Page 2 Advertisements Column 4

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 790, 23 October 1878, Page 2

LATE ADVERTISEMENTS the last annual meeting, that some of the members came to blows over the question whether or not the names of all policyholders should be published. I may mention that at the same meeting it was stated that lists of the policy-holders were being hawked about Sydney for sale at the price of Lls per list. At the same meeting Mr. Short came out with a few truths on the Government Insurance Department of New Zealand, which are so much to the point, and which (strange to say) he has forgotten to publish in his pamphlet, that I shall remedy the omission and add them here. Mr. B. Short said that he might be permitted to say a few words as a member of the Society. [Mr. Gilchrist : "-You are an agent, are you not ?"] He was an agent of the Society as well as a member holding twelve policies in the office. During eighteen years he had been canvassing for the Society ho had eurolled about 5000 members, and it had frequently happened that persons had insisted that their business should be kept secret, or they would not join the Society. They joined on the distinct understanding that it was to be private and confidential. And though it might seem strange to gentlemen of sensitive nerves, there were some persons who had said that they would not join the Society unless they could keep the information from their wives, lest they should associate the idea of insuring with t lyi n g.—(Oh, oh.) He spoke facts that came under his own observation. As a canvassing agent of the Society it would be to his interest to have the list published, for he always found it easier to get a second or new proposal. The Mutual Provident Society was a household word in New South Wales, but in New Zealand that was not so, and the New Zealand Government had issued tables upon which they insured lives at 20 per cent, lower than our Society's tables, and to meet the objections raised by some, that they did not give the profits to the persons who assured as the Australian Mutual Provident Society did, they added to their tables the words "with participation in profits." And then they told the members of our Society that our tables are 20 per cent, less than yours, and we get our postmasters to do the business, and you will get the profits if you insure with us, and we give you Government securities besides. If we published the lists it would just have the effect of enabling the agents of the New Zealand Government Insurance Fund and the other Insurance Companies to canvass our members. The New Zealand Government did not publish a list of their meminent did nc bers. The above and is to b The above is a truthful statement of facts, and is to bo valued as coming from Mr. Short. In his secret heart, and in the recesses of his own board room, he evidently has a high and just appreciation of the New Zealand Government Insurance Office. In point of fact the Government Insurance Department is quite a favorite with Mr. Short and his brother members of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, for here is what Mr. King, a Chairman of Directors, says on the subject : —"The Government of " New Zealand was instituting a scheme of '' life insurance, and it seemed to him that a "Government scheme which had the re- " venues of the country to fall back upon for " security must extinguish all others. The "Government r offcred a Tow scale of "premiums, besides giving unexceptional " security. That scale was lower than ours, "audit seemed to him that we could not "possibly compete with them." Referring to the Society's funds, Mr. Short states that the accumulated savings in his Society at the close of 1577 amounted to nearly L 2,300,000, every penny of which, he adds, belonged to the insurers themselves, and he further terms this " astonishing prosperity." And no doubt it would be if it were savings, but I should like to ask Mr. Short —Were not the outstanding policies, amounting to nearly L 12.000,000, to be paid out of this sum of L 2,300,000 ? Mr. Short takes great pride in his Society, making large sums by dabbling in Government debentures, but he ignores the fact that the highest authorities at Home on life insurance have laid it down, and it has become a well-recognised principle, that any interest beyond 4i per cent, (in Great Britain) is unsafe. Such a thing, therefore, as a society trading in Government debentures, buying when 'they are low and selling in a rising market is utterly unknown, and would not be tolerated in England. Mr. Short may perhaps be generally successful in trade" of this description; biyt should he make an unlucky speculation it is not at all impossible that his Society may meet the fate of the Glasgow Bank, which, as late telegrams have informed us, has collapsed for L 10,000,000 from dealing in transactions oiitside the legitimate sphere of banking operations. And now, in conclusion, with regard to Mr. Short's statement that "no office is conpense." The following comparison of the only three Life Offices doing business in New Zealand, as taken respectively from their last annual reports, shows the rate of expenses on new business to be thus :

Business for Rate twelve of Months Expenses. Mutual Life Association of Australasia... £250,000 61 2 per cent. Australian Mutual Provident £390,000 50 I New Zealand Govern - mentDepartment...£6So,ooo 35J „ These figures show at a glance that whilst the Government Office did nearly three times as much business within the year as compared with the Mutual Life Association, its exjjenses were 26 per cent, lower, and while almost doubling the amount of business done by the Australian Mutual Provident_was still enabled to procure it at a cost of 15 per cent. less. The above demonstrates conclusively how much reliance is to lie placed in the statements set forth in Mr. Benjamin Short's precious pamphlet, addressed to the HUSBANDS, WIVES, AND YOUNG PERSONS OVER SEVENTEEN and residents of Otago, and thrust into one's hands at the comers of streets and on railway platforms by small boys, forcibly reminding one of Professor , the King of Pain, vending his nostrums by torchlight in tha market square of Wellington City lately, to a crowded if not appreciative audience. T. F. M'DONOGH, Chief Agent for Otago. Dunedin, October 19. -,.** OAMARU PUBLIC BATHS COMPANY (LIMITED). THE BATHS ate now OPEN to the PUBLIC. Hotjes : Gentlemen, sunrise to 2 p.m., and 4.30 p.m. to sunset. Ladies, 2 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. Single Bath, 6d ; Children, 3d. W. J, SMITH, 1M Secretary. WANTED Known that the MAIL has a Larger Circulation than any other paper in Otago published out of Dunedin.