LIVES OF SOLDIERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 297, 25 May 1915, Page 7

LIVES OF SOLDIERS.

TIIK IXSUKAXCE QUHSTIOX. WHAT THE STATE OFFICII. ■ (By Wire.—Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Lust Night. When tlii> war broke out the insurance authorities throughout the Dominion found themselves in something of a quandary. Men who had enlisted and were going to the front were applying for insurance policies to cover the risk of death, and it was apparent at once that the ordinary mortality tables could not possibly be applied to such cases. The experience acquired by insurance companies during the wars of the past was at the disposal of the actuaries. The greatest of all wars was being fought under new' conditions with unexampled numbers of men in the field, and strange and fearful weapons in use. Under the peculiar conditions of the risk, the local companies felt it necessary to place a severe limit, to the amount of cover that could be taken by a man going to the front. The Government Life Insurance Department fixed the maximum amount of insurance for a soldier at £2OO, and demanded an additional war premium of ,t's per cent, per annum over and above the ordinary premium. Lately additional insurance facilities have been placed at the disposal of the soldiers, and the facts ought to be more widely known than they appear to be at the present time. The State Insurance Office, at least, has removed the limit as far as the enlisted men are concerned, and it is possible now for a member of the expeditionary force to insure his life for a sum large enough to relieve him of a great deal of anxiety regarding the welfare of his dependents in the event of his falling at the front. The extra war premium of £5 per cent, has been retained. It represents in the opinion of the actuaries the smallest sum that can be charged in view of the exceptional nature of the risk. This means that the amount tn be paid in premiums during an absence of a year or eighteen months at the front may be fairly large, and the man who has only his pay to count upon may find it impossible to take as much cover as he would like, but the mini who has a little money in hand can invest in this way with confidence that 'he is doing the best possible for the dependents lie is leaving behind him.

The Commissioner of the State Office gave a reporter some information upon the subject yesterday. "Persons who are enlisting," lie said, "may, subject to the usual medical examination and to acceptance by the commissioner, be insured tinder any of the ordinary tables at an extra premium of £5 per cent, per annum on the sum assured in addition to the tabular premium, and the policy will be endorsed with an undertaking oil the part of the Department to reduce the premium to the extent of the special war rate mentioned, three months after the finish of the war. The amount of the risk is not limited in any way" The Commissioner added that the Department had tried to do its best for the men, while at the same time considering the interests of the ordinary poliey"holders.

The Minister of Defence, to whom the subject was mentioned by your representative, said that the terms offered by the State Insurance Office undoubtedly provided a means by which enlisted men could make a very acceptable proposition for their dependents in the event of their death. The Government knew that the pension scale at present embodied in the Defence Act would require to be made more liberal as far as noncommissioned officers and privates were concerned, and he had been (riving attention to proposals that would be placed before Parliament when opportunity offers, but he would have no hesitation in advising soldiers having dependents to insure themselves if they could manage it. and so supplement the provision that the State would make.