THE PROSTITUTION OF THRIFT.

NZ Truth, Issue 744, 20 September 1919, Page 3

THE PROSTITUTION OF THRIFT.

Industrial Insurance.

Dear "Truth, "it^During the past twenty years a social evil worse In its effects on its victims than the gambling habit has been sedulously developed by several life Insurance officers m the four large towns of New Zealand, and to a lesser extent m the smaller towns. To further this awful business these officers have now regularly engaged throughout our Ddmlnion over five hundred men and women. I refer to the practice (miscalled by those who batten and fatten on the business) of industrial Insurance, that form of so-called insurance m which the payments made by the public are on tho weekly plan, although often collected fortnightly or monthly. Industrial or weekly plan insurance, while* virtuously professing to help people to save, and trading on the noblest feelings of the mothers of our nation, is costing the iwell-meaning but ignorant people from whom it gathers its cash a quarter of a million pounds yearly, an amount which if capitalised -would build large, healthy houses on goodsized sections for every working man m New Zealand, and so abolish all the slums, many of the causes of disease, early death and solve most labor troubles m a couple of years. As matters now are, the only people who g»t much benefit from industrial insurance are the five or six hundred who are living on the game, and the life insurance companies practicing it, which have already amassed some millions from this discreditable, though perfectly legal business. A glance at the methods of getting industrial insurance money from the public will not. here be out of place. It is nearly always worked on the house to house canvass plan, when the husband and father is absent. The mother's loving feelings are worked on towards providing an insurance benefit for the child or perhaps on her own life. The canvasser stresses the point that it costs so little, six- I pence, a shilling, or half-a-crown •weekly. A very -usual industrial policy is one costing a shilling a week on the life of a child aged five, the policy to be paid out when the child is fifteen. The total cash, if the policy is kept going, is over twenty- six pounds. The amount they pay to the mother is actually several pounds less than she has spent. The so-called investment thus proves a sink and a loss. Any bank would return all the money paid m full and with interest added. Often j the mother is not told that insurance on the life of any child under ten Is not allowable under New Zealand law. If death of the child happens before ten, the utmost that can be paid is from one to ten pounds, generally much less than has been paid m. If the mother takes the insurance on her own life the cost is the same, but the amount paid her later, if she continues the policy, is still less. Sooner or later, however, the mother learns the truth, the husband comes home or she discusses the industrial policy with the neighbors. As with most practical women, she knows that the first loss is the best, she lets the policy lapse and so has lost all she was misled into j paying. Every year m .New Zealand, the industrial policies that lapse are more than half the total number of new policies written m that year. Beftfre this happens, however, several pounds have been wasted on the specious pretext that by so doing, benefit will accrue to the insured or his or her heirs. The Government statistics show year by year that less than 5 s out of every £, less than threepence out of every shilling paid by the public for industrial insurance ever comes back from industrial insurance companies. More than double this amount goes to the five hundred or so canvassers, collectors, clerks and other officials engaged m this thrift-destroying and poverty-creating business which is car-.i ried on mainly among people who are already poor. Results show that barely one out oC every twelve industrial policies issued ever is kept going long enough to become a claim either by death or maturity the company issuing it, and if it does become a claim; . the loss it means to' the policy-holder on account of its terrific cost is worse than if he had allowed it to lapse a year or so after purchasing it. This disgraceful social result has grown with heart-rending rapidity since the war, mainly, no doubt, on account of the absence of so many of our, men. It is: becoming known to students of social conditions that m all the largest New Zealand towns there are many people paying large sums weekly . into the industrial insurance sink. In most cases it doesn't last more than a year or two, but as the victims learn and

escape from the peril, fresh victims are | J>eing roped m m increasing numbers. : ,The bookmaker is honest enough to . profess himself what he is, and the . totalisator returns all the cash put into . Jt, less a moderate percentage, a fair part of which goes to the State. It Is since Charles Dickens created Mr. Chadband that industrial insurance has been devised, and it would appear as though that infamous hypocrite's descendants had rapidly multiplied and decided that this form of so-called insurance offered more scope for their peculiar abilities than the glorious old gospel did for their progenitors- — Yours, etc., H. H. THOMPSON. Wellington..