It may well seem an act of no small temerity to attempt a fresh paper on a subject so often and so ably treated in essays read before this Institute as that of the net premium method of valuation. I am fully conscious of this, and the more so that I cannot profess to be able to add anything appreciable to what has already been said, either expressly or by implication, upon the matter. It will be admitted, however, that the practical importance of the subject, its vital bearing upon the conduct of the business of life assurance, can scarcely be exaggerated. Mr. J. Hill Williams, commenting upon Mr. A. H. Bailey's paper on “The Pure Premium Method of Valuation”, in March 1878 (J.I.A., xxi,, 126), said “The subject of this paper is one upon “which we can never have too much writing or too much “discussion, for it is the very life of our science, and upon the “views which we take of this most important question depends “the safety of many of the greatest financial institutions in the “country”; and with the spirit of such remarks we shall probably all agree. That being so, I think I am right in saying further that we have had no express discussion of this topic at our Institute for several years past. It has, doubtless, on many occasions been referred to—as a thing so intimately intertwined with our daily practice could hardly help being—in connection with other matters primarily before us; but it has not been the actual and avowed theme for consideration.