while 

 registered under the Friendly Societies Act, are also regulated by a separate Act, 

 and it is convenient therefore to consider them apart. They insure burial money 

 only. Thej' are only 46 in number, having increased from 43 in 1891. They have 

 as many as" 6,678,005 members, an increase from 5,922,615 in 1899 and 3,876,215 

 ia 1891 ; but among these each individual above the age of one year in every 

 family is counted separately, and the majority, therefore, are young children. 



