THE MYSTERIES OF THE GOVERNMENT LIFE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 35, 14 May 1881, Page 374

THE MYSTERIES OF THE GOVERNMENT LIFE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT.

No. 3. — Major Atkinson, the Great Mogul. The Hon. H. A. Atkinson, Major, Colonial Treasurer, &c . &c, is the supreme head of the Government Insurance Department. As regards the ordinary routine business of an insurance office his position is quite unique, for there cannot be found amongst other insurance societies, if you search the Avhole world over, any officer holding a position analagous to that held by our Major. Other insurance societies have policy-holders, who elect a board of directors, avlio elect a chairman. The Government Insurance have a self-constituted board of directors, and they have no chairman. The Government board consists of Mr. Charles Godfrey Knight, actuary ; Mr. D. M. Luckie, commissioner ; and Dr. Johnson, medical referee. The public Avill not therefore be surprised to hear that Mr. Knight has never yet found it necessary to bring before the board any miscalculations or errors made by the Government actuary. Neither has Dr. Johnson ever found it necessary to report to the board any cases of bad lives passed by the medical referee. Neither has Mr. Luckie ever yet reported any lapses on the part of the commissioner Major Atkinson seldom puts in an appearance at the sittings of this board. He is virtually another and a higher board m himself — chairman, directors, &c, all in one. Messrs. Knight, Luckie and Johnson may be termed the " active " board, and our Major the "passive " board. The Major, however, reigns supreme. By a stroke of his pen he could if he chose summarily dismiss every officer of the department and by another stroke of his pen he could appoint his brothers and his cousins and his uncles to the vacant offices. Everyone remembers the commotion caused by Mr. Luckie's appointment, when Mr. Ballance was the Great Mogul of the Insurance Department, This was caused by the fact that the Conunissionership of Annuities was looked upon as one of the prizes of the Civil Service, and it was not anticipated that even a Great Mogul would, have the hardihood to overlook the claims of valued Civil servants and valuable political supporters, and appoint as commissioner a gentleman who had no earthly claim whatever to the post, nor any qualifications whatever to fit him for it. As regards minor appointments, these are made and unmade according to the sweet will of the "Great Mogul " for the time being, and the public hear nothing of them. To show the public what they may expect should they get what Mr. Macandrew calls an "intelligent enthusiast" instead of a dummy as "Great Mogul," we will give an extract from one of Mr. Macandrew's speeches delivered last year in Parliament. It may fairly be assumed that had he (Macandrew) been "Great Mogul" instead of Ballance, he would have attempted to carry into operation the views expressed in his speech. This is what he is reported in Hansard to have said : — "They should compel every man in the Colony to insure his life, and he would even go the length of say Ing that foreign comjjanies should be debarred from competing with them." One can hardly believe that a sane man could have given utterance to such a preposterous notion, but attention has been drawn to it in consequence of Mr. Kennedy Brown making the same startling suggestion in his recent lecture. In the absence of any better designation for the exceptional position occupied by, and the exceptional powers exercised by, and the tyrannical powers usurped by, the Ministerial head of the Government Insurance Department, are we not justified in dubbing him " the Great Mogul ?" There is a popular but very mistaken opinion that Parliament can over-ride a decision of the Great Mogul's. "We would not, however, advise anyone with a grievance against this or any other department of the Government to attempt to get it set right by petitioning Parliament, which is the only way of obtaining redress. In theory such a course seems easy enough. You have simply to write out your petition, hand it to the member representing your district to present, and then, knowing that your cause is honest and fair, you feel convinced that a body of intelligent representative English gentlemen cannot but do you justice, and you rest placidly content. The reality is something very different. A petitioner to Parliament, no matter how honest and just his claim may be, stands no chance whatever of getting his grievances redressed unless he is able to "work the oracle." The justness of a case goes for nothing ; the real question is how many members you can get interested on your side, and whether you have made deadly enemies of any member or members of influence in the House. If the latter, your case is q^uite hopeless. We once overheard Major Atkinson assure a petitioner that he " didn't care hotojust his claim was, he would take good care that it wasn't settled." And it wasn't. As supreme head and dictator of the Insurance Department Major Atkinson is neither useful nor ornamental ; he is simply obstructive. We have before us a curious and interesting correspondence between a Government policy-holder residingin Auckland and the Government Insurance Department. This correspondence ranges over a period of three years, and beautifully exemplifies the unfitness of a Government to undertake commercial duties. It commenced in this way : The policy-holder — let us say Mr. C- was insured in the Government for two sums, £1000 and £500. The former had been in force some months longer than the latter. Mr. C.'s business took him to the South Sea Islands. He therefore called at the Government office and inquired what sum would be required from him to cover the extra risk for travelling in prohibited latitudes. He was told £3 15s. This sum he paid, and obtained a receipt. He went to the Islands, and returned in safety. Some time subsequently he wished to make another trip to the same regions. He therefore proceeded to the office and inquired whether, as his first policy had existed for over, and the second for nearly, five years — in fact the latter would have been in force five years within three months — he would

be expected to pay the extra risk on the whole £1500. The clerk in the Auckland office was unable to decide this question without referring to Wellington. No answer was received from Wellington prior to Mr. C.'s departure. He therefore left a written memo, for his wife to call at the Government Insurance Office and pay the extra risk on the £500, and, if demanded, to pay the £3 15s.— the amount he had previously paid on the £1500. On presenting herself at the office, Mr. C.'s wife was told that the extra risk was £11 ss. This she looked upon as a swindle, and in the face of her husband's memo, and the fact that, only £3 15s. had been charged before, she declined to pay it. A day or two afterwards Mrs. C. is informed by the insurance clerk that she is in error in supposing that the £3 15s. had been taken from her husband as an extra risk for visiting the Islands, but that it was an extra risk for going on a yachting trip to Christchurch. She was also informed that unless the £11 ss. was paid the policies would lapse. This lady then consulted her friends, and they advised her to pay the sum required, which she did. On Mr. < \'s return he was highly indignant, and demanded from the Government that this money which had been obtained from his wife by threats and misrepresentations should be at once returned. The misrepresentation was the story of the yachting trip, which excursion took place twelve months before the date of the receipt for the £3 15s. ; the threats were that the policies would lapse if the money was not paid. So commenced this correspondence. It continued for some months, and Mr. C, so far from receiving any satisfaction, found himself instead subject to a series of snubs and impertinences from the Wellington officials. A very happy thought then entered his head, which was that he would write to the "Great Mogul" himself; so on the 12th November, 1579, he wrote a letter to that august personage. In the course of this letter he" says— "Specifically I charge Mr. Knight with neglect of duty in not replying in a courteous tone ; in withholding information asked for ; in offering suggestions not required, and giving remarks for "my information neither asked nor desired, the latter of which I consider a piece of gross impertinence and clearly not within his duty as a public servant." Now one would think that a letter making such serious charges as these against an officer of the department would have roused even the " Great. Mogul " into activity. But no. Positively four months arc allowed to elapse heiore Mr. C. receives even an acknowledgment of his letter, and then it is in the usual red-tape, stereotyped form. Mr. C. however, nothing daunted, returns again to the charge ; and over and over again, whenever the department commits itself to making a statement, which is seldom, he cuts the ground from under them and leaves them nowhere. For three years this wonderful correspondence — this parody on insurance business — lias been going on ; .and notwithstanding that the department is proved by Mr. C. to be conclusively in the wrong, he seems as far oil' from obtaining satisfaction as ever. Mr. C.'s case must not be looked upon as exceptional. The most glaring and stupid mistakes are made by the department, but let them be ever so glaring and ever so stupid, it takes weeks and mouths of correspondence to get any matter, let it be ever so trivial, rectified. Major Atkinson belongs to a family who, more than any other, have fattened and prospered at the expense of the New Zealand taxpayers. So notorious Avas this the case, and so extremely unprofitable to the Colony Avas this lavish outlay, that Sir William Fox said in one of his speeches that it Avould have paid New Zealand better to have handed them a quarter of a million of money and been quit of them. He is one of the noble band of Colonial Majors who are found in such numbers about Tarauaki and Wanganui, that you can hardly go Avrong in addressing every third person you meet as Major. He has an ungovernable temper, and is most overbearing and insulting to those who happen to be in his poAver ; but he can be most gracious and affable to those Avhose goodAvill he is anxious to propitiate.