THE GOVERNMENT INSURANCE ASSOCIATION ELECTION.

Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 133, 2 December 1884, Page 2

THE GOVERNMENT INSURANCE ASSOCIATION ELECTION.

? Tho number of candidates for seats on the Government Insurance Association Board is daily increasing, and it is evident that a good deal of interest will attaoh to the election. The following summary of the provisions of the Act relating to the matter may therefore prove of value to policyholders in the Government Insurance Offioe. After the first of January the management of the department or association, as it will then become, will be entrusted to a board of ten members, and composed as follows : — Tho Colonial Treasurer, the Solicitor-Gene-ral, the Secretary to the Treasury, and the Publio Trustee for the time being, three persons nominated by tho Government, and three elected by the polioy-holdors. The first Board will therefore consist of Sir Julius Vogel, Mr. W. S. Ecid, Mr. J.C. Gavin, Mr. Hamerton, Mr. G. V. Shannon, Mr. N.Eeid, Mr. J. H. Bethnne, and the threo members to bo elected. Every holder of a polioy for at least £100, and whioh has been in existence for six ftaonths, is, if of full age, entitled to as many votes as there are candidates to be elected (in this case three), bnt must not give more than one voto to any candidate. No proxies are to be allowed, but the voting is to be either personally or by letter, duly signed and in suoh form as the Governor may prescribe by regulations which he is to make as to the manner in whioh candidates are to bo nominated and the votes taken. One nominated and one elected member is to retire annually, the first of the elected members to retire (in 1866) being the one who is eleoted by tho smallest number of votes. Any oasual vaoanoy amongst the eleoted members is to be filled up by the Governor until the date at which the eleoted member creating the vacanqy would in due course havo retired. Retiring members are eligible for re-election. Any meeting of policy-holders duly called after one month's notice to the policy-holders may, by resolution, remove any eleoted member from the Board, and a seat becomos vacant by bankruptcy, resignation, abaenoe without leave, if he ia indebted to tho Board for advances on mortgage of real estate, if surety for any officer of the Board, or if he lends any anon officer money, or if he is or becomes a diroctor of any other Life Assurance Institution. A sum of £100 1b to bo paid annually to each nominated or eleoted direotor. The Disqualification Act does not apply to elected directors, so that membors of cither Houbb of Parliament are eligible for eleotion. Although the Act appears to provide that votes shall be taken personally, as well as by letter, we do not supposo that it will be proposod to put the policy-holders to the trouble and annoyance, in many cases expense, of attending at a polling plaoo to give their votes or even of applying for voting papers. In fact, a poll in regular eleotion fashion wonld certainly fail to enanre anything approaching a fair representation of the mind of the policyholders. To arrive at this, a voting paper with the names of the candidates should be issned to every polioy-holder from the offioe at whioh he pays his premium (as the re* newal notioes are issued), and accompanying the voting paper there should be an envelope addressed to the proper authority for receiving the voting paper duly signed and by a oortain date. Unless the votes are taken in some such way as this, we doubt whether anything like a fair proportion of polioyholders will take the trouble to vote at all.