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TABLE A.

COUNTIES in which there were more Indoor Paupers in 1881 than in 1867 who had been Members of Dissolved Friendly Societies, with the Population by the then last Census in both Cases.

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TABLE B.

COUNTIES in which there were fewer Indoor Paupers in 1881 than in 1867 who had been Members of Dissolved Friendly Societies, with the Population by the then last Census in both Cases.

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The above tables, it will be observed, show an increase in the number of paupers in 22 English and 10 Welsh counties, making 32, and a decrease in 20 English and one Welsh, making 21. But the 32 counties in which there is an increase represent a population of 8,300,759, averaging 259,398 per county, which increased at the rate of from 12 to 13 per cent. between the two censuses. The 21 counties in which there is a decrease represent a population of 14,385,499, averaging 708,853 per county, which increased at the rate of 15 per cent. The number of paupers in the first group rises from 1,503 to 2,150, or 43 per cent. The number in the second group falls from 2,512 to 1,763, or 30 per cent. To put it otherwise, the number increases in the former group from 20 per 1,000 to 27; in the latter it falls from 20 per 1,000 to 12. The former group, it will be observed, contains, speaking roughly, all the agricultural counties of England, except Cumberland* and Westmoreland, Sussex and Suffolk, Cambridge and Devon. The latter contains all the manufacturing, metropolitan, and mining counties, except Stafford, Monmouth, Surrey, Northampton, and Northumberland. It seems impossible to resist the inference, that the benefit societies of the agricultural population, whether registered or unregistered, are generally in a state of slow decadence; those of the manufacturing, mining, and metropolitan districts generally in a state of progress. A fall from 302 to 154 in the number of paupers for Lancashire, from 229 to 129 in the number for the West Riding of York, from 140 to 41 in the number for Durham, cannot be explained away in the face of the growth of population in those counties by any hypothesis as to the cmission of women and children.

A somewhat instructive feature in Lord Lymington's return consists of the unions which returned no indoor paupers who had been members of benefit societies, whether dissolved or not. These were the unions of Woolwich, Chertsey, Malling, Midhurst, Staines, Buckingham, Henley, Brackley, Cambridge, Linton, Ongar, Ranford, Risbridge, Bury St. Edmunds, Hoxne, Blything, Wayland, Freebridge Lynn, Totnes, Stratton, Camelford, Dulverton, Chard, Chipping Sodbury, Stroud, Ledbury, Hope, Bromyard, Brinton, Shiffnal, Whitchurch, Newport (Salop), Royton, East Retford, Nantwich, Tarvin, Fylde, Garstang, Ulverstone, Shipton, Pateley Bridge, Keighley, Pontefract, Rotherham, Patrington, Guisboro', Northallerton, Aysgarth, Reeth, Sedgefield, Hartlepool, Easington, Hexham, Bellingham, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Rothbury, Brampton, Wigton, Narberth, Newcastle-in-Emlyn, Lampeter, Tregaron, Builth, Hay. Rhayader, Machynlleth, Llanfyllin, Ruthin, St. Asaph, and Anglesey. Of these 70 unions, not one appears to be without a registered Friendly Society or branch, and some, such as Woolwich, Cambridge, Bury St. Edmunds, Boston, Rotherham, Hartlepool, have a considerable number. That the hundreds of Friendly Societies and branches in these towns should not have contributed a single pauper to the workhouses must be alike creditable to the societies themselves, and to their members.

VII. THE CONVEYANCING ACTS, 1881, 1882.

An Act which in many respects will have an important bearing on the interests of friendly and all other societies holding land either beneficially or by way of security is the 44 & 45 Vict. c. 41 (the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, 1881, since amended by the Conveyancing Act, 1882, 45 & 46 Vict. c. 39). It would be impossible here even to sketch out its multifarious provisions. In matters of title it appears to be a bold attempt to obtain, without compulsory registration and without a map founded on authoritative survey, results which were formerly considered to depend for their security on both those conditions being realised. There can indeed be no question as to the beneficial nature of many of the reforms introduced by the Act. But it may be permitted to those who are chiefly responsible for the administration of the Friendly Societies and other cognate Acts to point out one or two instances in which even these latest reforms in general conveyancing fall yet short in point of simplicity and convenience of the old established practice under these Acts.

Section 34 (1) of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, 1881, enacts that "where a deed by which a new trustee is appointed to perform any trust

* This is itself becoming largely a mining and iron-manufacturing county.

contains

contains a declaration by the appointor to the effect that any estate or interest in any land subject to the trust, or in any chattel so subject, or the right to recover and receive any debt or other thing in action so subject shall vest in the persons who by virtue of the deed become and are the trustees for performing the trust, that declaration shall without any conveyance or assignment, operate to vest in these persons, as joint tenants, and for the purposes of the trust, that estate, interest, or right.'

Sub-section (2) of the same section enacts, that "when a deed by which a retiring trustee is discharged under this Act contains such a declaration as is in this section mentioned, by the retiring and continuing trustees, and by the other person, if any, empowered to appoint trustees, that declaration shall, without any conveyance or assignment, operate to vest in the continuing trustees alone, as joint tenants, and for the purposes of the trust, the estate, interest, or right to which the declaration.”

The reform introduced, it will be seen, consists in the dispensing with the conveyance or assignment of the trust estate on a change or retirement of trustees, and vesting the estate by means of a declaration only, contained in the deed of appointment or discharge. But societies under the Friendly Societies and other Acts have long enjoyed the privilege of the vesting of trust estates (except stock in the funds and copyhold or customary estate), by the mere fact of appointment. In the Friendly Societies Act, 1875, the provision is as follows (Section 16, Sub-section 4), omitting words special to the subject:

"Upon the death, resignation, or removal of a trustee, the property vested in such trustee vests in the succeeding trustees, either solely or together with any surviving or continuing trustees, and until the appointment of succeeding trustees in such surviving or continuing trustees only, or in the executors or administrators of the last surviving or continuing trustee, as personal estate (whether the same be real or personal), subject to the same trusts, without conveyance or assignment.'

There is nothing to prevent the application of the same principle to trusts of all property, so as to get rid of the declaration required by the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act in every deed of appointment, and of all the mischiefs which may arise from its omission.

Again, the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act gives a short form of reconveyance of mortgage, applicable to statutory mortgages only. But societies. under the Friendly Societies Acts, co-operative societies, and building societies, enjoy the much greater privilege (bestowed on the last-named class nearly half a century ago) of discharging their mortgages by a mere endorsed receipt, which is sufficient to vest the property in the person entitled to the equity of redemption. And the form of receipt given for this purpose in Schedule III. to the Friendly Societies Act, 1875, contains in all only 33 words of print, as against 133 in the “deed of statutory reconveyance of mortgage," being almost exactly four times the number.

Some further observations will have to be offered on the Act in question with reference specially to Building Societies.

VIII. THE MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY BILL, 1882.

A Bill has passed its third reading, and only awaits Her Majesty's assent, which, although mainly important in respect of other classes of bodies with which the registry office has to deal, will also affect the interests of married women in certain societies under the Friendly Societies Acts.

The Bill in question (the short title of which is "The Married Women's Property Act, 1882") repeals the two Married Women's Property Acts of 33 & 34 Vict. c. 93, and 37 & 38 Vict. c. 50, and enacts, amongst other things (Clause 1), that a married woman shall, in accordance with the provisions of the Act, be capable of acquiring, holding, and disposing by will, or otherwise, of any real or personal property as her separate property, in the same manner as if she were a feme sole, without the intervention of any trustee; shall be capable of entering into and rendering herself liable in respect of, and to the extent of her separate property, on any contract; (Clause 5) that every woman married before the commencement of the Act (1 Jan. 1883) shall be entitled to have and to hold, and to dispose of in manner aforesaid, as her separate property, all real and 373.

personal property, her title to which, whether vested or contingent, and whether in possession, reversion, or remainder, shall accrue after the commencement of the Act; Clause 6, that all deposits in any post office or other savings bank, or in any other bank, all annuities granted by the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, or by any other person, . . . . and all shares, stock, debentures, debenture stock or other interests of or in any corporation.

....

in any industrial, provident, friendly, benefit, building, or loan society, which at the commencement of the Act are standing in the sole name of a married woman, are to be deemed, unless, and until the contrary be shown, to be the sole property of such married woman, and the fact that any such deposit, annuity, share, stock, debenture, debenture stock, or other interest, is standing in the sole name of a married woman, is to be sufficient prima facie evidence that she is beneficially entitled thereto for her separate use, so as to authorise and empower her to receive or transfer the same, and to receive the dividends, interest, and profits thereof, without the concurrence of her husband, and to indemnify all directors, managers, and trustees of the society. By Clause 7 all such deposits or annuities as are mentioned in the last preceding section, and all shares, stock, debentures, debenture stock, and other interests of or in any such corporation. . . . or society which after the commencement of the Act shall be allotted to or placed, registered, or transferred in or into, or made to stand in the sole name of any married woman, are to be deemed, unless and until the contrary be shown, to be her separate property, in respect of which, so far as any liability may be incident thereto, her separate estate shall alone be liable, whether the same shall be so expressed in the document whereby her title to the same is created or certified, or in the books or register wherein her title is entered or recorded, or not. Provided that nothing in the Act shall require or authorise any corporation . . . . to admit any married woman to be a holder of any shares or stock therein to which any liability may be incident, contrary to the provisions of any Act of Parliament. . . . bye-law, articles of association, or deed of settlement affecting such corporation. By Clause 8 all provisions before contained as to deposits in any post office or other savings bank, or in any other bank, annuities granted by the Commissioners for the reduction of the National Debt, or by any other person, . . . . shares, stock, debentures, debenture stock, or other interests of or in any such corporation or society, which at the commencement of the Act shall be standing in the sole name of a married woman, or which, after that time, shall be allotted to, or placed, registered or transferred to or into, or made to stand in the sole name of a married woman, are to extend and apply, so far as relates to the estate, right, title or interest of the married woman, to any of the particulars aforesaid, which at the commencement of the Act, or at any time afterwards, shall be standing in, or shall be allotted to, placed, registered or transferred to or into, or made to stand in the name of any married woman, jointly with any person or persons other than her husband. By Clause 9 it shall not be necessary for the husband of any married woman in respect of her interest to join in the transfer of any such annuity or bequest as aforesaid, or.... ... any any shares standing in the name of any married woman, or in the joint names of any such married woman, and any other person or persons not being her husband. By Clause 10, if any investment in any such deposit or annuity as aforesaid, or in any. share, stock, debenture, or debenture stock of any corporation. ... or in any share, debenture, benefit, right or claim whatsoever in, to, or upon the funds of any industrial, provident, friendly, benefit, building or loan society, shall have been made by a married woman by means of moneys of her husband without his consent, the court may, upon an application under Section 17 of the Act, order such investments and the dividends thereof, or any part thereof, to be transferred and paid respectively to the husband. Nothing in the Act contained is to give validity as against creditors of the husband to any gift by a husband to his wife of any property which, after such gift shall continue to be in the order and disposition or reputed ownership of the husband, or to any deposit or other investment of moneys of the husband made by or in the name of his wife in fraud of his creditors, but any moneys so deposited or invested may be followed as if the Act had not passed. By Clause 11, a married woman may, by virtue of the power of making contracts before contained, effect a policy upon her own life or the life of her husband for her separate use, and the same and all benefits thereof shall enure accordingly; and a

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