This quotation is from the first of that long series of letters addressed to the Registrar General on the Causes of Death in England. Dr Farr was in 1839 appointed ‘Compiler of Abstracts’ in the newly created General Register Office. The saving of 30,000 deaths a year represented about 10% of the current number of deaths. It took some forty years to make that reduction in the death rate, which coincided with Dr Farr's career with the General Register Office.

In the twenty-year period 1936–38 to 1956–58 the Standardized Mortality Ratio for England and Wales fell by 21 % for males and 31 % for females. Measured from a much lower rate of mortality, the rate of improvement has been from four to six times greater than in Farr's day. What of the future?

The last paper presented to the Institute on the general subject of investments was that by J. G. Day (J.I.A. 85, 123) in October 1958. He summarized and commented upon the actuarial approach as disclosed in the major post-war papers and the subsequent discussions on this subject and set forth succinctly the position that had been reached, so that there is no necessity for doing so again. However, a major development in the investment policies of life offices since then has been the increased interest in overseas investment, and it is the purpose of this paper to set forth some of the considerations affecting investment in this field.