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$2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $500. The pay- ment of the following fees is necessary to be- came a member of the Catholic Mutual Bene- fit Association of Canada: Application fee, $1.00; supervising medical examiner’s fee, fifty cents; medical examination fee, $1.50; one monthly levy for $1,000, at age of twen- ty-one, eighty-five cents; one month’s dues, twenty-five cents; total, $4.10.

RATES 01" INSURANCE

Monthly Rate . Age, Years

82,000 $1,500 81,000 8500 18 to 25 8 1.70 8 1.25 8 .85 8 .45 25 to 30 1.85 1.45 .95 .50 30 to 35 2.00 1.50 1.00 .55 35 to 40 2.20 1.70 1.10 .60 40 to 45 2.45 1.95 1.25 .70 45 to 50 2.75 2.20 1.45 .80

SICK BENEFIT FUND. Optional, $5.00 weekly benefits, during twelve weeks in a year.

Age, Years Rates 18m25 _...__...-.._.-. ..._-- __-_ .-.-.$ .25 25 to 30.---.-_. ._ . . ............. .30 30 to 35.-- _-. .35 35 to 40 .................. .40 40 to 45.-- ............. .45 45 to 50 .......... _ .55 50 to 55 ,__._-. .70 55 to 60 .-..--- _ .90 603ml upwards .......................... 1.25

The Catholic Mutual Benefit Association was instituted in the village of Niagara Falls. New York The Rev. P. A. Moyni— ban. of St. Mary‘s parish, Niagara Falls, who had conceived the idea of establishing a Catholic insurance society, called meetings of the men of his parish during the summer of 1876 and a constitution prepared by a committee was adopted on the 15th of Octo- ber, of that year. The Right Rev. Stephen Vincent Ryan, Bishop of Bufialo, New York, whose approval had been asked, gave the project his hearty support and recom-

PAST AND PRESENT OF

mended the name by which the society is known.

Branch, No. 1, of Niagara Falls, elected the following officers: President, Daniel Barrett: vice-presidents, Michael Powers and James McGraw; treasurer, Patrick Walsh; recording secretary, John J. McIntyre; as- sistant secretary, Thomas Durkin; financial secretary, Jacob Poetz; marshal, Owen Mc- Cabe; guard, Dennis Cullen; directors, John Clifford, Sebastian Geyer, James Martin, Patrick Curry and James Hannan.

The first grand council was incorporated under the general laws of the state of New York on February 14, 1877, and in the fol- lowing October held its first annual con- vention at which four branches were repre- sented. The first grand spiritual adviser was the Right Rev. P. A. Moynahan, and the first grand president was Daniel Barrett.

The supreme council was organized on February 27, 1879, with the Right Rev. S. V. Ryan as supreme spiritual adviser, and was incorporated by a special act of the legis- lature of the state of New York on the 9th of January, 1879. The grand councils of Pennsylvania and Michigan were instituted during the year 1879.

At the fourth annual convention of New York state Grand Council held in Rochester February I, 1881, the plan of graded as- sessment was adopted by that council. Up to that time all members paid a flat assess- ment of $1.10. At the SupremeCouncil session held in Erie March, 1881, the recommenda- tion of New York Council was adopted, and a table of rates fixed. The total membership of the association at that time was thirty- nine hundred.

At the Grand Council session held in Sy- racuse in August, 1882, Chancellor Martin Fisher, of Buffalo, offered a resolution pro—