WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1877.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 272, 7 March 1877, Page 2

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1877.

KsrFK'BRt.JW* to the remarks we made on Government Life Assurance in our issue of March sth, we wish to state that when comparing the Government scheme with private companies we did not intend in any way t« deter people from taking policies in such an undoubted Society as that of the Australian Mutual Provident, which was commenced as a benevolent society for working men twenty-eight years ago, the Directors and Seen tary first year giving their service*gratuitously —the total cost for the same period being £9O. It t& wonderful that with ao small a Ik-ginning the Society should have grown to ita present proportions, with an accumulated fund of nearly two millions sterling. which represents considerably more than ninety per cent, of the whole of the premiums received on existing policies,. and this after ail claims, bonuses-, and expenses are paid. About tifty per cent, would be sufficient to prove the soundness and security of the Society, so that a very targe surplus is available as a reserve for bonuses, in which new members participate-. We understand this, to a great extent, is owing to the great care of accepting risks, for while extra provision was made in case an epidemic should carry off larger numbers than calculated by the tables, only "TO persons have died out of each 100 expected, leaving a large margin ; and as the scheme is purely co-ope-rative, tliis gives increased stability and profits to persons insuring at the time. Every death-claim during the whole twenty-eight years has been paid out of interest alone. Having compared the tables of both Government and the Mutual, we find that we Were in error in laying stress o» the lower rate of the fonut-r, as the Mutrtat's whole life-table. without profits, is less titan the Government tabks ; and although the other tables fti-o higher, the very largo bonuses allotted lo the Mutual'* poticivs leavt-s a wide margin after milking deduction,-* for smaller premiums. An instauej- of this : A member insured, during IHI3, in the Muttrd, for £lf>.X>, for which he paid £-t» 17s. o\L. or abottt. £\ "».*. p..-r annum more t. r ian the Government rate : '»ut in his ca.dt bonuses- amounted to over £23">-tir his. addtid bonuses. JL'tiST. We have made theso retuarks- in justice to the Mutual, its we were tinder the impression that other oll'tees of a very ditt'jrt-nt were doing business in the district, but having been informed that no other Society but the Australian Mutual is canvassing for policies, we felt it right to make the abeve remarks to assure the many whom we are. glad to learn have taken poltcivs in this Society of its success and; stability, and when it is borne in mind- that alt the moneys received in the Colony have been invested Ik re. that the business is conducted within the Colony, that every member has a vote if he tikes t*» txereiac it, and that the business of the Soeit-ty has been conducted in the moat honourable and liberal spirit, no policy having been settled in a court of law, one notable case in *)amarn of a member of 18 months' standing a few days in arrears- where the othVe paid the claim, gives to this .Society an altogether different character to the Societies referred to in our article, and white wishing success to the Government scheme, we as heartily wish success to the agent ef the Australian Mutual Provident Soeietv.