NATIONAL PROVIDENT FUND.

Taihape Daily Times, 27 January 1919, Page 6

NATIONAL PROVIDENT FUND.

0 ITS VALUE DEMONSTRATED. Hon. Arthur Myers, Minister in charge of the National Provident Fund, made an interesting statement in Auckland recently, in referring to the position of the fund and its work during the last few years. A review of the Fuhdfs operations for the four years of the war showed that notwithstanding the adverse conditions prevailing for business of this description, membership had been substantially increased, and the Fund’s revenue placed on a basis that assured its national future. The membership was now about 14,000, and the reserve fund amounted to close on £250,000. Mr. Myers went on to say that the recent epidemic had brought out in a very striking manner the value of the Fund as a social insurance factor in the life df the community. The number of claims that had com before the Department on account of deaths due to influenza during the last few weeks indicated how necessary it was that the people should become contributors to such a valuable and beneficient

fund. Where the breadwinner had been lost, the Fund was now' available for the contributors—widow and children. In one case, a widow and young family would draw an estimated aggregate sum of close on £IOOO from the Fund by way of benefits, although at the time of the contributor’s death the total contributions of £l3 paid by him had been more than exceeded by the benefits received during his lifetime. In another case, aggregate payments to the widow and children would amount to over £IOOO, the net contribution paid during the contributor’s lifetime being £l2. While in some instances, unfortunately, the five years’ membership qualification had not been quite completed, and the Fund’s benefits could not -bg granted, the actual payable claims illustrated one of the main purposes* for which this Fund was established. -The r. experience during the last two months in connection with these eases, while it occasioned regret that a greater number of families throughout the Dominion were not insured against the sudden loss of their supporter, would stimulate action in the direction of a further and wider extension of this form of protective insurance. -