44 
INTRODUCTION. 
vided against by section 40 of the Building 
Societies Act, 1874. In this and other respects 
future quinquennial periods will doubtless bring 
great improvement. 
82. In one respect an improvement may be 
expected during the next five years, from the 
completion of the extensive series of calculations 
based on the returns of sickness and mortality 
made by societies to the Registrar during the last 
quarter of a century. Dealt with by the skilled 
hand of the Actuary to the Registry Office, it may 
be anticipated that they will furnish to societies the 
means of more accurately estimating their con 
tingent liabilities than the excellent tables of Mr. 
Ratcliffe, based on the experience of a single 
affiliated Order, can afford. Many millions of 
facts will go to form the averages shown in these 
tables, ascertained from returns prepared with 
wonderful care and patience by the secretaries of 
numerous societies, and determined to be trust 
worthy by the most searching examination. 
Indeed one cannot withhold a tribute of admira 
tion for the zeal and industry—hardly ever ade 
quately requited—with which the secretaries of 
many societies labour for the public good in this 
matter (a). 
(a) “ The classes among whom Friendly Societies are 
formed are greatly averse to any undertaking involving 
mental labour, and the idea of periodical returns and of 
the other requirements of the statute is more alarming to 
them than it need be. It will be the province of those 
charged with the administration of the statute to endeavour, 
as far as possible, to combat this tendency, and by wise use of 
the materials in their hands to seek to show the societies that