GOVERNMENT LIFE DEPARTMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 6 August 1931, Page 5

GOVERNMENT LIFE DEPARTMENT

STATEMENT BY MINISTER MISAPPREHENSION REMOVED (By Telegraph—Press Association) WELLINGTON, This Day. 'Hie following statement was issued by Sir Apirana Ngata, Minister in charge of the Government Life Insurance Department:—“My attention has just been drawn to a Press Association message which credits me with having stated in a discussion in the House on the report of tho Government Life Insurance Commissioner' that the department ‘had difficulties in respect of meeting interest charges and such.’ I have been misreported in this matter. What I intimated was (in reply to a remark by the Leader of the Labour Party regarding some of the unemployed who had difficulty in paying their life insurance premiums) that the department had its own difficulties and found trouble in collecting its interest charges. To say that such a flourishing institution as tho Government Life Insurance Department had difficulty in meeting interest charges is absurd in the extreme, particularly as it has no such charges to meet. I think it necessary to clarify the position, as there are opponents of the office ever ready to seize upon anything which they consider will in any way retard the great progress it is undoubtedly male ing.”