The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5537, 25 December 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1878.

The steady growth of the practice of effecting life assurances has been often pointed out as one of the most distinctive features of the day. In its simplest form it is a wise and unselfish method of providing a definite sum of money for the use of those who survive the person who agrees to pay the premiums during hia lifetime. The law bearing upon the subject is daily growing clearer, owing to decisions which have been arrived at, and the attention of the public may well be directed to this as well as to other new features that have arisen from time to time, and are notable additions to the current history of life assurance, For those who seek extended information on this or kindred subjects it may be well to bring under their notice a monthly publication called the “Austra- “ lasian Insurance and Banking Record;” to the general reader the following may prove of interest. , , In the early days of life assurance a medical examination was not considered imperative, but at the present time not only is this point always insisted upon, but proposals are on foot to make practical use of the microphone, an instrument of which Dr. Mann, writing to the “Times;” says that “bymeans of it sounds are heard which are more faint than those with which the stethoscope deals in exploration of sounds within the chest. The various,.sounds of the heart and lungs will probably be made distinctly audible by its means, and any abnormality proved where such exists.” The profit arising from a wise and careful selection of lives is one of the chief sources of income to many companies, and the tendency of the day is to offer extremely low rates of premium to first-class lives only, a person whose constitution is not really good being allowed to take up a policy at an increased rate of premium. The story told of the man who first went to insure his life, arid came away almost immediately without accomplishing hia object, because “ho had never in his life before “ been asked so many impertinent ques- “ tions within the space of five minutes,” is well known," This practice of inquiring

into the family history of would-be policy-holders is comparatively of modern growth, and in common with the custom of asking for references to the usual medical attendant and to two friends or acquaintances of long standing, has now been generally adopted by all the leading offices. Latterly a commendable practice of an interchange between insurance offices of papers on both accepted and on declined lives has been introduced, whereby great assistance is given to the medical referees in estimating the value of a life. It has been decided that the question who is your medical attendant is designed to extract from the person an answer to the query _« Who is the medical attendant best “ able to give an account of the assurer s “ constitution at the time 1” and this fact should be borne carefully in mind by assurers.

Through the agency of a building society many a man becomes the possessor of a comfortable house and home, and the valuable assistance afforded by these societies in encouraging provident habits has been fully recognised. The risk attached to them is that tho breadwinner may fall sick or may die during the time ; the payments are then discontinued, and his house will require to be sold, perhaps, at a forced sale. In the “ Insurance Record” for December a method is pointed out by which the risk is covered. An explanation is given how a non-survivorship annuity can be obtained, under which tho company in the event of the borrower’s death will continue the regular payments to the Building Society until the term expires. A very small additional payment is sufficient to cover the risk to the insurance company, and the practice is one that is well worthy of notice. It is well known that the law in England, after seven years absence without tidings, presumes that death has taken place. Almost all the offices in their policies insist upon satisfactory proof of death, and the question is often asked whether the legal presumption of death can be insisted upon as being sufficient proof to make good a claim for the sum assured. Insurance companies in a case of the sort, even when they meet the claim, invariably guard themselves against their conduct in the particular instance being looked upon as a precedent by others. The existing law on this point has been generally taken to be' in favor of tho assurance offices. The case of insurance upon a ship is often cited as being analagons, but there are many points of difference between the two oases. A ship leaves port with a fixed destination before her, the time she will take on her voyage may generally be calculated within a few days. This time being exceeded the inference is that some mishap has befallen her, and if within a reasonable time no more tidings are heard of her the fact that she and her crew have been lost may be regarded as tolerably certain. In the case of an individual who has an insurance policy on his life the case is somewhat different. Upon leaving the district he may change his name, but his friends who perhaps hold the policy as security for a debt, may continue to pay tho premiums. The policy holder discontinues his correspondence, forms other ties elsewhere, and drops out of sight. The law as laid down by Mr. Bhnyon on this point is set forth as follows, the instance given being very interesting ; —‘ ‘ When the as- “ sured sailed for the Cape in a small “vessel of war which must have been “ overtaken by a storm so violent that it “ was weathered with difficulty by much “larger vessels, and the ship in question “ was not heard of for two years, it was “ held that this was sufficient evidence to “ warrant a jury in finding that she was “ lost in the storm, and that tho party “ perished with her. Xu such a case, if “ the ship were insured, payment by the 1 1 underwriters would be strong evidence “of the truth of the presumption. An “ insurance office paying upon presump- “ tivo proof of death would be entitled, “it would seem, to security that the “ money should be refunded if the pay- “ ment should turn out to have been “ erroneously made.” That the agencies run considerable danger of being defrauded is very evident, and their desire to secure themselves by declining to pay over the sum assured without being secured from loss in the case of the presumptive evidence of death proving unsound is only fair and natural. In other words, the assurance money is paid over on the understanding that should the supposed dead man ever turn up again the sum paid over shall be returned. The equitable nature of this solution of tho difficulty will bo generally admitted. Tho wonderful growth of tho business of both private and Government life assurance business in New Zealand is very gratifying. While during tho thirteen years in which tho system of Government assurance has been in vogue in England the business has proved a comparative failure, in New Zealand it has been a moat unqualified success. The new business for tho year ending on the 30th of June last shows that 1991 proposals were accepted, assuring £1,080,000. The success attending this branch of business in the hands of our Government is largely due to the fact that tho Government was not content to trust to its prestige and to tho unquestionable security it offered alone. It has entered into brisk competition with other offices, its accounts are rendered in the usual form, annual reports are furnished, and travelling agents arc engaged in tho principal districts to canvass for business and instruct the local agents.