HIBERNIAN SOCIETY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1667, 1 December 1887, Page 3

HIBERNIAN SOCIETY.

A meeting was held in the Catholic Schoolroom last Tusj iday evening to take into consideratiei a the desirability of establishing a brand h of the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society in Temuka. There war e about twenty-five persona present, aoi 1 Messrs Madden and Dennihey, of t) ie Timarn branch, attended to explain the benefits of belonging to the Order . Mr Dennihey «: xplained that the Society wain based oi a the same principles as the Oddfellow s, Foresters, and Druids, and meral ters woild get the same benefits; In fact, the benefits to be gained in the 0 iberuian Society were larger than in si ir other. There were three grades of o lembersbip, vis : Full benefit members, t ionorary medical members, nod honor* ry members. The full benefit member i n the event of sickness would get £1 J )er week for 26 weeks, 15s a week for 13 weeks longer, 10s a week for anotl ier 13 weeks, and 5s per week for sucl > time longer as he is incapacitated fi om attending to bis business, togeih er with medical attendance and mei iicines. An honorary medical membei >• would receive medical attendance for ] himself and bis wife and such members of his family as were under under ]iß years of age, The charges for 1 .onoraiy members, who would receive J lO benefits, would be £1

entrance fee, and 10s per annum afterwards. The charges for honorary medical members would be *1 entrance fee, 10s per annum honorary foe, and £1 la fee for medical attendance. Honorary members could hold office in the Society. The entrance fees paid by fall benefit members who would be admitted from 16 to 40 years, would be as follows £ a d 16 to 18 years v*t 0 15 0 18 „20 „ ... 10 0 20 „25 „ ... 15 0 25 „30 „ ... 1 10 0 30 „35 „ 2 0 0 35 „38 „ ... 2 15 0 38 „40 „ „. 410 0 Persons between 40 and 45 desirous of becoming full benefit members would require to pay £4 10s, and also all the money they would bare paid in by the usual contributions, had they been members since they had attained the age of 40 years. The benefit members also paid a sum of Is per week, and for this they received the benefits stated above, and also their wives would receive £2O in the event of their death ; or should the wife die first her husband would receive £lO, besides funeral expenses. Other Societies’ scales were higher, and the benefits they received were lower. The reason the Society wae first inaugurated was because there were Societies over in Victoria which were getting into very loose ways, and becoming more of a political nature. The Society was made in consequence of this a distinctly religious Society, and exclusively Catholic. Members of the Catholic Church, no matter what their nationality was, were admitted, but politics could not be discussed. No mention of politics, whether English, Irish, or New Zealand, would be tolerated within the Lodge. Mr Madden also spoke a few words, and instanced the case of a man in Tiraaru who had had his leg broken and received £1 per week for 13 weeks, The man had told him that only for this he would have been ruined. After several more questions as to the mode of proceeding were answered, a resolution was carried to the effect that it was desirable to start a branch of the Society in Temnka, and a Committee was formed to canvass for members and arrange all preliminaries, The meeting concluded with a hearty vote ot thanks to Messrs Dennibey and Madden for having attended, and for the valuable information they gave.