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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5117, 17 August 1877, Page 2

There stands, and has stood for some’ time past upon the Order Paper of the House of Representatives, the Friendly Societies Bill. This Bill has been passed by the Legislative Council,, and it now awaits the attention of the representatives of th 6 people whenever it shall please Sir George Grey and Mr. Rees graciously to allow time for its consideration. The subject is one perhaps of at least as much importance as is the question whether the Wananga or the Walca Maori is-the safer political and social guide for, the native people, or whether Auxin’s published views of,the proceedings of an honorable and disinterested friend of hers are or are not libellous. Instead of talking of a poor law in a colony where, if temperance and thrift were practised generally, there would be no poor, it might be worth while to give even a little attention to a measure intended to encourage honorable self-re-liance and provident care for the future amongst that class upon which mob

orators waste so much impertinent sympathy—the working men. A little work now would be a refreshing change from the oratorical platitudes of Sir George Grey and the incessant and open-mouthed barking of Mr. Rees ; and amongst the scores of orders of the day blocked by persistent factiousness there is perhaps none of greater social interest and importance than the Friendly Societies Bill. Last year talk did not slake until nearly the close of the session, when it was impossible to get the ear of the people’s House for a measure which concerned the ■people; the JPiako Swamp, it wouldappear, touched the interests of all mankind and 'future generations much more nearly than a Bill, which, to quote from the preamble of the old -Imperial statute of 1793, had for its object “ to promote the happiness of individuals, and at the same time to diminish the public burthens.” There are in this colony at least two hundred and fifty Friendly Societies, numbering more than fourteen thousand members, in which, taking the wives and children of members into account, fifty or sixty thousand individuals have a* direct or contingent interest. Of these societies, more than one hundred are branches of the Manchester Unity; some seventeen are of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; more than sixty are Foresters; twenty-two are Rechabites; and about twenty-seven are Hibernian Catholic Benefit Societies. Their united funds are not much less than eighty thousand pounds. Thirty years ago in England public attention was called, in a very startling fashion, to.the general unsoundness of the Friendly Societies, and it was shown that the great Manchester Unity itself was some two or three millions, if we remember rightly, on the wrong side of solvency ; the cause of the widespread evil being the general inadequacy of the rates of premium for the benefits promised, and the absence of a graduated scale of payments for members of different ages. Earnest men then addressed themselves to the task of redressing this state of affairs, and after a long struggle with ignorance, prejudice, and habit, the great society has not only succeeded in establishing itself upon a sound financial basis, but by its teaching and example has shown, to others the way out of the danger in which they stood. It would be useless to conceal the fact that the Friendly Societies in New Zealand have not been free from the evils which afflicted- their congeners at Home. But here also, we are glad to record, earnest men have set themselves to show the right way;, and if they have not yet met with all the success that they deserve, they have shed a scientific light upon the question which cannot fail to be used at last. Their efforts here, as at Home, will be aided by legislation which imposes upon the Government the duty of preparing and causing- to be circulated, for the. use of societies, model forms of ac ■ counts, balance-sheets, and valuations, vital statistics and tables for the payment of sums of money on death, in sickness, in old age, and which also imposes on the registered societies themselves the duty of making public their accounts, and of having a quinquennial valuation of their assets and liabilities. It is on behalf of the fifty or sixty thousand individuals in this colony whom these things concern, that we venture to appeal to those friends of humanity Sir George Grey and Mr. Rees to cease from talking for even a little while, so as that the special interests of this small fraction of the human race may have some' moments of consideration in the people’s House.