THE GOVERNMENT LIFE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3749, 21 July 1883, Page 3

THE GOVERNMENT LIFE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT.

[To the Editor of the Daily Tkleorai-h.] Sir,— Public attention has again boon drawn to the very peculiar management of the Government Life Insurance Department, and the thanks of the community are due to you for your comment thereupon in Tuesday's issue. Nothing possibly can restore confidence in the Department or satisfy public opinion short of a very searching enquiry into the entire management of the concern during tho past four or five years, and that can only effectually be arrived at by the appointment of a Commission empowered to take evidence touching the the working of. every branch of the Department. The anomalous position occupied by the Superintendent of Agents as compared with the other officials calls for the most rigid investigation, and that the circumstances are more than ordinarily grave is evidenced by tho fact that an enquiry is called for by the leading Ministerial papers in tho colony. A Wellington journal names tho " commission" received by Mr George Thome as £2952 last year, from which, deducting his salary of £450, his income remains at the liberal figure of £2502, the whole of which you are correct in assuming is obtained by the Department for the acquisition of new business. All life insuraneeoffices of any standing allow their travelling agents tho full commission of 20s per cent. Tho Government Department ostensibly does the same, but, being filtered through tho Superintendent of Agents, that commission, when it reaches the men who earn the money, and keep the business alive, is reduced to log, the other os being retained by tho Superintendent for the performance of duties which, wholly perfunctory, are to my mind unnecessary in every respect. Nor is this all. Should an investigation take place it will be discovered that, in the case of more than one unfortunate agent, work done has never been paid for, aud that, whilst there can be no doubt the Department has contributed the usual 20s per cent., not one penny has found its way to one at least of the agents who secured the business to the Government. These and other matters of an equally serious nature certainly demand investigation, and it is to be hoped that the opportunity now offering will not be passed over.—l am, &c, One Interested. Kwke's Bay, July 20, ISS3.