NATIONAL PROVIDENT FUND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 85, 4 January 1919, Page 6

NATIONAL PROVIDENT FUND

' RESERVE OF £250,000. By Telegraph—Press Association. ' Auckland, January 3... The Hon. ,Arthur Myers, Minister in charge of the' National> Provident Fund, made an interesting' statement in referring to the position'of the fund and its'work .during the last few. years. He said that a review of the fund's operations for the four years of the war showed that, notwithstanding the adverse .conditions prevailing for business of this description, the membership had been substantially increased and the fund's revenue placed on a basis that assured its national future, Tne membership WuS now about 14,000/ and the reserve fund amounted to close on .£250,000. . ■

.-' 'Mi , . Myers went on' to say that the re-' cent epidemic has brought out in a very striking'manner the value of the fund as a social insurance factor in the life of the community. The number' of claims that had come before the Department on account of. deaths' due to inilnenza during the last few weeks indicated how necessary it was that people should become contributors to such tv valuable and beneficient fund. Where the breadwinner had been lost the fund was now available .for the contributor's widow and children. In one case a widow and young family would draw an estimated aggregate sum of close on .£IOOO from the fund by • way of benefits, ilthough at the time of the contributor's death tho total contributions of ,£l3 paid by him had been more fhtui exceeded by benefits received (luring hia lifetime. In mother cnse.thn aggregate payments tD the widow and children would amount to over .£IOOO. the net contributions paid during contributor's lifetime being ,£l2, whili> In some linstances, unfortunately, the five years' membershin qualification linrl not bepn quite completed and the fund's benefits could not; be granted. The actual paynble claims illustrated one of the main' purposes for which this fund wa9 established. Experience durin; tho last two months in connection with these cases, while it occasioned regret that a (rrcatpr number of families throughout the Dominion were not insured against tV sudden loss of their supnovt. would stimulate action- in the direction' of. ■ further and wider extension of this form of protective insurance.