A.M.P. SOCIETY

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 911, 9 June 1903, Page 2

A.M.P. SOCIETY

The resident secretary of the A.M.P. Society advises us that he has received a cable from the bead office intimating that, the annual repoit had been unanimously adopted at the meeting field on Friday, the 29th May. Tho following speech was delivered by the Hon. C J. Johnston, M.L.C., chairman of the local board, who went as a delegate from the New Zealand Board to be present at tho moeting : In speaking to the report I desire, before dealing with the business of the New Zealand branch, to briefly alludo to the great loss we have sustained by the death of our late chairman, tho Hon. Dr Grace. From inclination and long service Dr Grace had become part and parcel of the society, and while, by bis high character, adding prestige to our board, ho always held himself to be honored by his position of local head of u great institution working for the benefit of his fellow man. Despite the fact that our small community is already insured in a sum of something over twenty-four millions—thus loading the world iu th 6 amount of assurance per head of population-it seems to be almost a matter of course that tho business of the Now Zealand branch should steadily and satisfactorily progress. At the annual meeting in 1901 the then representative, Mr Duncan, was able to announce the best year’s work for tho past seven years. Last year Mr Richardson submitted to you an even more satisfactory statement, and to-day I am enabled to go one better and to inform you that large as the new business then was, the year 1902 closed with a sum of £10,591 in the sum assured better than that obtained in 1901, the actual figures being 2510 policies, assuring £626,175 and producing a new annual income of £21,290 Os Od, to which has to be added single premiums amounting to £7023 19s sd, making the total new premiums £28,313 19s lOd. The total policies on the New Zealand branch registernow number 29,544, assuring £8,025,240 and producing an annual premium income of £256,828 4s 2d, to which has to be added interest on the investments amounting to £154,312 2s 2d per annum, making a total income of £411,140 6s 4d—a truly splendid record. Tho amount of money that we have lent out on mortgage of freehold properties in New Zealand is £2,126,500 11s lOd, aud in respect of this vast sum, upon which there is no unpaid interest, we are entirely without anxiety, indeed we are happy in the knowledge that, by reason of the considerable advance in the selling values of all classes of property, the mujor part of our securities show an abnormally large difference be-

tween present values and the amounts loaned. Satisfactory as this is, we are not unmindful that no less care than has been exercised in the past is necessary in the investment of moneys at the present time—we have a good record and mean to keep it. Our total assets in the colony amount to £3,389,617 2s lid. Without wearying you with statistics dealing with the financial and general conditions of the country in which so considerable a part of your business is done, and in the welfare of which you have so deep an interest, I may say, and I am glad to be able to say, that there is every indication of a continuance of that prosperity which has been such a marked feature in the history of New Zealand for many years paßt, and in the matter of taxation I may mention as a benefit to us, that the tax on money lent on mortgage has been reduced by onefourth. Of the stall' in New Zealand I can speak in unqualified praise, but I wish more particularly on this occasion to say a word in commendation of the work done by our agents, for although it may be true that the great advantages of life insurance I are now more widely known and more fully appreciated than in the past, yet, it is still true that upon the perseverance, tact- and intelligence of our canvassers, so much depends—they not only have to preach as heretofore the gospel of life insurance in general, but by reason of the keenest competition of other offices, they have to be more than ever well posted in the special advantages offered by tne A.M.P. Society, and to my mind those deserve praise who, by their emphatic and insistent declarations of those advantages, guide the intending insurer to the safe arms of the mother of Australasian life offices there to find “ amicus certus in re incerta.”