SUPERANNUATION

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13288, 17 May 1907, Page 3

SUPERANNUATION

THE TEACHERS' FUND. Referring to the remarks made in yesterday's " Herald " regarding superannuation funds, Mr Valentine, who is a member of the Teachers' Superannuation Fund Board, told a " Herald" reporter yesterday that there appears to be -po reason to fear that this fund will impose any burden upon the general public of ths colony. The report of the actuaries upon it is that the fund will become unsound about fifty years hence. This kind of forecast, Mr Valentine sayi-:, had teen made for a long time regarding other superannuation funds, the London and [NorthWestern Railway Fund at Home b?ing one instance, and yet this fund continued to increase its accumulation.*. The Teachers Fund was started, with a Government nest-egg of £SOOO, the income now exceeded the outgoings and at the -clo-ssi of its last financial year the fund was £35.000 in credit. That is to say it had added £30,000 to its capital, and this in spite of the. fact: that a considerable, number of old teachers had been taken on as annuitants who had contributed very few instalments, -t'h'i majority of old teachers qualified by nge thus provided for. As Sir Joseph .Ward had said, the scheme midlit be actuarilv unsound, but commercially it was sound. The teachers'; scheme is on a very different footing from that of either the police or the railway fund. The police contribute on a 5 per cent basis, the same as the teachers, but th'.* benefits are very much larger! The highest annuity allowed to any teacher so far was £BB, whereas in the police several annuities of over £2OO were alloted soon after the scheme came into 1 force, to men who had contributed next to nothing. The railway scheme, again, is en a 3 per cent, bask—a considerable difference. Asked whether the actuari.fi had allowed for the continued in.clva.s3 of schools with the growth of the population, and the influx of young teachers beyond the proportion at present entering, taking into account the proportion of elderly teachers now In the service, Mr Valentine said he was not sure on. that point, bu/b he thought the actuaries had reckoned on the basis of the present numerical condition of fh-s staff, and it was clear that a continual increase of staff by recruiting on the younger side must- tend to make the scheme more secure. He saw no reason to doubt that tho accumulated fund or capital behind the scheme would continue to increase, and that consequently the. general taxpayer would never by called upon for a- penuy to keep it going. -

• Referred to what the Minister of Education had said on the subject, to a "Herald" reporter at Teniuka, Mr Valentine said that Mr Fowlcl? had not been Minister long, rnd had not had time to brooms conversant with the details of the scheme, and in fact when he ca,me> to preside as chairman at the last- meeting of the Board he told them so. As a man evidently possessed of business instincts, Mr Fowlds would soon pick 117) the lin-ps of 'the scheme, and he believed that he would make a good Minister of Education.