1908.] 



Insurance of Live Stock. 



577 



or embezzlement, but a registered society has a remedy on 

 summary conviction against any person who obtains possession 

 of any of its property by false pretences or who withholds or 

 misapplies it. 



Cow Clubs. 



The following is a description of a society, which may be 

 taken as fairly typical of the method of conducting an ordinary 

 cow club. 



The society consists of officers and an unlimited number of 

 members, the officers being the president, vice-president, 

 secretary, treasurer, marker and a valuing committee of three 

 members. The duty of the president is "to keep order during 

 meeting hours, impose fines and see justice done between 

 each member and the Society " ; the marker brands each 

 cow entered on the horn, or, if the animal be hornless, on the 

 right foot ; and the function of the valuing committee is to 

 determine the value in case of illness or death of a cow. 



The society does not retain the services of any particular 

 veterinary surgeon, and the members can employ whom they 

 please. If a member's cow fall ill, the owner is to report at 

 once to the Secretary, who forthwith advises the valuing 

 committee, all of whom — or at least two of the three — go to- 

 see the cow as soon as possible. As soon as the committee 

 has appraised the cow and seen its condition it becomes the 

 property of the society, and the committee can order its 

 slaughter or can otherwise dispose of it. The full value of the 

 cow as a healthy animal is fixed, and of this sum the owner 

 receives 75 per cent., or 155. in the £, the cheque on the 

 society's banking account being drawn by the president, 

 secretary and treasurer. The secretary receives a small salary 

 for his work. 



Any person wishing to become a member of the Society 

 must be proposed at a quarterly meeting. The entrance fee 

 is 2s. 6d. for the first cow and is. for each subsequent cow. 

 The subscription is 65. per annum for each cow and is payable 

 in monthly instalments ; the cost of marking is 6d. per cow. 

 Hence, after the first year the cost of insuring three cows would 

 be 18s., irrespective of the value of the cows. A member on 

 entering a cow and describing its age and colour, pays the 

 (4321) 2 o 



