The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1883. THE GOVERNMENT INSURANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1494, 27 September 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1883. THE GOVERNMENT INSURANCE.

[n our last two issues we have briefly referred to the working of the industrial branch of the Government Insurance Department as disclosed by certain revelations in this district, A correspondent in another column argues that the special experience we have recently, had in this district .of this department tends to prove that the actuarial skill employed by the Government is defective; We are not sure that this is the case. There is another alternative, viz,, bad management, and it is of

public imporaance that it should be known whether an obvious failure in 'lie working of the industrial branch is attributable to unreliable actuaries or to indifferent administration, When this.branch was first started we remember calculating the charges made by the Government for policies under it, and we found they amounted to something like double the risk, or in other.words there was a margin of 100 per cent for working expenses. That these expenses would bo heavy was a matter of course. The department undertook to send a collector once a week to the cottage of each policy holder to receive his twopence, threepence, or sixpence as the case might be. Allowing for this cost of collection,' however, it is clear that the margin was a fair one. We feel certain that (he monoy could be collected at a cost of one half the receipts, and if the department has failed to do this it has suffered through weak management. The New Zealand Government Insurance Department circulates, as most as ourreaders know, a guide to insurers which read by the light of recent events is certainly misleading, The department has recently through its igsnts applied to the investors in the

industrial branch to give up their policies and take in place ol them policies of an essentially different character, Where this was objected to the holders were offered, as we are credibly informed, two-thirds of the money they had paid in to cancel their policies. We understand that tho bulk of the policy, holders were induced by fluent-tongued agents to accept this settlement, but in cases where they still held out they were offered the full amount they had paid in, and even an allowance for interest. It is evident that if the larger offer was an equitable one the smaller offer, accepted by the bulk of tho policy holders, was an inequitable one, Turning over the pages of the Insurance handbook, attractive headings meet tho eye which hardly harmonize with this recent raid made on insurers in the Industrial Branch, The iirst one we notice is ABSOLUTE SECURITY. Now, considering that hundreds, and possibly thousands, of policy holders in tho colony have recently been deprived of their policies by the direct action of the Government ; it would bo well for the Department to modify this particular war-cry of absolute security. Another heading is. PROGRESS OP THE DEPARTMENT ! Are we to regard a King Herod onslaught on all the small insurers as au indication of .progress? A third characteristic heading is° EXPENSES OF MANAGEMEMT; but we need hardly sav that nothing under this heading is appended about a hundred per cent of margin in the Industrial Branch. Perhaps, however, the most ridiculous flag of all that are waived in this handbook is POLICIES UNCHALLENGEABLE. There have been a lot of policies lately not only challenged, but absolutely knocked on tho head. The pamphlet to which we refer makes much of " UNIMPEACHABLE TESTIMONY AS TO THE EXCELLENCE OF GOVERNMENT INSURANCE," We beg to call into court a small army of insurers who have been recently induced to cancel their policies byGovernment pressure, and ask that this unimpeachable testimony as to the excellence of Government Insurance be received. The fact is, the Legislature has been too fond'of going into business beyond the range of ordinary political legislation and administration, The events to which we have referred indicate palpable weakness if not gross mismanagement, and it is quite time that this particular department should be thoroughly overhauled and placed on a more satisfactory footing. We never heard of a respectable Insurance Company forcing its clients to give up their policies, or seeking to cancel.any of their engagements, and we fail to see the right that our Government department has to adopt a practice which would be regarded as unbusiness-like and discreditable by a private company.