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  presented, ­
  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  knowledge ­
  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  standard ­
  table  adopted—that  of  the  late  Mr.  Ratcliffe’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  sanitation. ­
  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  committed ­
  by  Building  Societies,  and  specially  pro ­