CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1450, 7 August 1883, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

/ FRIENDLY SOCIETIES,

< .TO THE EDITOR. Registrar-General's Office, Wellington, Augusti, 1883,

Sir, —My official position (debars me. from personally defending the administration of my Department. That fact should weighxith a 'right-minded person when animadverting upon the performance of his duties by an officer, as charges made through want of complete knowledge cannot be refuted, and mujli harm may thus be effected. This is especially the case in regard to tho administration of ; the Friendly Societies Aet, as it is desirable that no prejudice should exist against "the Department, and that membert of societies, should rather recognise the value of the information supplied by it and be guided thereby.'. ■ The importance of; removing unfounded impressions, ;.which, by causing a distrust of the Department and of the information and reports issuing therefrom, will act . injuriously on tho societies themselves by their thus blinding themselves to iheir realposi-. tions and. responsibilities, is, therefore my excuse for taking the exceptional step of replying both to leading articles and letters in your papers of. July 30th to August 2nd; ; I [will deal with tho questions Raised as shortly as possible. •' ; • ' :> ■ T . i "

The actual question referred to in, your leader in the paper'of . July 3.0 is not;as you allegedj -put to officers of 'societies. It is one of a series of test questions put to persons who desire to be appointed to value societies. The valuers are not in that .capacity, officers of societies, but are appointed by. the societies to perform special services. As the appointments must be approved by the Governor it is essential that prior to such approval being given the fitness of the proposed valuer for the'duty should be ascertained. Many societies canfuse the. duties of an accountant with those of a valuer. This is a great.error.-A valuer must be a person having considerable actuarial knowledgea special knowledge held, I think, by only a few in the colony. In fact the valuer, or actuary coines under the term cf "experts." The question referred to could of course not be answered by ; mere accountants, but would be easy of solution by anyone having actuarial knowledge 1. As to the alleged'delay in the returns of 1881. The Act Only required these returns "to be sent by the Ist April, and as many returns have not yet been received clearly the publication in the report issued was simply impossible. The tables for 1881 were distributed to the societies in March, and would have been distributed much earlier had it not been for the delay, caused by delay in forwarding the returns and imperfections therein, In the report issued in 1882 two importtant tables were given containing certain information compiled from the returns of 1881 that Jutdndt then been received. j

But the more important questions were those raised in reference to - the. valuations mid returns, inasmuch as by impugning tfio character of the valuations,'discredit maybe thrown on the' lecoumiendations of the valuers; tbo members.,might thus not realise' their real position, and continue : a cpurae which might end in ultimate disaster. And, by charging the Department with making unnecessary demands, and those on behalf of the Government Insurance Department, create a distrust of and feeling of hostility againsUhe Department, which would militate against the efforts oftlio Registrar in placing beforeany societies their true position, and in ondeavoring to benefit them, and producing desired results. As to the valuations, the Government, or Department, is in no way responsible for them or the results arrived at. They have been in all cases made by independent valuers appointed by the societies themselves, but whose appointments have been approved of by the Governor. The Wellington district, A.0.F., was valued by Mr Nosworthy, of Blenheim, He was appointed by the district, and by one of the Courts of which he was him-' selfsecretary: as he was deemed capable of performing the valuation the appointment was approved of. In all cases the valuers have been members of friendly societies, and no one valuation has been made by the actuary to the Department; but the system adopted by ■ the valuers has been thoroughly approved of by the actuary to the Department, and he quite endorses the general results. I do not propose to argue on the merits of the system complained of by ,your corres-pondents,-that should properly be a matter for Mr Noswortby to deal with, Although there would be no difficulty in showing where the fallacy exists. 2. As to the returns required, they are simple, if books are properly kept. There then is, or has been, in practice an objection by many to keep books, which may be instanced by the following facts: —A society received from the order in England books ruled in columns, with headings to every column for particulars to bn entered in accordance therewith in respect to every member, The secretary deliberately ignored 'instructions, passed' his pen across the page, and entered in the first column some other particulars than that required by the heading. The information, required, by me is wholly and purely .required in the .interests of the societies themselves,, and loan quote the statement of,a prominent officer of one of the largest societies in the colonies to the effect time nothing is aßked for that societies should, not keep on record hv their own sakes, and that, if ; the books were properly kept, could not be supplied by, at the outside, three or four hours' work ift the year., ' The fact is,, the difficulty simply arises in those cases in which proper particulars are not kept on record in the books *bf the sofiiety. 'Consequently when returns laro'..inconsistent or iip comple^a ( dificulty is experienced la, supplying the information! I cannot herein show how slight in. reality are the requirements, but I shall be very happy to explain the matter to any

member who may really desire the information. The statement that thi sickness returns are required on behalf of and forwarded to the Government Insurance Department is simply without a grain of fact for its foundation. The Government Insurance never sees the returns nor. the.results thereof until they are made public in the printed tables; nor-can I conceive what use tables of sickness experience would be to that Department. The sole object of these returns is: by the collection of a large number of data to ascertain in course of time,' when sufficient data may be collected, whether the tables of sickness; and mortality in friendly societies compiled in England, and upon which tablea.of contributions have been founded, are.roa.lly applicable' to the colony; or, whether, as a result of the colonial experience, the English tables, which are the present standard for contributions, should be modified, < and to what extent. Ip fact, from perience whether, if paying according to those tables, members of societies would be called upon to pay too much or .too little—a matter, I take:it,: of great import to the societies themselves. . In England the information previously obtained having been dsemed insufficient, a vast amount of information was. obtained by tho recent , quinquennial- return of sickness and mortality. This has been considered ,as sufficient to warrant future similar returns being dispensed with, but'l fear in New . Zealand the returns cannot be dispensed-with for many years, although the.work in the' societies has been immeasurably'light- ' ened by dispensing with the ponderous quinquennial returns, and requiring that the sickness experienced in respect of each member who was sick dnrin<» the year shall be sent in annually to the Registrar. i am, &c., Wir. R. E. Brown, t Registrar F.S,