THE ODD FELLOWS.
A great deal of odium has 1 een cast on the (_'dd Fellows Society, through the announcement by the directors last year, that it was found upon a calculation of the assets and liabilities of all the lodges in the Manchester Unity, there was a deficit of one million. This deficiency however, has evidently been misunderstood, for the Odd Fellows, as a body, are uot in a worse position than any of the other Benefit Societies. According to the report of the Grand Master at the annual Odd Fellows' Parliament, the capital of the Society was £3,004,095 all paid up ; and the annual income, £581,717. But against this, for sick gifts and funeral payments, a sum of £415,158 has to be taken leaving a profit for the year of £168,6.5?. The profits on the previous five ypars were: £105,44 0; 1870, £158,189; 1871, £108,559; 1872, £199,521; or a total gain, during those years, of £872,200. A Society making annual profits to the extent of twenty per cent should one would imagine, be in a very healthy state. 'J liis accumulated fund, however, does not belong to the governing body, but is really owned by districts and lodges, some of which are wealthy, whilst others are poor and in difficulties. Some again, have a largo surplus, and others, through improvidence, or being afflicted sorely by sickness, do not possess sufficient funds to carry on with. Taking all the lodges together, i" was found that there existed a deficiency of about a million. But this does not mean bankruptcy; for the lodges :n arrears have an opportunity (by being economically worked) of again overcoming their difficulties, and perhaps of becoming wealthy. To show that the Order, as a whole, is getting out of its difficulties, it may be mentioned that in 1845, when a financial inquiry into the condition of the Society was made, there were defalcations amounting to three millions; and if in twenty-nine years the liability has been reduced by two millions, it will take a very short time to get rid ol the remaining million.
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Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1216, 2 October 1874, Page 3
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349THE ODD FELLOWS. Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1216, 2 October 1874, Page 3
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