LECTURE ON GOVERNMENT LIFE ASSURANCE.

Thames Star, Volume III, Issue 1687, 30 May 1874, Page 2

LECTURE ON GOVERNMENT LIFE ASSURANCE.

A lecture was given at« the Theatre Bojal last night I>y Mr W. J. Mobney, travelling agent, on the advantages, of the Government scheme. In the absence of Mr. Wm. Bowe (who had unavoidably been called to Auckland) the chair was occupied by Mr ■J, Warinoll, J.P., who in introducing. the lecturer said he did not intend to expatiate on the subject to be dealt with. He believed Mr W. J. Mooney would do that ably. He would introduce to them Mr Mooney. \ J The lecturer, on rising, said that in explaining the advantages of the system of Government Life Assurance and Annuities he would try to do so without making any disparaging references to private companies or to any particular company. He would necessarily have to go back to a remote period, when the inhabitants of the world were few—when they led a nomadic life—when there was less of the grasping tendency that characterised the people of the present day. He would try and show when and where Insurance and Assurance principles were first developed. The lecturer then proceeded to trace the progress of assurance from the earliest times. He said it had been asserted that Insurance originated with the Romans. He felfcinclined to deny that assertion—he believed that the principles were first developed amongst the; AngloSaxons, in those corporations or guilds which banded themselves together for mutual protection and assistance. The first Life Assurance company was established in the reign of Queen Anne, in 1696, and was called the Amicable. It made but little progress, until another— the Equitable Company—was established in 1775. The premiums then were very high—as much as from four to five per cent. They were now about two per cent. He (the lecturer) would then proceed to explain the meaning of the term Life Assurance. There were three things to be considered—the ameunt of premium, the amount required to be paid premium over and above necessary to enable societies to carry on their business, and the rate of mortality. The latter was calculated on the Carlisle table—an elaborate estimate compiled from a long course of observations extenduig over a number of years in Carlisle, which was accepted by all the actuaries in England. Another consideration was the security offered by companies, and on this subject they could not do better than consult the admirable work of Mr J. R. McCulloch—The Commercial Dictionary. Mr McsCulloch's remarks on " security" were worthy of perusal by all those interested in the subject, because he had predicted that certain companies doing business on unsound principles were bound to collapse, and they had collapsed. Before eighteen months had elapsed from the time' he wrote one very prominent company indicated was in process of liquidation. There were different companies, such as proprietary, in which the profits were retained by the shareholders ; then there were part proprietary companies ; and mutual companies, in which every shareholder was a proprietor, entitled to a share of the profits in the shape of bonuses; but ,it must be remembered that members assumed the risks. (The lecturer quoted from the Edinburgh Review on the fallacy of bonuses.) Intending assurers should be careful of the companies they insured in—make themselves acquainted with the' premiums to be paid, and the security offered. He (Mr Mooney) would endeavor to show that the Government scheme offered advantages not possessed by private companies, and he would do so at once by a comparison of the premiums paid (Mr Mooney then gave an illustration of his meaning by extracts from tables" of best companies doing business in the colonies.) There was one company, he said, the Mutual Provident, which had until a few months ago charged considerably more than the Government Assurance, but they had recently lowered the rates and they were now slightly less than the New Zealand rates ; and he believed honestly that the Mutual was one of the best and most ably conducted companies in the southern hemisphere. But, to quote Mr McCullcch again, that gentleman had said, that the tendency nowadays was to reduce premiums to a rate lower than was consistent with safety. Mr Mooney than explained the conditions of policies under the Government scheme, the liberal provisions as to residence and surrender value. The trumpt card of the Government scheme, he said, was the security offered. In 1862 there had been fifty-six companies in course of winding up in England,-and they could imagine the amount of misery and destitution 'which must have followed such a state of things. Mr Gladstone had referred to it in the British Parliament, and to remedy it and prevent a recurrence of such a catastrophe he had introduced the Life Assurance Act, and its adoption by the New Zealand Government had followed. It had been said that this was another little pet scheme of Vogel's. He (the lecturer) had been told that some one was coming there to put questions to him about it/He might, however, tell them that they should look to the security of the scheme—the Government guarantee— and not stick out because of some fancied gievance or antipathy against one man. c considered he had said* enough to, prove that the security—the paramount consideration with intending assurers, as ; Mr. McCulloch H3sure them—of the Government scheme was superior to that offered by any private company in the world. In advocating the principle of Life Assurance it might be urged by some that they would, be unable in pay. the premiums. He would never tal; oih a t m m excuse* but it night be ©wJjoom-

batted, arid he would wish his hearers to assure themselves that provision' was made for such cases,. All wko insured in the Government office would find that the surrender value, after the first year, would insure the amount of the policy; and in the event of the assured, after paying three years' premiums, being unable to continue his payments, a free or paid-up policy could be issued, or at the option of the assured a surrender value of the premiums paid would be grantad, equal to at least forty per cent of the premiums paid ; so that the excuse of inability to continue payment of premiums could never be accepted. The system of Life .Assurance under the Government scheme was purely a mutual scheme. It offered certain advantages to assurers—advantages which no private company could offer, and the rates of premium were calculated at such a low rate that nd private company could enter into competition, giving equal, security. Assurances for the benefitf'*6f wives and children were protected from the operation of the insolvency laws to a certain amount, dependent upon the tenure of the policy; so that, "whatever reverses might fall upon the assured, nothing could affect the provision made for wife or children during a period of competency. The lecturer then'referred to the advantages which the scheme would confer upon persons engaged in mining pursuits, with special reference to recent fatal accidents on the Thames; ho expatiated on the advantages which would have accrued to surviving widows and orphans had the men who lost their liv*s by the boiler by the accident at the Pumping Association and at the Bright Smile mine been insured in tha Government Assuiauco department. The necessity for subscription lists* going round, would, he said, have been obviated, and survivors would have been in posssession by right of sums of money to make a iew start in life, instead of being dependent upon public charity. The lecturer urged upon his hearers to make provision for those dependent upon them, in order to place them above the necewity for the cold charity of the world. It was a duty the men owed to themselves, to their wives and children and to society, and he hoped that miners and others would profit by recent events and^ avail themselves of the advantages offered by the Government scheme of life assurance. The lecturer then gave some anectodal lore illustrative of fhe advantages of Life Assurance, not forgetting the story of Dickens and the obstinate Scotchman, and concluded' by proposing a vote of thanks to the Chairman, which was carried by acclamation;