LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANIES ACT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4118, 1 June 1874, Page 3

LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANIES ACT.

Tho Life Assurance Companies Act, passed last session, .was received with a considerable amount of disfavor by several of the assurance companies iu Great Britain ; and an effort was made by tho leading' companies to induce tho Imperial Government to refuse its sanction to tho Bill, on tho ground that its provisions were at variance with the Imperial Life Assurance Companies Act, 1870. By the last mail, despatches wove received from the AgentGeneral forwarding the correspondence which took place on tho question, and announcing that the Act being within tho powers of Colonial Legislatures, her Majesty would not ho advised to refuse her assent. A similar Act Inis been passed in Now Zealand, and has been dealt with iu the same maimer. Appended is tho communication addressed to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and signed by the managers of nine of tho loading life assurance companies in tho United Kingdom, London, March (1, 1871.—-Sir, —with reference to tho transcripts of tho Victorian Act No. 171, and the New Zealand Act No. 18 of 1878, sent to Mr. Hendricks iu your letter of tho Ilth just,, wo have to observe that whilst those two Acts differ from each other iu some respects, they both contain many of tho provisions of the Imperial Life Assurance Act, 1870. Tiie object of tho Colonial Legislature is, no doubt, the greater protection, of the life policy-holders ;iu the respective colonies ; hut wo submit that tho requirements of tho Imperial Act, by which British officers are compelled to form a sejmrato life assurance fund for the absolute security of tho life policy and annuity holders, will prevent some of tho officers registering iu Victoria with “secured assets,” inasmuch as any assets thus pledged for the absolute securityof a portion of their assurers reduces the security to the remainder of their life constituents, and is therefore opposed to tho spirit and letter of tho Imperial Act; and that to require, more especially from officers registering “ without secured assets,” separate returns and schedules and valuations, applicable only to tho business of each colony, whilst not adding one iota to tho protection of tho policy-holder, would ho so vexatious and irksome to tho British companion as to lead, iu many instances, to their retirement from tho field to which they have been hitherto welcomed by the colonists making provisions for their families by life policies. It iti submitted that the true condition

of the Insurance Companies cannot possil-ly be demonstrated by fragmentary returns, now for "Victoria and New Zealand, and shortly, no doubt, to be supplemented by similar requirements from other colonies. The real status of an Insurance Company can only be made apparent by returns embracing its business as a whole, and it is respectfully solicited that British companies, registered either “with secured assets” or “without secured assets,” furnishing copies to each colony of the returns made to the Boar-d of Trade, under the Imperial Act of IS7O, may lie taken to have complied with the provisions of the Qohmial Legislature, the power to accept such forms vesting in the Victorian Act (danse 19) in the Governor in Council, and in tho New Zealand Act (clause 25) in the Colonial Treasurer. The following is the reply to tho above, forwarded by Lord Carnarvon, the Secretary of State for the Colonies : Dooming street, 17th March, 1874.—Sir, —I am directed by the Earl of Carnarvon to inform you that his Lordship has had under his consideration the letter of the Gth instant, signed by yourself and others, upon the subject of tho recent Acts passed by the Legislatures of Victoria and New Zealand relating to life assurance companies. His Lordship desires me to state that, as the Acts in question are within the powers of the Colonial Legislatures, her Majesty will not be advised to exorcise her power of disallowance in respect of them. His Lordship will, however, transmit to the Governors of Victoria and New Zealand copies of your letters, and will desire them to bring the correspondence under the consideration of their respective Governments. lam to request that yon will inform those who, with yourself, signed the letters of the 9th October and oth March, of the above decision.—l am, &o. (signed), IT. T. Holland. A, Hendricks, Esq.