The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JAN, 19, 1886. Government Life Assurance:

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 94, 19 January 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JAN, 19, 1886. Government Life Assurance:

The appointment! 7 of a resident agent of the Government Life .Insurance Assocfatipn'at at an annual salary of £ I ,oooy recently made by the Department, has the appearance of a political j 6b. It *is understood that the' gentleman appointed has been a warm political supporter of , the ' Government, and, that. whatever his other qualifications in that connection 'may b^ 1 his. ability .to fill the post. hhs yet to be decided, inasmuch as his past experience of its duties has-been of the most limited character. Ws'wf™. glad to learn from a ■, contemporary that a membero'f the Board, M^Geo. FiBHEK,iM.H-ili','had entered his protest against ,the appointment, and in our opinion • such : protest • redounds to his honor. It appears inconsistent ■wilh the fitness' of things that officers •who have spent the best years of their lives 'xA. preparing and qualifying, themselves to fill the higher positions in the, several branches of the public service should, almost invariably, be passed over, arid the prizes for, which they have strivenjßo hard be given to [mere outsiders. Our contemporary! the Marlborough Times, in a leading article dealing with this subject says :. "Had the scheme of the Government Insurance Association been carried out in its integrity from the beginning it would to-day have been one of the noblest things ever undertaken in the colony; but, unfortunately the success that 'greeted its initiation was the means of destroying much of its usefulness, and the large figures quoted as showing its revenue, promise to mate the ! Association a mere Vehicle for the distribution of political patronage, and thie interests of the policyholders will; become only an aid to the means by which a political supporter may be rewarded." In the face of the^ general elections so near at hand one involuntarily thinks of the proverb, " Quern Jupiter vult perdere demental prius," as somewhat applicable to the present Government.