JUBILEE YEAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 99, 28 April 1937, Page 14

JUBILEE YEAR

LIFE AND CITIZENS

Mr. James Ashton, chairman-of,.the Mutual Life and Citizens' Assurance Company, Ltd., Sydney, said. at the fiftieth annual meeting of the company that the company's balance-sheets for other years had U;en surpassed-by-the results of the company's, jubilee year, which had appropriately' distinguished itself as the most prolific .in its, his-' tory. Every branch of business had registered new high levels. .-..'.■ :>At the end of .the first five years; of the company's^ existence in December, 1891, assurances in force, including bonuses, totalled £3,091,642, he said. F6r the five years ended December' 31 last year, they.: were . £68,870,388. Annual income had increased in the same period from £119,921 to £3,744.515. and assets from £116,248 to, £-25,163,845. The company's income for 1936, Mr. Ashton added, was the largest.- everreceived, and the increase over the previous year's incomehvas easily the greatest for any one-year's advance in either the industrial or'the ordinary branch. Loans on policies were-less than the previous year.:: ' ; ■ •Life assurance; continued to widen its sphere of usefulness, .and, next to the actual business of .insuring lives,, the lending of money for the'erection of-';homes was the most important phase of business. Apart from the employment the building trade gave, it was hard to exaggerate; the economic importance of a man's ownership of his home. About three years ago the company arranged with the- owner of a large subdivision in Sydney to provide finance to build homes on what had been a desolate, sandy waste. Operations were just concluding, and about 200 cottages had been built and sold on easy terms. ■ • Mr. Ashton added that-the work of demolishing the company's present Sydney building, preparatory to the erection of a new structure, had begun. Considerable office space would be available, and it was hoped that that would prove a good investment for the company's funds.