14,358. Even when a man has an account, and when the balance of that account is against him?-The man perhaps will not require it to be handed over to him if he had an account and wished the amount of his debt to be reduced by putting that to it. In that case there would be very little occasion for a transfer of the cash, but I can scarcely recollect any cases of that kind.
14,359. I am not asking whether the man wishes it or not, I am asking whether it is ever done, or whether it is generally done?-I should say it is not generally done. I would say it is almost never done.
14,360. How many of these payments have you to make in the course of a year?-In some years there are very few.
14,361. Will there sometimes be a dozen?-Perhaps there may, but I could not say, without the books.
14,362. And you say that out of the dozen payments which you make, one half of them will pass through the men's accounts?- No, I should not say that.
14,363. Should you say that three out of every dozen did so?-No, I should not even say that.
14,364. Should you say that one in every dozen passed through the men's accounts?-I might say one, but I could not be sure. It might be less, or it might be none at all.
14,365. Might it not be more?-It is not a regular business transaction at all, and it is very seldom that such a thing ever enters the accounts. It is a present payment for an accident happening to a man, and he just gets the money, and there is no more about it; but it might happen occasionally that he applied it towards payment of a debt.
14,366. The premium or subscription of 3s. universally passes into the man's account?-Yes.
14,367. I cannot quite see why the payment of a policy should not also go into the man's account if he has one?-It is only when a man is wrecked that such it payment is to be made. There are many men who have been paying for twenty or thirty years, and have never had occasion to claim against the Society, while there are others who have.