Persons above 16 and under 45, of which at least 7000 are Women capable to bear Children. Of these notwithstanding there are but 1238 born yearly, which is but little more than a sixth part: So that about one in six of these Women do breed yearly; whereas were they all married, it would not appear strange or unlikely, that four of six should bring a Child every year. The Political Consequences hereof I shall not insist on, only the Strength and Glory of a King being in the multitude of his Subjects, I shall only hint, that above all things, Celibacy ought to be discouraged, as, by extraordinary Taxing and Military Service: And those who have numerous Families of Children to be countenanced and encouraged by such Laws as the Jus trium Liberorum among the Romans. But especially, by an effectual Care to provide for the Subsistence of the Poor, by finding them Employments, whereby they may earn their Bread, without being chargeable to the Publick. The following remarks by Dr. Farr on Halley's table, are extracted from the Appendix to the Registrar-General's Sixth Report, p. 558. Halley's Life Table consists of two columns, headed "Age Current" and "Persons". The latter is the column P of the new table, and not, as I at first supposed, the column D. The Po is however placed against the "Age Current" 1, the P1 against "Age Current" 2, &c.; he thus contrived to make one column do duty as the columns D and P of modern tables: 1000 living in the first year of life (1-0) constitute the basis of the construction, which is a population table, and at the same time serves to find the values of annuities on lives at the "current ages" 1, 2, 3, 4, which correspond with the "mean ages", 1, 2, 3, &c. A table founded on the Breslau observations, having 1000 children HALLEY'S TABLE. Age Persons. Curt. I 1000 2 855 798 4567 84 760 732 710 692 Age according to the present Notation. * * 20 84 Constructed from Halley's facts. Age. D. born for its basis, would stand thus (vide second table): for Halley stated in his paper, that in the five years 6193 persons were born, and 5869 buried, in Breslau; giving an annual average of 1238.6 births and 1173-8 deaths, or 648 fewer deaths than births. In constructing his table he assumed the annual births to be 1238; and as 1238 were living at the beginning, and 890 at the end of the year, took 1000 for the number living through the year (1-0), which is 64 less than 1064-(1238+890). HOME AND FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. NORWICH UNION LIFE INSURANCE SOCIETY. QUINQUENNIAL VALUATION AND DECLARATION OF BONUS, Report of the Actuary. "The valuation has been made upon the same principles as were adopted at the last three divisions of profit-namely, by the Equitable Experience Table, and at 3 per-cent interest. As these elements of calculation have been so long in use, I have not felt justified in departing from them on the present occasion. I might have preferred (if commencing de novo) to use a rate of mortality based upon the experience of the Society itself, or if the tables now in preparation by the Institute of Actuaries had been completed, upon the mortality there ascertained; but such a course would have greatly delayed the announcement of the bonus, and I have not thought it desirable at the present time to make any alteration in the previous practice. Thus valued, the funds of the Norwich Union Society, exclusive of the Amicable Fund, present a surplus of £142,078. 15s. 9d., of which, after setting aside £214. 17s. 7d., the amount of the excess of premium received in the New Series since 1869, which belongs alone to the policies issued therein, four-fifths, or £113,491. 2s. 7d., is applicable for division amongst the policyholders, and £28,372. 15s. 7d. remains, according to the provisions of the Deed of Settlement, to accumulate until the next valuation in 1876. This surplus thus ascertained will give reversionary bonuses to the holders of existing policies in the Old Series, of 7 per-cent upon all the premiums paid since the commencement of the policies, amounting to £2,333,240. 17s. 7d., and when added to the excess of premium reserved, as already explained, cash bonuses of 21.87, or nearly £22 per-cent upon the premiums paid in the New Series, which will be convertible into much larger reversionary additions or equivalent benefits. "In this fund it is satisfactory to find the abatement which was anticipated in the excessive mortality which occurred in the five years ending June 1866. In that period the claims paid, including bonuses, amounted to no less than £1,135,487. 3s. 7d., while during the last five years these payments have fallen to the sum of £962,565. 11s. 5d. During the latter period I find that new policies have been issued insuring £1,328,800. 6s. 6d., at an annual premium of £39,084. 7s. 1d., in addition to £6,491. 12s. 8d. received as gross or single premiums. "By the Norwich Union and Amicable Societies' Act, 1866, an annual valuation is required to be made of the liabilities and assets of the Amicable Fund in a prescribed form, the rate of mortality used being that of the Amicable experience to 1861, and the rate of interest 3 per-cent, and the value of the Amicable share in respect of nonassentient insurers, now representing a very small number, is fixed by this calculation. The effect of the Act is to make the Norwich Union Society purchasers of the assenting policies at a fixed rate of £227 per share, or assurance of £200. Upon the accounts of this year the value has risen to £230. 4s., and the difference between this value and the fixed rate of £227 upon the assentient assurances, together with the saving of expenses, now exceeding £2,000 per annum, represents the profit arising at the present time upon the transfer. The terms of the special Act prevent any immediate dealing with this fund, which therefore in no way affects the present bonus; but the position of the fund will be best understood by observing that the balance in its favour has risen from £67,185 in 1867, to £74,203 in 1871, notwithstanding that the amount insured upon the policies, exclusive of additions, has decreased during that period from £1,055,828 to £826,935. This favourable aspect of affairs arises from the low rate of mortality which occurs in a very select class of insurers, and from the careful investment of the assets, by virtue of which the surplus interest upon a fund amounting to nearly half a million, beyond the 3 per-cent assumed in the valuation, goes far from year to year to provide the addition of £27 upon the £200 share. "The rate of interest received upon the entire Amicable assets during the last year was £4. 12s. 7d. per-cent. I am of opinion that this fund places the Society in a much stronger position as regards the valuation than it has occupied at any previous time during the last twenty-five years, and creates an additional reserve equivalent to the assumption of a less favourable rate of mortality and interest in the valuation of the Norwich Union policies. "The annuities have been valued by the experience of the Government male and female annuitants, and at 4 per-cent interest, rates which may safely be accepted as anticipating the most probable results of the future. "The valuation has been attended with more than ordinary labour and difficulty; for not only, as at former divisions, have the liabilities of the Society been calculated, but it has been necessary to re-cast the accounts into the form required by the Life Assurance Companies' Act, 1870. I have endeavoured in so doing to comply with the letter and spirit of that enactment; but to accomplish this was no easy task, since the forms given in the schedule to the Act are not those contemplated by the practice of the office, and the funds with which we have to deal comprise two separate accounts calculated upon different principles, and balanced up to different periods of the year. If successfully achieved, the work will be a precedent for future years, and it now presents at the earliest possible opportunity a full and complete explanation of the affairs and position of the office in accordance with the provision of the Act." The following additional particulars are taken from the report of a verbal explanation given by Mr. Bunyon at the Meeting. With regard to the bonus, the amount of surplus which we have ascertained upon the gross valuation of accounts, is £142,000. This arises upon the Norwich Union accounts alone; and it will be seen that this is very nearly one year's premium out of the five years' premiums. This is a very important fact; because if you take offices whose scale of premiums is at all similar to ours, one out of five will be found to be a very fair and considerable surplus to make upon any quinquennium. In the apportionment of that surplus, we have had to bring into effect the particular principles upon which this office has been founded; and in the Old Series undoubtedly the old insurers obtain the largest proportion of that surplus, since here the addition is made, in every case, in proportion to all the premiums paid from the commencement of the policy. But when we turn to the New Series, we find that the insurers there receive very large additions-I think as large additions as any person can obtain from any other company. Not that the insurers in the new series get any greater benefit than the insurers in the old series; on the contrary, the new series to a certain extent relinquishes part of its profits in favour of the old, since on the present occasion we do not give bonus equal to 10 per-cent upon all the premiums paid. The division of profits which falls to the new series. is made in such a manner that those persons who have been insured in it obtain additions to their policies in proportion to the premiums they have paid during the five years which precede the declaration of a bonus. Of course in this new series, as it has only been running three years, no person can possibly have had a policy which could have had any claim in respect of any premiums previously paid, because there was no policy existing before the five years; but upon every succeeding declaration of bonus, the same rule will apply, and the same measure of bonus may be expected upon every insurance. Bonuses average from 1 to 2 per-cent per annum on the sum assured; and if the advantage given to the old series could be divided in the same way, there is no doubt that the profit which is applied in mass to the old series would have given equal advantages to them all. In consequence, however, of the tontine principle of division in the old series, the new insurer there gets a smaller sum than the old insurer. The old insurers will receive a larger sum at the present time; but as they fall off, the new insurers will take their places. The result is that the advantages are equally and justly given, and the reason why the advantage in the new series appears larger than in the old, arises not from the new series being in any way favoured or getting any preference over une old, but entirely in the mode in which it is allotted. one respect, indeed, the new series is entitled to more than the old, because they pay higher premiums. Their premiums are about 8 percent higher than the premiums paid by the old series; and that 8 per-cent is reserved entirely for their benefit. But with that exception, the advantage upon the division is certainly given as equally as possible to both series. * * * * In We make our valuation upon what is called a gross premium valuation; but on the other hand, we make our reserve by retaining such a proportion of the premiums as would be an equivalent to our making the reserve by a net premium valuation. When the net premium valuation is made, a deduction is made from the premiums, in the first instance, of an amount which may have been assumed to have been added to the premiums in order to provide for the expenses, fluctuations, and profits. When a gross valuation is made, the whole of the premiums are valued; but in an office like this, a deduction is then made, which is equivalent to the fund which it is necessary to reserve for those expenses, profits, and fluctuations. In the Norwich Union Office our tables have not been uniform during our existence. We began with exceedingly low rates of premium, and they have been adjusted from time to time, so that there is not one scale in existence over the whole. That would be a reason against using what is called the net valuation, because if you have two policies in the same position, there is no reason why you should not make the same reserve upon both. The consequence has been that it has been thought proper, during the last twenty-five years, always to make a reserve by the percentage premiums upon the gross amount of those premiums, taking such a proportion as is most nearly equivalent to the reserve which ought to be retained by a net premium valuation upon the average. That reserve is 18 per-cent of the premiums, and when to that reserve -I speak especially of profit policies-we add the one-fifth resulting surplus, which in the present case we are obliged to add by the Deed of Settlement, we then get a reserve of nearly 20 per-cent on the premiums on the old series; 14 per-cent upon non-profit premiums; and 28 per-cent upon premiums in the new series. A further reserve is found in the interest realized beyond 3 per-cent on the insurance, and 4 per-cent on the annuity funds. If we take 20 per-cent upon the gross amount of premiums we receive, that is £30,000 a year. If, again, we ascertain what interest and dividends we are receiving over and above the hypothetical 3 per-cent which is used in the valuation, we have, I find, on turning to the figures of last year, a surplus in that year of £21,303. The result is that the reserves of this office, quite apart from any question of mortality, and quite apart from any question of profit which may arise to us from other causes out of the Amicable Fund, will now go on for the future as something over £50,000 a year to meet expenses, profits, and fluctuations. The following are taken from the Returns under the Fifth and Sixth Schedules of the Life Assurance Companies Act, 1870. The valuation is made up to the 30th of June 1871, for the Norwich Union Fund, and to the 5th of April 1871, for the Amicable Fund; in accordance with the Deed of Settlement, Royal Charters, and Acts of Parliament respectively affecting the same. The distribution of profits is determined by the Deed of Settlement of the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society, and by the Society's Act, 1868, and by the Amicable and Norwich Union Societies' Act, 1866. In the Norwich Union all profit policies, except those effected in the current year, are entitled to participate. In the Old Series the policies participate by receiving a reversionary bonus at each time of division, proportioned in amount to the premiums paid from the date of the |