COLONIAL MUTUAL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1556, 27 September 1912, Page 7

COLONIAL MUTUAL.

o—- —- GROSS IRREGULARITY ALLEGED- ' SERIOUS CHARGES. i- By Teleerapli—Press Association—ConyrleUl '- Melbourne, September 2G. In tho Legislative Assembly iTio I'reo mier (Mr. Watt), in introducing a Bill providing for an investigation of tho af- '• fairs of the Colonial Mutual Life Society, •' Ltd., said tho charges against tho comi" pany wcro grouped under three Jieadiugs— (1) Gross irregularity, (2) fraudulent pract tices in regard to an election, and (3) that o tho sooiety had got into a financial position amounting almost to insolvency. The proposed procedure was, lie said, unparalleled, but the position was unparalleled. The directors of the society, without legal authority, had been administering .affairs in which upwards of a hundred thousand people were interested, involving assets totalling over threo million pounds. The Bill provided for a. special inspectorial investigation and the . suppression of the board of, directors, a temporal')' boafd being: appointed whilo tho inquiry l was proceeding; Mr. Watt promised, provided tlie so- ? ciety laid before tho Government repre--3 sentationg that were considered sufficient, that he would move that the directors of a the company be heard at the Bar of the House -to-day. e The debate was adjourned.