On Friday week a Blue Book of 660 pages was
issued, giving an account of the working of the Insurance Act during the past year. It describes the formation of the insurance fund of nearly £20,000,000, the machinery of bringing 14,000,030 persons into relation with the fund, the work of 236 coin- mittees, and the proceedings of the approved societies under the Act. In England alone about 16,325,000 insured persons are members of approved societies. Less than four in every hundred insured persons are deposit contributors. As regards sanatorium benefits the number of persons resident in institu- tions in April 1913 was 7,464. The probationary period of three months entered into by doctors has been voluntarily extended by practically the whole profession. The Act has been smoothly administered in industrial districts, but prose- cutions have been comparatively frequent in the rural districts. It is evident that most of the administrators of the Act have performed their work tactfully and carefully and deserve much credit. But this does not, of course, alter the fact that a complicated Act of this sort, rushed through in desperate hurry, costs the country a sum which is not fairly recovered in benefits. Much of the Report, we may add, is written in a style more suitable to enterprising journalism than to a Blue Book.
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