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  contingent ­
  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  trustworthy ­
  by  the  most  searching  examination.
Indeed  one  cannot  withhold  a  tribute  of  admiration ­
  for  the  zeal  and  industry—hardly  ever  adequately ­
  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