IdU 
Post-Office Insurance for Lnhonvprs. 
Another objection is that, ronceding the feasibility of the 
plan, its adoption would cause a great addition to the duties of 
the district officials. We can only reply that the latter are 
found gladly to undertake work of the kind, provided that they 
are fairly paid for doing it. They make very good agents of 
Friendly Societies, and the work is not by any means heavy. In 
a district of 100 members, which would be a large district, 
the number of the sick, according to the returns from Societies 
in which the espionage of the members over each other is 
resorted to, would be 27 per annum. But with the system 
advocated in this article, it ought not to exceed 15 in the course 
of the year, or thereabouts. And the payment of their claims, 
as well as the receipt of the contributions of all the insured, 
is no considerable addition to the duties of a district post- 
master. 
Another objection arises from the persuasion that collectors 
are required to call on the members week by week for their 
contributions, in reference to which practice I venture to remark 
that it will be strange indeed if the evidence elicited by the 
Royal Commission does not point strongly to the conclusion 
that the custom of employing collectors is not for the benefit of 
the members but for that of the collectors. Their books have a 
considerable marketable value, and hence the enormous per- 
centages charged for collection. These charges are defended as 
necessary. Necessary, we ask, for whom ? Certainly not for 
the due care of the members who pay them. Once let members 
clearly understand tbat arrears of contributions place their 
benefits in jeopardy, and entail fine and forfeiture which will 
be duly enforced, and they will be very careful how they get 
into arrear. They will come to the district office and pay 
readily enough. A system which showed to persons insured in 
Societies where enormous charges for collection are levied that 
such expenses might be saved and collectors be dispensed with, 
would be a great boon to many deserving poor. The answer 
to this objection, as in that relating to the supervision of sick 
members, is one the weight of which tells heavily against the 
opponents of the scheme. 
The last objection requiring notice is that since insurances 
have been obtainable at the Post-Office the public have shown a 
declining interest in them, and it is asked whether the same 
apathy would not be manifested in the event of sickness-pay and 
burial-money and endowment insurances. To such a suppo- 
sition — and it is no more — we reply that it would be strange 
indeed if the attempts at providing insurances through the 
Post-Office had secured much attention : the Life Insurance is, 
even as compared with the limit imposed on Friendly Societies, 
