The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1299, 19 September 1883, Page 2

The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI- WEEKLY.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1583. •

' ' ' 1 Just as Mr Bob Sawyer came to the conclusion that there were worse occupations in the world than feeling ] ladies' pulsea, so others will no doubt j think there are worse occupations in the world than 4( running" a life insurance business, and especially a Government Life Insurance business. We are led to this reflection from the perusal of a paper which was presented to the late Parliament on the motion of Mr Hutchison. It is a return showing " the several officers employed in the Government Life Insurance Department, with the salaries and commissions paid to those officers." From this source we learn that the department gives employment to a permanent salaried staff of some 70 officials, whose incomes range from £800 down to £40 per annum. Of the more snug appointments there is one at £800, two of £600, one of £450, two of £400 per year, the others ranging frbm £800 downwards, the permanent salaries figuring up to the respectable total of £11,434 yearly. Many of the officials, however, receive both salary and commission. Thus, Mr G. Thome, who groans under the responsibility of " Superintendent of Agents," and who draws £450 annually in salary, last year received in addition the relatively enormous sum of £2,502? 9s. in commission, being together close upon £8000. This ia greasing the fat sow with a vengeance. Besides, the title "Superintendent of Agents" has a mysterious ring, about it. We were always under the impression that agents who are paid Only by results do not, as a rule, require any large amount of superintendence in their work. With them it is "no cure, no pay," and self-interest supplies the needed stimulus to duty, and we are rather at a loss, thez-efoi-e, to understand how Mr Thome figuratively "puts in his time" otherwise than in calculating and drawing his commission—a work itself of no small magnitude. Mr Thorne is not the commissioner, not the actuary, not the secretary, agent, or lecturer, he is simply the " Superintendent of Agents," and thus although he " toils not, and neither does he spin " he annually. cuts o,ut this fat slice from the departmental pudding. The question lias arisen : who is Mr Thorne, and how did he contrive to edge into such pleasant quarters ? The answer given is, that he is a near relative of, we think, Major Atkinson's, a brother-in-law, or something of the kind, an explanation which will probably lead people to the uncomfortable speculation whether the Treasurer has any other brothers in-law, ond, if so, how many, and whether they have been all equally well provided for at the public expense. At all events Mr Thorne is there, and a pretty considerable thorne he is in the side of the Insurance Department. But it appeals to us the matter is one i which reaches beyond the mere question of the emoluments of a public servant. When the business of Life Insurance was forced upon the State in 1870 by Sir Julius Yogel, its introduction was emphasised with the assurance that the cost of management would be merely nominal, as the whole ! or nearly the whole work of the department would be conducted by officials otherwise paid, and the public were taught to believe that corresponding advantages would be ofiered in the way of reduced premiums, increased bonuses, etc. Now either the department does not offer to the public the fullest measure of the advantages arising from this cheap management, or the system upon which it is trading is unsound. ■ In either case a great wrong is being done. No private insurance company could maintain such a salaried monstrosity without at once raising the suspicion that there was a screw loose somewhere. At the recent quinquennial division in the Government Insurance Department the profits were represented, if we recollect rightly, at something like £15,000 — an amount just equal to what Mr Thome's "profits" from the department would be during the same period. But enough of Mr Thome, for he is only one of many whose lines have fallen in pleasant places in the Government Insurance Department There are some 40 or 50 other " commission agents "in the same service, whose earnings range from £912 annually and downwards, the total charges under the head of "commission" being £9,648 for the past year, or a total of salaries and commissions for the same period of £21,077. This £21,077 has been expended in encouraging habits of thrift amongst the people, but opinion will be that much of it has been very badly snout.