TEMPERANCE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9065, 28 May 1888, Page 3

TEMPERANCE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT.

TO TUB EDITOR. Sir, —In that portion of your Wellington correspondent's message appearing in your issue of the 25th instent, which refers to the proposed amalgamation of the funds of the

general and temperance sections of the Government Insurance Department, the statement is made that the English consulting actuaries, to whom the question was referred by Mr. Frankland, the colonial actuary of the department, had condemned the proposed joimng-up of the funds. There has been some mistake made by your correspondent as to the contents of the paper laid upon the table of the House, to which reference is made, and which contains at length the proposal of Mr. Frankland and the whole text of the joint opinion of the English actuaries regarding it. In that opinion, while the actuaries say they see no necessity for the fusion of the funds of the two sections, holding that if the course adopted at the last division of profits is continued, " the members of the temperance section who permanently adhere to the practice of total abstinence principles will, in the long run, have no cause to be dissatisfied. "

The actuaries then go on to say that, as in the colony, the desire is that the bonuses in the two sections should only differ if the rates of mortality in the two sections differ. " It would be practicable and not unjust to amalgamate the funds of the general and temperance sections, and at futitre valuations to dissect the surplus in accordance with the principle of the clause drafted by the Government actuary." This clause embodies the amalgamation of the funds, and places the holders of policies in both sections upon exactly the same footing as regards the right to participate in the whole profits, except that the mortality experienced in the two sections separately is taken into consideration, and increased or reduced profits allocated ac- , cordingly at each division of profits. This arrangement has yet to receive the sanction of Parliament, which when obtained will at once give to the members of the temperance section of the department all they have ever claimed—the right to have the mortality in theip section calculated separately, while being treated in all other respects as ordinary policy-holders.—l am, &c, W. J. Speight.