The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-06-19 00:00:00

LORD LYTTELTON 014 FRIENDLY
SOCIE fIES.

The f:-.rty-fourth annual meeting of the above
E-,eciety was hell at the Stewponey Hotel, on Tues-
day under the presidency of Lord Lyttelton.—Tne
officers for the year were appointed, and Mr. W. 11.
King was elected a vice president in place of the
Rev. G. Halls, who has left the district. Mr. W.
Perry read the report, which showed there were
271 lxuaelit members and 22 honorary members at
the close of the year. The balance of the benefit
fund aceouni was £8,794 4s 9cl, of which £8,759
4s 91, was invested in Government Str.ok. The
iute-,-est received for the year amounted to £295
120 61, making a tota received in interest since
the commencement of the society of £6,440. Tie
co•-nmittee, in accordance with the strongly-ex-
pressed views of the members of the club, decided
not to have a dinner or band on Whit.Tuesclay.
The finances of the club were in an exceptionally
good and sound position. In fact, while F 0 very
many of the clubs in Worcestershire and Stafford-
shire were stated in the Government return to be
unsound, no club in either county was financially.
in a sounder position than the Becher Club.
srt?plementary report to the date of the meeting
howed that thesent total of the funds was £B,Bll
6s 61, Mr. Perry, the secretary, had resigned
owing to his other engagements and Mr. E. S. Nash
had been elected his successor. Mr, Joseph
Williams (Swan Village)tmoved, and Mr. G. Hip
-
wood seconded the aiption of the report, which
was carried.

Lord Lyttelt-on, in speaking on the report, re- '
marked upon a decrease in the number in members
in the last year or two, and said the terribly de-
pressed state of trade helped to account for it Tbe
club made money to some extent by these erasures,
but they did not want to make money in that way.
The pull on the annuity fund was becoming larger.
and this was a thing that would continue to in-
crease. The auxilia,,y fund (for management ex-
penses) showed an adverse balance, and the com-
mittee were cutting down the expenses chargeable
to this:fund. The expenses of management had
nothing to do with the benefit funds, which were ia
a position of thorough prosperity and stability.
There was a reference to the clubs in Worcester-
shire and Staffordshire in the report which he
should like to put before them more fully. In
Worcestershire the total number of societies of that
description was 320, out of that number there were
300 that had no surplus at all. That was to say,
that strictly speaking no actuary would pass any
one of them as solvent. Only 19 had a surplus at
all, and 8 had a very doubtful surplus. There
were 8 with a surplus of under £lOO ; 3 with over
£lOO and under £200; 4 with over £2OO, and
' under £700; 2 with over £7OO and under £lOOO,
and only 2 with a surplus of over £l,OOO. He
need hardly tell them that the Becher Club was
one of he 2 that had the largest surplus in the
county. With regard to Staffordshire, which was
also incuded in the area of the Becher Club, the r. 3
%%ere 881 societies, but very nearly 800 were in-
solvent in the same sense in which he had described
the majority of the Worcestershire clube. There
wee 18 with a doubtful surplus, 36 with a surplus
of uncler.2loo 15 with between .2100 and £200; 33
with between .2200 and £700; only one had a
surplusof between £7OO and £l,OOO ; and only 4
had a surplus of ever £l,OOO. In the part of Staf-
fordshir ereached by the Becher Club there was not
a singlesociety which had a surplus of over .21,000
the four societies being in the Potteries These
were unpleasant figures. It meant the thrifty
poor puttin e, their savings into societies which could
not be relied upon to repay them the obligations
they had incurred. Urless they 'were put on a
sounder footing it was an absolute mathematical
certainty that these societies would come to gri f,
and the members who had put their money into
them would find themselves deceived. If people
found out they had lost all their money in such a
way, and they were in a far worse position than the
improvident, they might be pretty wellsatisfied that
a man like that would not put another penny into
a society of the kind. The result was widespread
calamity, and evils they could not possibly estimate
the *extent of. He made these remarks to show
them what a valuable club they belonged to, and
ho hoped they would not be content with being
members themselves, but get as many as possible
of their friends and relations to join, It would not
only be a benefit to the latter if they joined instead
of joining an insolvent club, but it would do good
to the interests of the existing members. Some of
the latter appeared to think it was a bad thing for
themselves to get more members into the club; but
don't let them listen to advice not to get more
members.
Mr. W. H. King also made some rematks on the
latter point, and said nothing could be more falla-
cious than to suppose it would injure the interests
of the society to have young members coming in.
de hoped that they might see the Becher Club a
1 .rgo society like those there were in the southern
counties, where their members were numbered by
thousands.
The Rey. W. J. Heale moved a vote of thanks to
• the ohairman, which was socoaned by Mr, J.
Williams, and carried.

A GOLD MEDAL—The ROYAL and IMPER
lAL CIRCOLO FRENTANO of LARINO have
elected Mr. John Brinsmead a Fellow of that Society
and have awarded the Gold Medal to him.