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MAJORITY REPORT. 
be available for some months. We are, however, given to under- 
stand that they are likely to show aggregate surpluses of between 
£40,000,000 and £45,000,000, of which about £17,000,000 is due 
to the sums carried forward from the previous valuation with 
their subsequent interest earnings. Much information as to the 
progress of the Societies in the inter-valuation period is contained 
in a statement which the Government Actuary’s Department has 
submitted to us with reference to the valuations made as at 
31st December, 1922 (App. LXXXVII). These cases comprise 
3,981 units (Societies and Branches) and show surpluses 
amounting to £8,500,000 against deficiencies totalling £9,000 
only. The average amount of surplus over a membership of 
2,850,000 is nearly £3 a head ; the average deficiency, in respect 
of under 11,500 persons, is 15s. 11d. It is possible that the 
units first valued do not constitute a wholly representative sample 
of the whole, but when due allowance is made for this we are 
justified in expecting that the results of the second valuation will 
be even more remarkable than those of the first. We are in- 
formed that, of the surpluses expected to be revealed, it is 
estimated that sums amounting to about £15,000,000 will be 
carried forward and £25,000.000 to £30,000,000 applied to 
additional benefits. 
171. We are naturally concerned to ascertain the causes of 
what we must call such phenomenal progress. We learn from 
the statement mentioned that the claims have been but 71 per 
cent. of the expectation in the case of sickness benefit, 61 per 
cent. in the case of disablement benefit and 78 per cent. in the 
case of maternity benefit; that interest in excess of the product 
of 3 per cent. and interest on surplus have yielded over 11s. a 
head in the four years 1919-22, that appreciation of securities 
Is an item of some consequence, and that a substantial sum is 
attributable to cessations of insurance with consequent lapse of 
rights in respect of additional money benefits granted after the 
previous valuation. 
THE MARGIN IN THE PRESENT CONTRIBUTION. 
172. General indications of these features of the present 
position were brought to our knowledge at an early stage of 
our deliberations. They raise the question whether with the 
lapse of time sufficient changes have occurred in the conditions 
governing the finance of the system of National Health Insurance 
to Justify a re-arrangement of its financial basis, with the object 
of providing resources either for the enlargement of the statutory 
benefits or for meeting expected additions to the cost of any 
of the existing benefits. This, of course, is a technical 
question and that it might be examined authoritatively we 
requested the Minister of Health to set up the Actuarial Com- 
mittee to the appointment of which we have previously referred. 
That Committee has presented three Reports which we print as