Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 149, 27 May 1886, Page 3

Advertisments TO THE POLICY-HOLDEIIS NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT LIFE INSURANCE ASSOCIATION. r^i ENTLEMEN,— Being a candidate ~% for election to the Central Board, I have the honor to solicit your support in favor of my candidature. Without getting forth my reasons in detail, I desire- to say briefly that the position of a nominated member is to me an unsatisfactory position. One year's experience in connection with the proceedings ml the Board has convinced me that for one who desires to effect the greatest possible amount of good for the Policy-holders — for one who desires to be entirely free and unfettered — it is essential that he should be an elected member of the Board. I feel that I should be greatly to blame if, for the purpose of gaining support, I were to make any statement regarding the proceedings of the Board which could in any degree tend to injure the business of the Association. I have too great a regard for the welfare of the Association to do that; but at the same time I feel bound to say, in general terms, that many of its transactions hav« been of a ve y unsatisfactory character; this I attribute almost entirely to the defective constitution of the Board. Three proposals affecting the constitution of the Board will in a few days be submitted to the Policy-holders, and upon these they will be called upon to vote. They are : — (I.) To hand the Association back to the Government. To this lam very much opposed, as the business of the Association has, I am glad to say, i assumed the lines of a commercial undertaking. To take it back to the "official " groove of a Government department would, to my mind, be a retrograde step. (2.) To create a Board consisting of three official members — the Secretary of the Treasury, the Solicitor- General, and the Public Trustee — the Government to appoint one of these official members to be chairman. I cannot see that such a Board would in any respect be an improvement upon the existing Board, as it would still contain the objectionable official element, and would leave the door open to the exercise of political patronage. (3.) To create a Board of seven members — four to be elected and three nominated, but the nominated members not to be Government officials. The Board to elect its own chairman . lam strongly in favor of this last proposal, which is the suggesof Mr Fisher — because, while it gives to the Government a fair proportion of representation, it also gives to the Policyholders some real power of control. The main object to be aimed at is to place the affairs of the Association upon a purely business basis, and this end would, I think, be attained by the carrying of Mr Fisher's proposal. Should you do me the honor to accord me your support I return you my honest assurance that no effort will be wanting on my part to secure the best possible reRults for the Policy-holdere as a body. I have the honor to be, Yours obediently, G. V. SHANNON.