Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/45

 The pensions of those members who remain in the service and claim them are calculated upon the foregoing graduated scale, to which, however, an addition of or 8⅓ per cent, is made, in accordance with a supplementary regulation prescribed by the actuaries since the scale was laid down.

The fund has, at the present time, 5,705 members, its revenue amounting to £50,000 per annum, and its accumulated balance to considerably more than half a million sterling. Yet the actuaries who, in accordance with the Deed Poll, thoroughly investigate the position of the fund every five years, advise that the benefits are the maximum that can safely be accorded, consistently with maintaining the association upon a sound financial basis.

The "London and North-Western Insurance Society" was established in 1871, its object being to provide for every member of the wages staff, except those in the Locomotive Department (of whom more hereafter), pecuniary relief in cases of temporary or permanent disablement, arising from accident occurring while in the discharge of duty, and also a payment in all cases of death, whether the result of accident or natural causes. Membership of this Society is compulsory upon all men on joining the service, and each man is called upon to sign an agreement under which the Company undertakes to contribute to the funds of the Society a sum equal to five-sixths of the premiums from time to time payable by the employé, and the latter agrees to accept such contributions, and any advantages to which he may be entitled under the rules of the Society, in satisfaction of any claim which be or his representatives might otherwise have had