COLONIAL MUTUAL LIFE SOCIETY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 506, 5 October 1912, Page 7

COLONIAL MUTUAL LIFE SOCIETY.

NEW ZEALAND SECRETARY'S EXPLANATION. Mr P. D. Leslie, resident secretary for New Zealand" of the Colonial Mutual Life Office, has published a reply to the attack on his office which has been mentioned several times recently in news cables from Australia. Regarding the petition presented to the Victorian Legislative Assembly, asking for an investigation of the affairs of the office, Mr Leslie says that four out of the five petitioners are ex-employees of the society. In explanation of the Bill introduced in the Victorian Legislative Assembly by the society, Mr Leslie quotes the speech of the chairman uf the society made at the annual meeting in May last. In this speech the chairman pointed out that when the society was formed it was registered under the Companies Act as a company limited by shares. This was done under the advice o? eminent conveyancing council. On this ground it had recently been suggested that the society is not.purely a mutual institution. That such opinion had no foundation whatever could be easily verified by the society's records. The society had always been, and still is, conducted as a strictly and purely mutual society, and would cuntinue to be so conducted. The shareholders who were brougnt into existence over 30 years ago in order to register the company were allotted in terms of the Articles of Association, and willingly accepted foundation policies in lieu of, and in satisfaction of, their shares, and had never regarded themselves as shareholders nor been regarded as shareholders in the ordinary sense, but were classed amongst the profit-bearing policyholders, and therefore were lull members of the society. To prevent the point from ever being raised again the Government had been approached with a view to Parliament passing a private Act making an alteration in the memorandum of association, The object of the Bill was merely to remove a technial legal doubt which had arisen, anri to confirm the practice and procedure in regard to the society's business and funds that had been adopted and strictly followed for over 37 years.

Speaking on the Bii] in the legislative Assembly, the Premier of Viotoria stated that the Government realised that the society in seeking to correct a technical flaw in its constitution was taking an honourable course, and one which was undoubtedly in the interests of all members.

Just when the Bill was under consideration of Parliament, Mr Leslie continues, the petition against the society was launched. So far aa the specific charges are concerned, the directors of the society state that they have a full and complete reply, and they invite the fullest investigation. The result of that investigation will show that there is no foundation for the wild charges which have been made. There never was a time in the history of the society when criticism in regard to its financial position was less warranted. During the past few years both the rate of bonus and the volume of new business have been more than trebied, large sums have been added annually to the accumulated life assurance fund, which now amounts to over £3,300,000, the ex : penses of conducting the business have been considerably reduced, and the mortality experienced has been far more favourable than it was expected; in fact, during the whole 38 years the society has been transacts g business it has never been in a more prosperous and flourishing condition;