TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 735 



Their funds are 5,973,104Z., or 17s. lid. per member, having increased from 

 5,207,686/., or 17s. 7d. per member, since 1899, and from 2,713,214/., or 14s. per 

 member, since 1891 . These societies therefore show proi,a-ess lilie the others. 



The collecting societies do a similar business to that of the Industrial Assur- 

 ance Companies, of which the Prudential is the type. Their ostensible reason for 

 existence is to answer that instinct of human nature which makes even the 

 poorest desire that the burial of the dead should be attended with some degree of 

 ceremony ; but strong as that instinct may be, it does not prompt the poor to 

 seek out the office of the society and pay their premiums there. They have to be 

 solicited by canvassers and waited upon by an army of collectors at their own 

 homes ; and the maintenance of this ai'my and the general cost of management 

 absorb nearly half the contributions, so that the poor insurer pays double the net 

 price for his insurance. There is reason to believe, moreover, that these societies 

 are largely used for speculative insurances by persons who have no real insurable 

 interest in the lives insured. So long ago as 1774 an Act was passed for the 

 purpose of checking this sort of gambling in human life ; but as it only makes the 

 policy void, the insurer takes the risk of the society repudiating the contract, 

 knowing that its doing so would discredit it and spoil its business. 



A number of other classes of societies are capable of being registered under the 

 Friendly Societies Act, such as cattle insurance societies, benevolent societies, 

 working men's clubs, and societies for any purpose the registry of which the 

 Treasury may specially authorise. Tlie formation of cattle insurance societies on 

 a large scale was contemplated by an Act of 1866, when the cattle plague was at 

 its height ; but in practice only small pig clubs and similar societies in Lincolnshire 

 and the neighbouring counties have been registered under this head. Benevolent 

 societies are defined as societies for any benevolent or charitable purpose, and might 

 therefore comprise all the charitable institutions of the United Kingdom, but in 

 fact the registered benevolent societies are few. Working men's clubs — frequently 

 called working men's clubs and institutes — were first brought under the operation 

 of the Friendly Societies Act of that day by Sir George Grey as Secretary of 

 State in 1864, and were then societies for purposes of social intercourse, mutual 

 helpfulness, mental and moral improvement, and rational recreation. They are 

 still so defined by law ; what they are in fact has been revealed by the provisions 

 of the Licensing Act, 1902, as to the registration of chibs. Rules have been sub- 

 mitted to the Registry Office, and we have been advised that we have no discretion 

 to refuse to register them as rules for carrying out the excellent purposes just de- 

 fined, providing for the supply of intoxicating liquors to members and their friends 

 at hours when the ordinary licensed houses are compulsorily closed, for keeping the 

 club open every night till midnight, and on nights when there are balls till six 

 o'clock in the morning, and for other incitements v-o intemperance. I hope that it 

 will not be long before an enactment is passed that the registry of a club under the 

 Licensing Act shall vacate its registry under the Friendly Societies Act. Such 

 clubs have nothing to do with thrift or with insurance ; they are rather instru- 

 ments of extravagance, improvidence, and dissipation. 



Some of the specially authorised purposes are also wide of the mark, which 

 upon the ejusdem generis rule should, I think, be pointed with strictness in the 

 direction of provident insurance ; but there has always been a desire liberally to 

 extend the benefits of the Friendly Societies Act with a view to the encourage- 

 ment of societies having praiseworthy objects which for want of means or some 

 other reason are not registered as companies. The large majority of specially 

 authorised societies are Loan Societies, and though these may in some cases be 

 fairly good investments for those who lend, they are of doubtful benefit to those 

 who borrow. An exception must be made to this statement with respect to the 

 Agricultural Credit Societies, many of which have been established in Ireland by 

 the exertions of Sir Horace Plunkett, and have been pecuniarily assisted by the 

 Congested District.? Board. It is a feature of these societies that they not only 

 lend money to the small farmer, but see that he spends it on improvements to his 

 farm ; and also that there is no division of profit among the members. 



The returns from all societies under the Friendly Societies Act other than 



