THE DUKE OF HAELBOROUGHsaid, he rose to call the attention of the Lord Chancellor to the Report made to the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies in the case of the "Independent Mutual Brethren Friendly Society," containing grave charges of misapplication of the Society's funds on the part of the persons mentioned in the Report, which Report had been laid on the Table of that House, and had been the subject of much comment in the public Press; 326 and to ask his Lordship whether he intended to take any action in the matter, with the view of having such charges investigated; and whether the Public Prosecutor had been instructed to take the necessary steps to have the parties implicated brought to justice; and, secondly, whether Her Majesty's Government intended to bring in a Bill for the more effectual prevention of such practices in future, and for the protection of provident people of the working class and their widows and orphans from similar frauds. He was glad to see that the Chancellor of the Exchequer the other night had stated that it was the desire of Her Majesty's Government to deal with this question. There was nothing more remarkable at the present time than the fact that the principle of thrift and economy was growing very largely among the people of this country, as shown by the spread of friendly societies in the last few years, and the enormous sums invested in the Post Office and other savings banks. As Her Majesty's Government had undertaken grave and important functions, it was, therefore, more necessary that these matters of private enterprize should be controlled by the action of the Legislature. He wished to call their Lordships' attention to one fact in the Report made in 1885 with regard to the society to which he had alluded. The Trustees had already been prosecuted by the Registrar-General for not fulfilling the conditions laid down by the Act of Parliament. The Registrar General had informed him that these were matters of perpetual occurrence. The large Friendly Insurance Companies were governed by an Act of Parliament which gave the Registrar General no control over them. An Insurance Company, which was really composed of a small body of Directors, and which had intrusted to it such enormous sums derived from a number of small subscriptions, was an institution which ought to be rigidly controlled by Parliament. Year after year these poor persons who had set aside their savings had done so by depriving themselves of certain pleasures, and, after years of saving, they were liable to see this fund lost through the rascality or improvidence of others.
§ LORD GREVILLEsaid, the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack would confer a great benefit on the poor, if by legislation he could protect them against 327 the dishonest practices of which they were now frequently the victims.
§ THE LORD CHANOELLOB (Lord HALSBURY)said, he did not think that the noble Duke had at all exaggerated the importance of this subject. The difficulty of legislation on such a point, however, was that there was a desire to leave something to the independent action of these societies, to permit them to establish themselves in a way conformable to their own wishes, subject to what might be called State control to prevent fraudulent practices. It might be—he did not say that it was so—that the State control was not sufficiently strong to accomplish that object; but it would be very undesirable to take away from those societies all control over themselves. With regard to the particular case to which the noble Duke had called attention, he hoped he would be excused if he refrained from referring to its particulars, as the matter was now before the Public Prosecutor, and it would, therefore, not be desirable or right for him to discuss the case. It certainly was a very sad one, and, whatever the legal result of the investigation now proceeding might be, he might say that if the state of the law were such that such practices as those were beyond its reach, then the state of the law urgently demanded reform.