FRIENDLY SOCIETIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1938, Page 20

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES

EFFECT OF SECURITY ACT

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, October 5.

Friendly society members waited on the Minister in Charge of Friendly Societies (tjje Hon. W. Lee Martin) in'lnglewood today to inquire the effect of the Social Security Act upon their institutions. The Minister claimed that the Social Security Act would not affect friendly societies detrimentally.

"Will you define exactly how lodges will benefit under the social security scheme?" was a question put to the Minister. He refused to answer thf£ question, and stated that if lodge members wanted information they would have to get it from the friendly society delegates who met the Ministers of the Crown on the question.

In reply to a statement that societies would be unable to obtain members, the Minister said lodges had become a commercial undertaking. Members joined for what they could get out of them. There was no possibility of friendly societies taking in all classes of people. They catered only for first-class risks. The Government scheme would embrace everybody. The attitude1 taken up by certain sections of friendly societies in New Zealand was exactly the same as the opposition to the insurance scheme in Britain. There the result had been the reverse and friendly societies had benefited. "We are not interfering with lodges, but merely providing what lodges cannot provide," said the Minister. A questioner: Is it right for you or any other Labour candidate to say that the lodges will benefit? The Minister: Absolutely. Why should I not? . The questioner: You do not even know what the benefits will be. The Minister: You can hold that view if you like. When you get the information from your lodge delegates you will be satisfied.