FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Wairarapa Age, 16 March 1927, Page 5

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

DRUIDS’ BIENNIAL CONFERENCE.

PALMERSTON N., March 15. The biennial conference of delegates of the Druids’ Grand Lodge of the North Island opened here yesterday afternoon. The delegates were accorded a civic reception. Domestic business only was- transacted. The executive’s annual report mentioned the satisfactory state of the funds. The increases since the last Grand Lodge meeting were: Sick and funeral fund £29,233, special insurance No. 1 special insurance No. 2 £620, benevolent £-286, management £lOll. The actual balances disclosed by the financial statement are sick and funeral £46,989, management £638, benevolent fund £1173, insurance No. 1 £73,923, insurance No. 2 £2894. The society’s assets were £429,026, including £351,804, invested on mortgage, £5600 in debentures, and £6892 in war bonds, and £48,857 in the head office building at Wellington.—(P.A.) ODDFELLOWS. SOCIETY’S FINANCIAL POSITION. CHRISTCHURCH, March 15. Dhe forty-second biennial conference of the 1.0.0. F. was opened in Christchurch this morning, the Grand Master for New Zealand, Bro. D. R. Cooper (Auckland) presiding. In his address, the Grand Master referred to the death of the late Grand Secretary, Bro. W. Reid (Dunedin), who attended every Grand Lodge session since 1876. The Grand Secretary reported a net gain in membership of 2707, making the total 15,935. The funeral fund had increased by £31,207, inaking the total £224,037. Abnormal sick and funeral funds, amounting to £25,450, which exceeded the epidemic period record, was met, with the exception of only £l5OO, out of interest earned. The funds of the society in New Zealand totalled £234,260 and the Government valuation disclosed a surplus in the sick and funeral funds of £39,423. A welcome was accorded to Bro. L. Deans Ritchie, D.G.S. for Australasia.— (P.A.) '