certificate to their tables by an actuary possessing a given qualification, who was required to set forth the data of sickness and mortality upon which he proceeded, and the rate of interest assumed in the calculations. All other societies were to be simply registered. Very few societies were constituted of the “certified” class. The distinction of classes was repealed and the acts were again consolidated in 1855. Under this act, which admitted of all possible latitude to the framers of rules of societies, 21,875 societies were registered, a large number of them being lodges or courts of affiliated orders, and the act continued in force till the end of 1875.
The Friendly Societies Act 1875 and the several acts amending it are still, in effect, the law by which these societies are regulated, though in form they have been replaced by two consolidating acts, viz. the Friendly Societies Act 1896 and the Collecting Societies and Industrial Assurance Companies Act 1896. This legislation still bears the permissive and elastic character which marked the more successful of the previous acts, but it provides ampler means to members of ascertaining and remedying defects of management and of restraining fraud. The business of registry is under the control of a chief registrar, who has an assistant registrar in each of the three countries, with an actuary. An appeal to the chief registrar in the case of the refusal of an assistant registrar to register a society or an amendment of rules, and in the case of suspension or cancelling of registry, is interposed before appeal is to be made to the High Court. Registry under a particular name may be refused if in the opinion of the registrar the name is likely to deceive the members or the public as to the nature of the society or as to its identity. It is the duty of the chief registrar, among other things, to require from every society a return in proper form each year of its receipts and expenditure, funds and effects; and also once every five years a valuation of its assets and liabilities. Upon the application of a certain proportion of the members, varying according to the magnitude of the society, the chief registrar may appoint an inspector to examine into its affairs, or may call a general meeting of the members to consider and determine any matter affecting its interests. These are powers which have been used with excellent effect. Cases have occurred in which fraud has been detected and punished by this means that could not probably have been otherwise brought to light. In others a system of mismanagement has been exposed and effectually checked. The power of calling special meetings has enabled societies to remedy defects in their rules, to remove officers guilty of misconduct, &c., where the procedure prescribed by the rules was for some reason or other inapplicable. Upon an application of a like proportion of members the chief registrar may, if he finds that the funds of a society are insufficient to meet the existing claims thereon, or that the rates of contribution are insufficient to cover the benefits assured (upon which he consults his actuary), order the society to be dissolved, and direct how its funds are to be applied. Authority is given to the chief registrar to direct the expense (preliminary, incidental, &c.) of an inspection or special meeting to be defrayed by the members or officers, or former members or officers, of a society, if he does not think they should be defrayed either by the applicants or out of the society’s funds. He is also empowered, with the approval of the treasury, to exempt any friendly society from the provisions of the Collecting Societies Act if he considers it to be one to which those provisions ought not to apply. Every society registered after 1895, to which these provisions do apply, is to use the words “Collecting Society” as the last words of its name.
The law as to the membership of infants has been altered three times. The act of 1875 allowed existing societies to continue any rule or practice of admitting children as members that was in force at its passing, and prohibited membership under sixteen years of age in any other case, except the case of a juvenile society composed wholly of members under that age. The treasury made special regulations for the registry of such juvenile societies. In 1887 the maximum age of their members was extended to twenty-one. In 1895 it was enacted that no society should have any members under one year of age, whether authorized by an existing rule or not; and that every society should be entitled to make a rule admitting members at any age over one year, but by the Friendly Societies Act 1908 membership was permitted to minors under the age of one year. The Treasury, upon the enactment of 1895 coming into operation, rescinded its regulations for the registry of juvenile societies; and though it is still the practice to submit for registry societies wholly composed of persons under twenty-one, these societies in no way differ from other societies, except in the circumstances that they are obliged to seek officers and a committee of management from outside, as no member of the committee of any society can be under twenty-one years of age. In order to promote the discontinuance of this anomalous proceeding of creating societies under the Friendly Societies Act, which, by the conditions of their existence, are unable to be self-governing, the act provides an easy method of amalgamating juvenile societies and ordinary societies or branches, or of distributing the members and the funds of a juvenile society among a number of branches. The liability of schoolboys and young working lads to sickness is small, and these societies frequently accumulate funds, which, as their membership is temporary, remain unclaimed and are sometimes misapplied.
The legislation of 1875 and 1876 was the result of the labours of a royal commission of high authority, presided over by Sir Stafford Northcote (afterwards Lord Iddesleigh), which sat from 1870 to 1874, and prosecuted an exhaustive inquiry into the organization and condition of the various classes of friendly societies. Their reports occupy more than a dozen large bluebooks. They divided registered friendly societies into 13 classes.
The first class included the affiliated societies or “orders,” such as the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, the Ancient Order of Foresters, the Rechabites, Druids, &c. These societies have a central body, either situated in some large town, as in the case of the Manchester Unity, or moving from place to place, as in that of the Foresters. Under this central body, the country is (in most cases) parcelled out into districts, and these districts again consist each of a number of independent branches, called “lodges,” “courts,” “tents,” or “divisions,” having a separate fund administered by themselves, but contributing also to a fund under the control of the central body. Besides these great orders, there were smaller affiliated bodies, each having more than 1000 members; and the affiliated form of society appears to have great attraction. Indeed, in the colony of Victoria, Australia, all the existing friendly societies are of this class. The orders have their “secrets,” but these, it may safely be said, are of a very innocent character, and merely serve the purpose of identifying a member of a distant branch by his knowledge of the “grip,” and of the current password, &c. Indeed they are now so far from being “secret societies” that their meetings are attended by reporters and the debates published in the newspapers, and the Order of Foresters has passed a wise resolution expunging from its publications all affectation of mystery.
Most of the lodges existing before 1875 have converted themselves into registered branches. The requirement that for that purpose a vote of three-fourths should be necessary was altered in 1895 to a bare majority vote. The provisions as to settlement of disputes were extended in 1885 to every description of dispute between branches and the central body, and in 1895 it was provided that the forty days after which a member may apply to the court to settle a dispute where the society fails to do so, shall not begin to run until application has been made in succession to all the tribunals created by the order for the purpose. In 1887 it was enacted that no body which had been a registered branch should be registered as a separate society except upon production of a certificate from the order that it had seceded or been expelled; and in 1895 it was further enacted that no such body should, after secession or expulsion, use any name or number implying that it is still a branch of the order. The orders generally, especially the greater ones, have carefully supervised the valuations of their branches, and have urged and, as far as circumstances have rendered it practicable, have enforced upon the branches measures for diminishing the deficiencies which the valuations have disclosed. They have organized plans by which branches disposed to make an effort to help themselves in this matter may be assisted out of a central fund. The second class was made up of “general societies,” principally existing in London, of which the commissioners enumerated 8 with nearly 60,000 members, and funds amounting to a quarter of a million.
The third class included the “county societies.” These societies have been but feebly supported by those for whose benefit they are instituted, having all exacted high rates of contribution, in order to secure financial soundness.
Class 4, “local town societies,” is a very numerous one. Among some of the larger societies may be mentioned the “Chelmsford Provident,” the “Brighton and Sussex Mutual,” the “Cannon Street, Birmingham,” the “Birmingham General Provident.” In
