DANGER AHEAD

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8263, 28 October 1912, Page 6

DANGER AHEAD

Certain members of Parliament performed a valuable service to the community when they directed attention to the action of the Minister of Finance in altering tho form of tho circular sent out by tho Advances to Settlers Department so as to enable private insurance companies to get in and collar a proportion of the business of tho Government Insurance Office.

To those who are watching political portents closely the revelations made m the course of a debate in tho House on Friday night will not coma as a surprise, though they will increase the uneasiness of those who are sceptical as to the aims and intentions of the party ctf Shamreform. It ia quite clear from what has transpired that the Minister of Finance, who is also in charge of the Advances to Settlers Department, has made up his mind to interfere with the finance of the Government Fire Department. In order to do so he has evidently acted without consultation with the Prime Minister, because the latter stated to the House that “no instructions regarding insurance had been issued since the access of the present Govern--ment to office.” When it was clearly shown that such instructions had been issued by Mr Allen, and that the forms had actually been altered by his instruction, Mr Massey changed nis tao tics and blusterously asserted that ho would have an official inquiry held to see who had been guilty of supplying the representatives of the people witn the information by which his ignorance as to the doings of his subordinate Ministers had been exposed. Mr Hindmarsh then threw a little more light on the subject by declaring that the Advances to Settlers Department had received a special instruction from the Minister of Finance on the subject. Of course, this was indignantly denied by Mr Allen, but probably Mr Hindmarsh was not speaking without the book. An interesting feature of tho debate was also Mr Fisher's contribution. When tho question was raised in Parliament some weeks ago the Insurance Minister, with that delightfully positive air of his, assured members that there was no intention of departing from the practice of giving the Ad vances business to the Government In surance Department. Apparently ho has since been subjugated by his bead strong colleague, for we find him now declaring that previous administrations in insisting on Advances mort gagors insuring with the Government Fire Office had played a game of “bluff.” 1 Sir Joseph Ward’s contribution to the debate was valuable be cause it showed that the companies for whom Mr Allen has so much solicitude had done their best to kill the State Department at its inception. He also put the position in a nutshell when he expressed the view that “anyone controlling large sums of money for lend ing and also controlling an insurance business would be the quintessence ol a fool if he did not place the businesses side by side.” An argument which applies to “anyone” surely applies to the State, which represents Everyone. Mr Esoott also indicated the gravity of the situation when he pointed out that it was only the intervention of the State which prevented the Farmers’ Mutual Insurance Company from going under by reinsuring its risks when tho private companies \ had it under the boycott. Everybody who knows anything knows that the private companies have had the State Department under boycott all along, and have driven the management to London for reinsurances. ' Now Shamreform in the person of tho Minister of Finance proposes to give the companies an opportunity of sharing in the Advances business 1 Tho fact is that the Government Fire Insurance Department is one of the healthy money-making departments of State. It has survived the attacks made upon it by private enterprise, and it is making substan tial profits for the State. It has aU<i succeeded in very substantially reducing the premium rates exacted from the public for insurance pur poses. It has been substantially assisted in doing all these things by retaining the monopoly of the Advances to Settlers business. How very s:g nificant it is that one of the very first acts of the Minister of Finance shoui'l he to busy himself with creating conditions under which the companies cat come in, and enter into the enjoyment of a portion of the business ere ated by the State without giving anything in return. As members of both sides of the House hove indicated their disapproval of Mr Allen’s high-handed action it may have a steadying effect upon Cabinet. At anyrate Parliament may be relied upon to keep a vigilant eye upon Shamreform methods in this regard.