INTRODUCTION. 
43 
year 1876 produced 8 only; the year 1877, 18; 
the year 1878, 40; the year 1879, 948. The 
Report for the year 1880 has not yet been pre 
sented, but it will of course contain a much larger 
number. Only 45 of the whole number returned 
during the four years were made by public 
valuers. The spirit of the Act would certainly 
best be carried out if the societies would train 
among then’ own members persons competent to 
perform the not very intricate calculations, and 
possessing at the same time the practical know 
ledge of the working of societies which would 
prevent them from drawing false conclusions from 
the numerical results obtained. 
81. The more the societies endeavour to 
acquaint themselves with the principles upon 
which valuations should be made, the more useful 
will the valuations become. At present it has 
been pointed out by the Chief Registrar that the 
valuations made by members of societies do not 
take into account the possibility that the stan 
dard table adopted—that of the late Mr. Rat- 
cliffe’s Manchester Unity experience—may not 
represent the actual or probable experience of the 
society valued, which may consist mainly or 
wholly of persons of a particular occupation or 
living under special conditions of climate or sani 
tation. Again, the valuers have in some cases 
not been careful to exclude negative values of 
contracts, and have therefore treated as assets 
estimates of future profit that may never be 
realized, an error similar to that frequently com 
mitted by Building Societies, and specially pro