FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 637, 14 October 1909, Page 11

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

ADVICE AS-TO INVESTMENT OF FUNDS. . During the f yenr twonty-seven i.ew friendly societies vero registered, as follow.— '! M.U., 1.0.0. F. 6 lodges, 1.0. F. JO lodges, U.A.O.D. 9 lddgfes, H.A.C.8.5., oile branch and- one -W'orkingman's. Club,;-- lii - tho '505 lodges which'furnished returns for . tho year, there was an aggregate of'. 58,517 members. Tho total funds of tho societies on December 31 amounted to J51,123,85C, mado up as follow i Sick and funeral funds, X 1,034,195; and medical and management funds, v goods, etc., .£89,690. According to the latest received statistics,' tho" average capital' of members in NoW Zealand was .£l9 13s. 7d., as against jCU 10s. 6d. in. Vic-toria,-Xl4 55., 2d. in South Australia, £9 18s. Bd. in. New South Wales, jCB ' lis. sd. in Queensland, and JiT. Is. 3d. in Western .Australia.;, Taking the- fivo larger' Orders, for 1908 It. was found- that the,percentage'of members sick was highest in tho. A.0.F., whilst the average sickness per member at risk, was highest in tho- M.U., 1.0.0. F., and lowest, in tho, U.A.O.D The interest earnings showed a slight drop in 1807 as compared with 1306. At the, end of, ISOB thqre we're 15 isolated friendly societies, 4 juviiiile. societies, 17' working men's clubs, and 19.specially authorised societies on the. register. Under the Unclassified Societies Registration Afct, which was repealed by the Incorporated Societies Act, 1908,. 86 societies, clubs, or ■associations were incorporated, during the year.. : -'■' . Referring to the valuations, the ..actuary states that be was.struck by the number of instances in which financial soundness, Or, at any rate, a nearer-approach thereto,' could be assured to individual lodges by a very simple means—namely, by. properly investing ; '.their funds... Largo numbers of lodges attended to this point, so',well that, nothing but' praiss could b6 accorded, to' them; but there were others whoio fiinds were-left idle. The attain--ment of a good interest return was not a mere luxury; it wis a necessity, and tho more so when contributions were ordinarily inadequate. It behoved district bodies td uso all their influence' to educate the more backward lodges up to.this fact. Upon making an investigation he .had found :in . twenty years one lodgo by : loans on mortgage/ earned .over .£ISOO m interest, whilst . tho net result .of, the invest-, ments of another was a. direct loss of some JS3O9 through a bad investment in a hall. The constitution of tho district funeral funds was so often found to be on an inequitable basis that'a few remarks in this connection should not be'out of place. • These'funds-existed, ostensibly- for the purpose of spreading the! death risk over a ! group of lodges, but the methods of contribution - were usually ; snoh that they could bo more' correctly described I 'as schemes to . provide for'• tho- paymont by. young lodges of the.extra risks ot old lodges. It,was safe to say that in the majority of casts the rules, were designed so that the funeral funds could not possibly have anything but a-bad effect financially. ' . '• ■