THE NEW FRIENDLY SOCIETIES BILL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4786, 25 July 1876, Page 3

THE NEW FRIENDLY SOCIETIES BILL.

The delegates from the Wellington branches of various friendly societies, who also represented the views of branches in other portions of the colony, met a number of members of the House of Representatives last night in the chamber of the House. There were present— Mr. Reynolds (chairman), Messrs. Rolleston, Stout, Swanson, Tole, Bastings, and Hursthouse, M.H.B.’s, and the following from the societies —Mr. F. H. Fraser (X.0.R.), Mr. J, Smith, jun. (1.0.0. F.), Mr. S. P. Andrews (G.T.), and Mr. Quin (A.0.F.) Some discussion on the new Friendly Societies Bill took place, in which the views put forward by the delegates were received with the greatest attention by the ■,members] of the House present, who expressed a desire that legislation on the subject in hand should not be hurried, but that full time for ascertaining the requirements of the societies should be allowed. Mr. Rolleston and Mr. Reynolds undertook to ask the Government to lay on the table of the House the tables of payments they desire to render legal before the registration of friendly societies. The Wellington delegates agreed to furnish members with a statement of the amendments desired in the Bill, and it was agreed that another meeting should he held on Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock. During the discussion which took place the attention of members was drawn to the fact that in the opinion of some the new Friendly Societies Act at Home was not working as well as was imagined, as was shown by the following from the Cheshire County News of May 19th : —“ A deputation, representing the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of Foresters, waited upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Tuesday, to represent to him certain inconveniences arising out of the working of the Friendly Societies Act of last session.—Mr. Curtis (one of the representatives of the Manchester Unity) introducing the deputation, said they had given the promoters of the Bill all the assistance in their power, and should be sorry now 'to find that the excellent intention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer becomes a dead letter. With regard to the Treasury regulations as to cancelling and registering, they were found to be so complex and inconvenient and the expense so enormous that all the Bill intended to do would be lost. Their lodges would not take the trouble nor incur the expense of advertising, which alone would cost their society not less than £3OOO, and the whole expense of cancelling and registration would not be far short of four times that sum.—Mr. Shawcross |if the Foresters) said theirbranches numbered about the same as the Manchester Unity, so that the cost would be as much as in the case of the other society. He urged that the Treasury regulations should he made public before they became binding, so that the societies should have an opportunity of objecting to them ; and that a change should he made in the regulation requiring a captain’s certificate regarding a death at sea before money was paid to a widow, as the regulation caused unnecessary delay in the payment of money much required.—Mr, Davnes and Mr. Pinchbeck also spoke to a similar effect. —Sir Stafford Northcoto said he was moat anuious to meet their wishes. He knew that the question of branches was one of the difficulties which had to ho met and which they proposed to meet in the Bill of last quarter. It was intended to get over the inconvenience of Mr. Tidd Pratt’s - decision that every branch must bo registered

as a society. They knew the difficulty of carrying an important measure of the kind through the House of Commons. Suggestions were sprung upon them at difficult stages of the proceedings, and things were done in haste by persons who did not see all the bearings of the question. Some of the regulations made last year with regard to advertising, intended entirely in the interest of the societies, had had the effect of laying an undue burden upon the societies, especially in the matter of the registration of branches. Nothing could have been further from their intention, and it was intended to bring in a Bill to meet the difficulty. They must, of course, take care that in what was done the full consent of the branch was proved, for he was told there was not an inconsiderable number of branches who desired to keep in their present position. If they got the evidence there was no wish to encumber the registration with any needless trouble, assuredly not with any needless expense. Sir Stafford also thought there was no difficulty in complying with their wishes respecting deaths at sea and the publication of the Treasury regulations before they became operative. He read extracts from a draft Bill which had been prepared with a view of meetin" the wishes of the societies, and promised to consult Mr. Porster and others, and send copies of the Bill in order to elicit their opinions, as he said that with the amount of business they had to do it was desirable the amending Bill should pass unopposed.— Having thanked Sir Stafford, the deputation withdrew.”

The delegates undertook to prepare questions to be sent by Government to the various branch societies throughout the colony, in order to learn their exact views on the new Bill, and to see whether a postponement of the measure until next session might not be deemed desirable.