§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Secretary to the Treasury if he will say for what purpose the Reports of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies for 1910 have been issued fourteen months after the close of that year; why those for 1911 were not put in hand when it was seen that the earlier Reports could not be issued in time to serve any useful purpose; when the Reports for 1911 will be available; and, if not till 1913, in what way they will then be worth the cost of preparing them?
§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. Masterman)The Report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly societies for 1908 appeared in November, 1909, that for 1909 in December, 1910. The Report for 1910 was delayed for nearly two months owing to the work entailed on the office in connection with the National Insurance Act, 1911. If the Report were issued earlier than at a date near the end of the year following that to which it relates, its value would be much impaired owing to the impossibility of embodying in it all the returns which are necessary to make it complete. The Report for 1911 is now in hand, and it is anticipated that it will be published in its complete form before the end of the current year.