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MAJORITY REPORT. 
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do not in his view adequately provide for its proper government, 
or are likely to operate unfairly to the prejudice of its members, 
to give notice to the Society, not less than one month before a 
general meeting, requiring it to consider the making of an 
amendment to the rule to which exception is taken. We 
further recommend that if in any case a Society should refuse or 
neglect to make the required amendment, the Minister should 
be empowered to make an Order directing that it should be 
deemed to be incorporated in the rules of the Society. We 
recognise that this proposal may be criticised in certain quarters 
as an infringement of the important principle of self-government 
of Societies by their members. We do not in any way suggest 
that this principle should be abrogated or that it should be open 
to the Minister to override the wishes of members and alter the 
rules of Societies as he may think fit. In order to make this 
clear and to provide the necessary safeguard, we suggest that 
it should be open to a Society to appeal against an Order of the 
Minister directing an amendment in its rules, and that the 
Society’s objections should be heard and decided by some 
indevendent tribunal. 
27 
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241. As an illustration of the type of rule to which the suggested 
procedure might have to be applied, we may refer to the rules 
relating to the settlement of disputes between Societies and 
their members. We were informed that the Model Rule on this 
subject issued by the Department has been adopted by over 800 
Societies, or more than four-fifths of the total number (Kinnear, 
Q. 23,750). This rule provides for disputes being referred to 
one tribunal only, before reference to the Minister, who is the 
final court of appeal under the Act. We were told, however, 
that the rules of many Societies dealing with this matter are still 
unsatisfactory. In England 13 Societies require appeals to be 
referred to two tribunals before reference to the Minister and 
10 other Societies interpose three tribunals. There is, more- 
over, considerable variation in the time limits imposed by rule 
prescribing the period within which an aggrieved member is 
required to lodge an appeal, and in some of these there is 
reason to believe that the time limit operates harshly. In some 
cases onerous deposits varying in amount from bs. to 35s. are 
required from members before their appeals can be heard. We 
are of opinion that in the case of centralised Societies there 
should be only one tribunal within the Society for the hearing 
of appeals before reference to the Minister, and that in the case 
of a Society with branches not more than two such tribunals 
should be allowed, first, the branch tribunal, and, secondly, a 
tribunal of the District to which the branch is attached, or of the 
central body of the Society.