The existing writings dealing with industrial assurance subjects in the Students' Society and Institute Journals are mainly confined to two narrow aspects of the business—processes involving actuarial technique, and details of legislation. These matters are dealt with comprehensively whilst the broader, and perhaps more vital, problems of the business are almost ignored. This imposes no hardship on those in contact with industrial assurance but it must hinder those students who are not in such contact and it would perhaps help them if some indication were given of the more important matters conditioning the business as it is in Great Britain and Ireland. The great difference between the conditions of the large industrial assurance companies and those of the small collecting societies makes it impossible to attempt completeness in a short note, and the present note is written, therefore, with the position of the industrial assurance companies mainly in view, although it will be realized that much of it is also applicable to the larger collecting societies.