GOVERNMENT PUFFERY.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 163, 27 October 1883, Page 2

GOVERNMENT PUFFERY.

We have shown in a former article that the Industrial Branch of the New Zealand Government system of Life Assurance was financially unsound, the cost of management being altogether out of proportion to tl. c premiums, while there was practically no Reserve Fund worth, mentioning. There is an old adage that " drowning men catch at straws," and it would seem that this Government are somewhat in that positioi^fa respect to their Insurance system. W« never had much confidence in any Government which

deliberately placed itself in collision with private ■enterprise. Commercial undertakings are not ■within the legitimate functions of a Government. They are always more efficiently controlled by ■men whose commercial training and experience have fitted them for business. With such men :advertising, and even a reasonable amount of puffing is legitimate, but no G-overnment which .pretends to any respectability has a right to , ■descend to such means. It is an improper interference with trade, a misuse of authority and an attempt to use the State for purposes of monopoly.

These remarks are penned in consequence of some things which came under our observation during the week. A number of boys were sent about Queen-street to distribute circular puffs, Leaded, " Government Life Insurance," as if it -were the business of the State to imitate the immortal inventor of Holloway's pills and ointment, or a certain qiiack who pastes his filthy little printed scraps in all the public urinals of the City, as if every man or boy in Auckland were suffering from a loathsome disease, and the quack in question were the " only cure." Our .■solemn advice to people who unfortunately or -wickedly contract such diseases is to beware of oquacks and charlatans, but to consult some regular physician, whose education and diploma are a guarantee of skilful treatment and bona Jides.

In the Bame way we counsel our readers to beware of any Government Department that has to descend to common puffing to sustain itself in -a keen competition with private enterprise. Even iv England the system of Government Life Insurance has never been pushed to such lengths. The policy has been not to force it into unhealthy growth, but rather to let it develop safely, and to avoid as far as possible the taking advantage of the machinery of the State to the injury of private People do not care to have Life insurance flaunted in their faces or shoved down "their throats. If the puffery policy is to be developed to its legitimate conclusion, the Government may as well embark in boot manufactories, "butchering, or any other business. The desperate means to which the Department has recourse is -.enough to lend a colour of truth to the worst rfchingg that have been alleged against it by its •enemies.