NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT LIFE INSURANCE ASSOCIATION.

Waikato Times, Volume 2188, Issue XXVII, 17 July 1886, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT LIFE INSURANCE ASSOCIATION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sih,—T dosire to correct a false impression which appears lo have been cre.itod in some nnndh by a roinark in your sub-leader upon the above subject. The false impression is this, that the Government or others desire to abandon the state guarantee. Now, as a matter of fact, neither the Government nor policy-holders have expressed the smallest desire in that direction. You .say, "what the policy-holders want is absolute security." What the Government policyholders have is absolute .security, but they want in addition as good bonuses as economy in the management will afford thorn. Management bj a board cannot reduce the absolute seen ity one iota, but it may reduce the margin of profit considerably, wherea>, under economical Government management, confined as the iKsks are to so he.iltl.y a climate, we may expect to got as good bonuses h* any mutual association can give with the absolute security that not one of the latter can possibly give. These mutuab ha\e acquired a foothold in the country that they never expected to acquire, and that they never should have been permitted to acquire, unless under license and subject to conditions as to the investment of all their New Zealand funds, in absolutely safe seciuities in New Zealand. These securities also should have been subject to a searching scrutiny by competent trustworthy valuers appointed by the Government, and in the event of their being any deficiency in their value, as compared with the funds they represented, to be made good before a fresh license was granted to carry on the business. The Government should never have permitted them to do business in the country except under such stringent conditions, but having done so I think it will be to a great extent to blame, and sufferers will have some claim upon it for comppnsatiwn in the event of loss through the inevitable collapse of some of them. The Government have countenanced their doing business here, and have dealt with them as if they were equals or even superiors instead of being the impudent interlopers t hat they really are. The country as a country is foolish to allow them to do business and draw away the funds of the country to keep their rings to carry on land and other speculations in other colonies, when it (the country) has an infinitely superior institution of its own, capable of satisfying every demand that any outside mutual association can meet. Rout thorn out of the country I saj T , or compel them to give the same absolute security that our own institution gives. They cannot do this, and as sure as they are required to do it as a condition of remaining, so surely will they take their departure, bag and baggage. They have no right to be allowed to stand on an equal footing until they have proved that their nominal accumulated funds are worth in reality what they are supposed to be on paper. They have no right to be allowed to allure foolish folk with false visions of big bonuses and extraordinary big profits, and take the substance from the country, leaving us only the shadow in lieu thereof. — I am, &c., A New Zevlaxd GovEßNirnvr Life LvhUKANCE POLICYHOLDER.