FRIENDLY  SOCIETIES  NOT  REGISTERED.

143

of  tlie  statute  merely  by  not  calling  the  contract  a  “policy.”
Hence  the  commissioners  infer  that  every  form  of  assurance
practised  hy  a  friendly  society  is  inclosed  within  the  definition ­
  above  given,  and  remark  that  it  may  be  contended
that  every  unregistered  friendly  society  granting  death
benefits  is  within  the  provisions  of  the  Life  Assurance
Companies  Act,  1870,  and  liable  to  its  penalties.
The  practical  importance  of  this  subject  is  shown  by  the
statement  of  the  commissioners  that  unregistered  societies
are  in  England  probably  nearly  co-extensive  with,  in  Scotland ­
  far  surpass,  the  registered  bodies.  If  the  law  be  as
we  have  stated  it,  such  societies  and  their  funds  are  in  a
certain  degree  of  peril.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  beneficial ­
  extensions  of  the  advantages  of  registration  offered
by  the  provisions  of  the  Friendly  Societies  Act,  1875,  will
induce  all  such  societies  to  become  registered.  The  general
principle  upon  which  legislation  with  regard  to  Friendly
Societies  has  proceeded  is  that  registration  should  not  be
compulsory,  but  that  the  provisions  of  the  law  should  be
so  wisely  liberal  that  no  society  would,  willingly  remain
without  the  advantages  of  registration.  There  is  nothing
m  the  Friendly  Societies  Acts  which  need  cause  an  honest
society  rather  to  abstain  from  registration  than  to  be  subjected ­
  to  it.  They  will  not  fully  realise  the  intention  of
the  legislature  until  unregistered  societies  have  ceased  to
exist  as  such,  and  voluntary  registry  -has  become  universal..