MAJORITY REPOILLT. 
17 
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gE 
to be implied throughout the Act that the Minister, as repre- 
senting the Central Government, was to exercise some kind of 
general supervision over the administration of the Scheme, this 
was nowhere expressly stated and the powers assigned to him 
under the Act were extremely limited. Before any Society could 
secure approval, it was required to submit its proposed rules for 
the sanction of the Minister, but when once those rules had 
been approved, it was apparently contemplated that the Society 
should be left to go its own way, subject to two limitations only 
in the way of control by the Central Department. 
237. In the first place, it was required to submit its accounts 
for audit by auditors appointed by the Treasury, whose duty it 
was to see that any expenditure out of its State funds had been 
properly incurred in accordance with the provisions of the Act; 
and secondly, the power was given to the Minister to withdraw 
approval in the event of the Society failing to coraply with any 
of the provisions of the Act. Outside the ordinary daily routine 
work of administration, it is true that the Insurance Commis- 
sioners, as they then were, exercised certain powers as the 
ultimate court of appeal in the case of disputes between a 
member and his Society. It is also true that periodically after 
valuation the consent of the Central Department was required 
to a scheme of additional benefits, or a scheme for making good 
a deficiency, as the case might be. But undoubtedly a perusal 
of the Act of 1911 conveys the impression that a minimum of 
control had been left with the Department concerned, and that 
it was intended that Societies should be masters in their own 
house. It was soon recognised that such powers of control as 
were vested in the Department were too limited, and in the Aet 
of 1913 provision was made enabling the Insurance Commis- 
sioners to withdraw approval from a Society on account of 
maladministration of its affairs, where it appeared expedient in 
the interest of the members of the Society to do so. A further 
measure of control was given under the Act of 1918. which 
applied to officers of Approved Societies certain penal provisions 
of the Friendly Societies Acts providing for the infliction of 
penalties on individual officers of Societies guilty of negligence 
in carrying out their statutory duties. 
238. We were informed in evidence given on behalf of the 
Ministry of Health (Kinnear 567-570, 23,496-23,516) that 
even with these extensions the powers of supervision vested in 
the Minister are insufficient to enable him to take effective steps 
to secure and maintain in all cases the high standard of 
efficiency in the administration of Societies which is considered 
essential, and that circumstances arise from time to time pointing 
to the desirability of a further strengthening of his powers of 
control. Bearing in mind that we are here concerned with the 
administration of a scheme, which is financed by contributions 
compulsorily collected from the insured persons and their em-