Notes on Friendly Societies.

(From Hayter's Statistics.)

The registered wives of members numbered 28,425 in 1875 and 27,919 in 1876. The falling off in the latter year was therefore 506.

The amount of contribution made by each member is, under ordinary circumstances, 1s. weekly, but extra payments from members joining after a certain age, levies, &c., bring the average per member up to something over this rate. In 1875 the average was l.026s. (about 1s. 0¼d.) per week; and, in 1876, 1.072s. (a fraction in excess of 1s. 0¼d.) per week.

The contributions and levies, together with the admission, entrance, and clearance fees, amounted in 1876 to £134,752, and the sick pay, funeral donations, and sums expended on medical attendance and management to £129,062, or £5,690 less. This difference, added to the interest received during the year on moneys invested, amounting to £16,394, and to the sum of £820 resulting from donations, fines, sale of goods, &c., furnishes a total of £22,904, which may be considered to be the profit made by the societies upon the year's transactions.

The aggregate amount to the credit of the funds of the societies increases from year to year, and this is especially noticeable in the case of the Sick and Funeral Fund. The difference between the amounts to the credit of this fund at the end of 1875 and 1876 is £19,240 in favor of the latter year.

Adding the two funds together, and dividing the sum by the number of members, it is found that the amount standing to the credit of each member increased from £7 3s. at the end of 1875 to £7 11s. 3d. at the end of 1876.

The balance to the credit of .the Sick and Funeral Funds of the societies at the end of 1876 was £340,139, that to the credit of their Incidental or Management Funds was £11,145. The former amount exceeded by £19,240 that at the end of the previous year, but the latter amount was less by £1,013 than that at the end of 1875.

The benefits to members of Friendly Societies consist of aliment and medical attendance during sickness, and of payments for funeral expenses. These amounted in the aggregate to £103,540, or at the rate of £2 5s. 2d. per member, in 1875, and to £104,393, or at the rate of £2 5s. 5d. per member, in 1876.

In 1875 the benefits were to the contributions in the proportion of page 68 83 per cent. In 1876 they were in the proportion of 81¼ per cent. In both years they were in the proportion of 64 per cent, to the total income.

Sums amounting in the aggregate to £24,669, or at the rate of 10s. 9d. per member, were paid for the management of the societies in 1876. This is a great increase upon the amount in the previous year, when the expenses of management were only £16,762, or at the rate of 7s. 3d. per member.

The period of sickness for which payment was given in 1876 amounted to 52,817 weeks, or 830 weeks less than in 1875. The average per member was 6.9 working days, as against 7 such days in 1875. The year under notice is the first since 1869 in which the average time for which sick pay has been given has not been greater than in the previous year.

The number of members sick was 8,873 in 1875 and 8,385 in 1876. Some members were sick more than once in both years. In the former year the number of attacks of sickness exceeded the number of members sick by 989, and in the latter by 912.

In 1875 the average time of each attack of sickness was 5 weeks and 2¼ days, and the average time for which each sick member was paid was 6 weeks. In 1876 the average time of each attack was 5 weeks and 4 days, and the average time of payment to each sick member was 6 weeks and 2 days.

The rates of sick pay vary somewhat in different societies, the usual payment being £1 per week for the first six months; from 10s. to 13s. 4d. per week for the next six months; and from 5s. to 10s. per week for the remainder of the term of disablement. In the societies, taken as a whole, the average weekly amount paid to each sick member was 17s. 4d. in 1875 and 17s. 1d. in 1876. During the last 11 years the highest average was 19s. 1d. in 1866, and the lowest was 16s. 3d. in 1874.

In 1875 the deaths of members of Friendly Societies numbered 427, or 9.3 to every 1,000 members living; and in 1876, 452, or 9.84 to every 1,000 members. In the former year the deaths of members' wives numbered 170, and in the latter 239, or 3.7 and 5.2 per 1,000 members living.

The amount paid on the death of a member is, in almost all the societies £20; and on the death of a wife, £10. Tue total amount of such payments in 1875 was £10,340, or at the rate of 4s. 6d. to each member; and in 1876, £11,326, or at the rate of 4s. 11d. to each member.

I deem it my duty to draw attention to the fact that the law is systematically broken by a large number of societies in the matter of taking moneys from one fund to apply to the purposes of another, the fund robbed in this manner being, in almost all cases, the benefit fund, and the moneys taken devoted towards defraying the expenses of management. This malversation of funds was always illegal, but until the recently passed Friendly Societies Act came into operation it was not easy to deal with the offender. No such difficulty, however, exists under the new law, and prompt measures will undoubtedly be taken to put a stop to a practice which militates against the best interests of Friendly Societies, and is directly in opposition to the principles on which they were founded and according to which they should be conducted.