HERE AND THERE

Southland Times, Issue 18936, 24 September 1920, Page 6

HERE AND THERE

How ho bad "caught another melon’’ was said to have been related at a club by an Auckland man who was proceeded against by a returned soldier, the latter claiming a refund of £125 paid for a dryrieaning business. It was alleged that defendant, who had agreed to hand over a secret formula for dry-cleaning, and not to start business within a radius of five miles, had made a breach of both engagements, as the formula was not the correct one, and he had engaged in business (shortly after the sale. The Repatriation Board had advanced plaintiff £2OO. It was admitted by defendant that he had twice previously sold his business and bought it back again. He said that cloven fins of dry-cleaning mixture were valued at £SO. A witness said defendant had stated that he was not working because he had “caught another melon,” i.e,, hoodwinked another innocent, "While the origin of State life insurance in New Zealand is to be found primarily in the panic resulting from the breakdown of large insurance concerns in Great Britain in the late ’sixties, the Department has not only assisted in placing life insurance in New Zealand upon a sound basis, but a great feature of its fifty years’ work has been the provision of insurance protection at. a low cost in direct and successful competition with commercial companies,” says the Government Insurance Commissioner in his annual report. “As a matter of fact, the premiums charged by the Department are the lowest in Australasia. It is owing in no email degree to the Department’s operations that the population of New Zealand is one of the best insured in the world, the sum assured per head working out at £42 in 1917, as against £3l in Australia and approximately £29 in Great Britain. Notwithstanding the restriction of its business to so small an area as New Zeaalnd, and in the face of the intensive competition indicated by these striking figures, the Department has nevertheless attained a magnitude that would give it a considerable rank in a country like England; and it can furthermore take credit not only for past achievements, but also for the firm and solid basis upon which are built its hopes for the future.”

Writing (on frionfl in Wellington, the ex-High Commissioner of New Zealand (Sir Thomas Mackenzie) says; “In laying down the reins of office, one really feels in a measure the withdrawal from work which during all these years has been so interesting, and, I hope, useful Regarding the office itself, it has gone through strenuous tinier and dealt with problems of weight and respr risibility; the money alone that has passed through the department for various purposes must run into between two and three hundred millions sterling, and there is hardly a department of the State with which we have not been concerned at times. Difficult and delicate negotiations hail to be conducted, our soldiers to be cared for, and many matters of Imperial and New Zealand concern to be attended to. I have been loyally supported by my staff, but wo have lost several members by death . . . . but I am grateful for the health and strength which has enabled me to gel through. The generous manner in which I have been treated by the people here is more than gratifying; nothing c'ould exceed their cordiality and kindness, and distinctions have been conferred on me which 1 never for a momen thought my services justified. I am sure th.-.t I shall leave the Old Country carrying with me the cordial wishes of those with whom I have been brought into contact.”