AFTER FIFTY YEARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 864, 7 January 1930, Page 8

AFTER FIFTY YEARS

MR. G. F. FRANCIS HONOURED i LIFE SERVICE WITH A.M.P, Today, in retrospect, Mr. G. F» Francis, Auckland manager of the A.M.P. Society, will see himself it youth of 15, being introduced to the Wellington staff of the big insurance firm, when he entered the business on January 7, 18S0. For today marks his fiftieth year of service with the society, and he is being honoured by the organisation that has been his life’s work, and by the New Zealand staff. An Australian, Mr. Francis is a native of Adelaide, where he was born on December 15, 1865, 17 years after the society was founded. He entered the insurance business at the age of 15, and since then has climbed the ladder of promotion, until today he is in charge of the society’s largest district office. During the first five years ha applied himself assiduously in tha study of higher mathematics, and at

the end of this term he was hut did not accept, a position on thS actuarial staff in Sydney. He was appointed manager of the Oamaru office when 21, and subsequently had charg'd of the Wanganui and Christchurch offices before he assumed control here. Mr. Francis has seen the society’ll business develop to a remarkable degree during his 50 years’ association with it. The policies totalled 39,834, representing an assured sum of £14,803,341, on January 1, 1880. Today the policies number nearly 1,000,000, representing more than £220,000,000. The year he started, the society’s income was £680,000 a. year, and the accumulated funds £2,933,797. Today they have grown, to more than £11,000,000 and. £76,000,000, respectively. A musician of no mean accomplishment, he was a soprano soloist at the age of seven in St. Paul’s Church, Adelaide, and since then he has taken tenor solo parts in various church choirs and amateur operatic societies in various parts of New Zealand. He is, too, a keen chess player, and represented Wellington against Canterbury at the age of 15, and for 30 years afterward was a leading player. A successful tennis and Rugby player and golfer, Mr. Francis was most inter'ested in cricket, and he captained teams at Oamaru against New South Wales and at Wanganui against England and Australia. He was chairman of the New Zealand Cricket Council for several years when in Christchurch, and is now a vice-president of the Auckland Cricket Association.