In an Appendix to the Report of Messrs. A. Hendriks, A. H. Bailey, and R. P. Hardy, to the Australian Mutual Provident Society, reprinted in our columns in July 1894 (J.I.A., xxi, 325), Mr. R. P. Hardy elaborated an ingenious method of valuation giving effect to a decreasing rate of interest, assumed to be subject to a constant annual reduction throughout a given period. Tables were added showing the values of annuities and assurances under the conditions mentioned, the rate of interest commencing at £3. 15s., and decreasing one shilling per-cent per annum until the end of the fifteenth year, after which it was assumed to remain constant at £3 per-cent per annum. A novel problem was investigated with great success in this Appendix; and, both on account of the originality with which the subject was treated, and the utility of the results, the contribution will always possess great interest for students of life assurance science.

[After some interesting preliminary remarks on the subject of statistics generally, and the utility of interpolation in their preparation, Professor Westergaard points out that in vital statistics the enumeration of the population at each year of age is seldom wanted, and, in fact, owing to the well known exaggeration in census returns of the numbers living at decennial ages, an adjustment is generally needed. He then proceeds:] The decennial reports by the English Registrar-General of births, deaths and marriages, contain full materials for the study of the mortality of professional men. The report published in 1875 gives a very detailed classification of ages, but it is not so with the next decennial report, which divides the ages into five periods only—15–20, 20–25, 25–45, 45–65, 65 and upwards.

So many British life offices now transact business in the Transvaal, or South African Republic, that both on this account and in order to make the list of Insurance Acts printed in the Journal complete, we have thought it desirable to give a transcript of the Law regulating Assurance Companies in the South African Republic. This Act came into force on 1 January 1893 (clause 18), and requires every company whose head office is outside this State

1. If doing life business, to deposit £10,000 sterling in cash, bearing interest at 3 per-cent, or approved securities, with the Treasurer-General (clauses 1, 2, and 3).