§ 44. Mr. GINNELLasked whether the right hon. Gentleman will ascertain from the documents filed with the Board by the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society of Australia in respect of 1892 the amount due now on the fully paid-up policy No. 84,373, calculated on the estimate lodged with Mm on which that policy was contracted in that year, which estimate is still being 858 used by that society; and how much the £308 3s. now refunded by that society falls short of the sum due on that contract?
Mr. ROBERTSONI have not seen the policy of the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society, Limited, referred to, but I understand from a question asked by the hon. Member on the 15th May last that it was a tontine policy with participation in profits. The only official information which the Board have with reference to this society is that contained in the returns filed, which do not contain any estimate of profits.
§ 54. Mr. GINNELLasked what funds the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society of Australia had invested at the end of 1911; at what rate of interest on the whole; its income from this source in 1911; its gross income in 1911; its gross liability and gross assets at the end of 1911; in what way its returns show the society to have sustained its greatest losses; at what period its repayments in closing cases fell below the amount of premiums paid into the society in those cases; what proportion the repayments bore to the paid premiums in the cases closed in 1911; what proportion they bore to the sums to which the society in its estimates gave an unqualified undertaking that persons assuring with them would, on completion of a tontine period, be entitled to receive; whether the Board of Trade will require the society to fulfil the undertaking by which it induced the holder of its policy No. 84,373 to spend the insurable years of his life paying premiums into the society, or will require a refund of the premiums with interest; why the Board allow the use of prospectus and estimates calculated on the basis of prosperity to be continued by the society and its agents after they have become false and misleading; whether the Board will require this society to issue prospectus and estimates in accordance with its present facts and practice; if general meetings of the society are held, how convened, and the number attending the last of them; when and how each of the present directors was first appointed; the amount for which each of them is assured in the society; and the amount of the invested interest, salary, and liability, respectively, of each of them?
Mr. ROBERTSONThe returns of the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society, Limited, for the period ending 31st December, 1911, have not yet been received, and I am therefore unable to give the hon. 859 Member any information as to the position of the society at that date. The returns filed show that from time to time the society has written down the value of its investments; but each quinquennial valuation which has been filed by the society since it has carried on business has shown a surplus. The surrender values have, as in the case of other assurance companies, always been less than the premiums paid, except when the policies have been in existence for a long period, but during the currency of the policy the society has carried the liability to pay the whole sum assured in the event of death. The Board have no knowledge of any such undertaking as is referred to in the hon. Member's question, and they have no power to enforce the performance of contracts, and no control over the prospectuses issued by assurance companies. The regulations of the society require that thirty days' notice at least of every meeting of the society, specifying the day, the place, and the hour of meeting, and, in case of special business, the general nature of such business, shall be given, either by advertisement in one or more of the daily newspapers published in Melbourne and elsewhere, as the board may direct, or by circular, or both. The further information asked for by the hon. Member is not required to be disclosed in the society's returns, and I am therefore unable to furnish it.
§ Mr. GINNELLHas the hon. Gentleman compared the estimate sent to the members of the society with the actual facts of the society as requested?