The Australian Mutual Provident Society; established 1840. Head office, Pitt Street, Sydney; head office for New Zealand, Wellington; Resident Secretary, E. W. Lowe; Dunedin office, Princes and Dowling Streets; District Secretary, Bernard Robert Stock. The Dunedin office, which was erected in 1887, is a fine four-storey building of Port Chalmers and Oamaru stone, and the ground floor is ornamented with handsome polished marble pillars. The offices of the society are on the ground floor, and the top part of the building is occupied by numerous private offices.

Mr. Bernard Robert Stock , District Secretary for Otago, is the second son of the late Ven. Archdeacon Stock, and was born in Wellington. He was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, and entered the Wellington office of the Australian Mutual Provident Society in 1876. He was appointed district secretary for Christchurch in 1884, and took charge of the Dunedin branch in 1887.

The Australian Widows Fund Life Assurance Society, Limited . Head office, Collins Street, Melbourne; New Zealand Branch office, 6 Custom House Quay, Wellington. New Zealand Board of Directors: Mr J. G. W. Aitken, M.H.R. (chairman); Mr. A. H. Turnbull (Messrs W. and G. Turnbull and Co.); Dr. Walter Fell, M.D. (Oxford), M.R.C.S. (London), Bankers; Union Bank of Australia, Limited. District office for Otago and Southland: Bank of New Zealand Chambers, Dunedin. Mr E. F. Black, District Secretary. Resident Secretary, Mr V. H. Baxter. This society was established in Victoria in 1871 upon the mutual system, and in 1893 a branch was opened in New Zealand. The advantages of the mutual system are well illustrated in the affairs of the Australian Widows Fund which, commencing business without any shareholders' capital, has now an accumulated fund of over £1,640,000. The whole of the surplus is allotted among the members in proportion to their contributions to the surplus fund, in the form of additions to the amounts originally assured. Every desirable form of life assurance and annuity business is transacted. The directors some years ago introduced to the colonies a new system of life assurance, exempting from payment of premiums when the assured is either temporarily or permanently incapacitated either by accidental or bodily injury, or by illness or mental disorder. The great success which has attended this departure, and the many expressions of satisfaction which have reached them from the members who have had occasion to appreciate its special advantages, have induced the directors to issue a still more liberal policy. The new policy, to an extent not hitherto achieved, combines the advantages of life assurance with the real benefits of a provision against the risks of accident and illness. It confers all the usual advantages of an ordinary life assurance policy, and in addition doubles the sum assured under ordinary life assurance, If death occurs within ninety days as the result of an accident. It secures the payment of an amount equal to the ordinary sum assured in the event of permanent total disablement, if such takes place, and death does not take place, within ninety days of accident. It secures the payment of an amount equal to half the ordinary sum assured in the event of permanent partial disablement, if such takes place, and death does not take place, within ninety days of the accident. It secures the payment of an amount equal to half the ordinary sum assured in the event of irremediable total blindness or permanent general paralysis, the result of disease. It provides compensation when the head of the house is incapacitated by accidental bodily injury, or by any one of the numerous diseases specified on page 7 of the prospectus, from earning his living.

Mr. Edward Francis Black , District Secretary for Otago and Southland, is the second son of the late Mr. William Black, well known in Otago as owner of Black's run (Ophir), and grandson of the late James Rolland, Writer of the Signet, Edinburgh, and Member of the Legislative Council, New Zealand, who resided at Gask, Molyneux. Mr. Black was educated at the Church of England Grammar School, Melbourne, and came to New Zealand in 1882, when he joined the service of the Union Bank. In 1900 he resigned his position in that institution to take up his present appointment.

Wrigglesworth and Binns, photo.
Mr. E. F. Black.

The Citizen's Life Assurance Company : Head Office, Sydney; New Zealand offices at Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, and at Temple Chambers, Princes Street, Dunedin. Mr. John Packer, District Superintendent for Otago and Southland. This company was established in Australia on the 1st of January, 1887, with a capital of £200,000. Four years afterwards the funds amounted to £115,158. The year 1895 saw them past the quarter of a million, and in 1902 they had increased to over £1,000,000. The first annual premium income, £22,378, was, in 1902, represented by over £365,000. The soundness of the investments in shown by the valuations of the company's freeholds made in 1901, when they amounted to over £21,000 more than what they stood for in the accounts. Since its inception the company has paid to policy holders or their beneficiaries the sum of £700,000. Every description of life assurance business is transacted, and provision is made not only for life assurance, but for compensation in the event of disablement by accident or disease. There are 230,000 policies in force, which is in the proportion of one to something over twenty of the entire population of Australasia.

Mr. John Packer , Superintendent for Otago and Southland for the Citizen's Life Assurance Company, was born in London, and educated at the Green Coat school. He came to Australia in 1885, and for eight years was engaged in commercial pursuits at Newcastle. In 1892 he joined the Citizen's Life Assurance Company as agent; in 1899 was promoted to the position of Assistant Superintendent in Newcastle, New South Wales, and in 1902 left for New Zealand, to accept the appointment of Superintendent for Otago and Southland.

Mr. J. Packer.

Mr. Robert C. Wilson , Assistant Superintendent, was born at Dunedin. He joined the Citizen's Life Assurance as agent in 1898, and was promoted to his present position in 1902. Mr. Wilson is a prominent Forester, and is colour-sergeant of the Wakari Rifles.

The Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society, Limited , corner of Princes Street and High Street, Dunedin. Head office: Collins Street, Melbourne. Head office for New Zealand, Wellington. Branches throughout New Zealand, South Africa, and Great Britain. Established in 1873. The total funds at the end of 1902 amounted to £2,706,320; the income for the year was £787,720, and the increased business was £48,000 in advance of that of the previous year.

Mr. James Johnston , the Manager for the South Island, severed his connection with the Bank of New Zealand at Dunedin to accept a position in the Australian Mutual Provident Society, and received his present appointment in 1902.

The Mutual Life Association Of Australasia: Principal office, Sydney (J. C. Remington, General Manager). Head office for New Zealand, Wellington. Otago branch, corner of Princes Street and Dowling Street. Secretary, Mr. F. E. Brittain; local director, Mr. Robert Glendining. The Mutual Life Association was established in 1869, and the total assurances in force at the end of 1902 amounted to £5,816,259, and the total annual income to £274,902 1s 1d. There are over a million and a half of insurances in New Zealand.

Mr. F. E. Brittain , District Secretary at Dunedin for the Mutual Life Association, is a son of the late Captain J. F. Brittain, R.M., and grandson of the late Dr. C. Carfield, Inspector General of Hospitals. He came to New Zealand in 1883 and occupied a position as clerk in the office of the Australian Mutual Provident at Wellington, before receiving his present appointment in 1896. Mr. Brittain, who has always taken a great interest in athletics, was honorary editor of the New Zealand Cricket Annual, and secretary and treasurer of the Dunedin Savage Club.

The National Mutual Life Association Of Australasia . Head office for Australia, Melbourne; head office for New Zealand, Customhouse Quay, Wellington; Dunedin office, corner of Liverpool and Bond Streets; telephone, 85; bankers, Bank of New Zealand. New Zealand directors: Mr A. E. Pearce, chairman, Messrs William Fraser, M.H.R., and Nicholas Reid. Resident Secretary, Mr. Orton Stevens. From 1869 till 1903 the claims paid by this Association amounted to £3,039,889; the total amount assured under current policies was £13,273,819; the income for the year ending 1903 was £630,071; and the accumulated funds at the same date amounted to £3,674,435.

Mr. Robert Smith Mcgowan , District Manager of the New Zealand Government Life Insurance Department at Dunedin, is a brother of Mr. John McGowan, Commissioner of Taxes, who is referred to on page 132 of the Wellington volume of this Cyclopedia. He is the youngest son of the late Rev. William Stewart McGowan, and was born in 1862 at Sandwick, Orkney, Scotland. Mr. McGowan joined the Government Insurance Department in 1878, at Wellington, as a cadet, and in 1886 was appointed Chief Clerk in the Head Office. In 1889 he was transferred to Dunedin as relieving officer, and in the following year received his present appointment.

Mr. George Crichton , formerly Chief Clerk in the Dunedin branch of the New Zealand Government Life Insurance Department, is a native of Cornwall, where he was born on the 20th of July, 1860. He was educated at Hart House School, Tregony, with a view to entering the English civil service, and was junior master of St. Austell grammar school for eighteen months before sailing for New Zealand in 1879 in the ship “Chili.” After landing at Lyttelton, Mr. Crichton proceeded at once to Wellington, where he soon afterwards joined the Government Insurance Department as extra clerk, rising to the position of chief clerk under Mr. George Robertson in 1893. He was transferred to Dunedin in 1897, as chief clerk. Mr. Crichton has long taken an interest in photography, and, during his residence in Wellington, was a member of the committee of the Camera Club. He was also joint secretary for the exhibition of 1895, at which he was the winner in the competition for tasteful work. In the American Order of Odd fellows, he has been a prominent member of the Southern Cross, Zealandia, and Victoria Rebecca No. 2, lodges. For six years he was grand lodge representative, and also held office as Deputy Grand Master. On leaving Wellington Mr. Crichton was presented with a large marbie clock, bearing a silver plate suitably inscribed, as a mark of appreciation for his long and faithful services in connection with the order. He is also a Freemason, and was senior deacon in the New Zealand Pacific, No. 2 Lodge, N.Z.C. Mr. Crichton was married in 1883 to Miss Toms, niece of Mrs W. R. Williams, of Wellington, and has two daughters. He is now (January, 1904) Resident Agent at Greymouth for the Government Life Insurance Department.

The Provident Life Assurance Company was established in 1904, for the purpose of transacting life assurance in all its branches. The head office is in the Provident Buildings, Triangle, Dunedin, and the company has agencies throughout the colony, and in Sydney and Brisbane. There is a capital of £100,000, of which £21,000 is subscribed. Mr. W. M. Kirkcaldy, F.S.S., is General Manager, and under his skill and guidance the company is making substantial progress. The new company has purchased the Provident and Industrial Insurance Company of New Zealand, which was established in 1889.

Mr. William Melville Kirkcaldy , F.S.S., General Manager of the Provident Life Assurance Company, was educated at the Otago Boys' High School, and after leaving school in 1882 had seven years' training in insurance business and obtained a thorough knowledge of fire and life insurance work. In 1889, on the establishment of the Provident and Industrial Insurance, of which his father was General Manager, he joined the staff as Superintendent and Inspector of Agencies, and on the death of his father in December, 1898, he was appointed General Manager by the directors. Mr. Kirkcaldy is senior partner in the firm of Messrs Kirkcaldy and Co., who are general managers of the Live Stock General Insurance Co., and attorneys in New Zealand for the Yorkshire Fire and Life Insurance Company.

The Live Stock General Insurance Company of New Zealand was established in 1893, with a capital of £50,000. The business of the company, which is confined to New Zealand, is to insure owners against loss of live stock by disease or accident, or from foaling or calving. The company also issues policies, insuring live stock shipped between coastal and intercolonial ports. The head office for New Zealand is in the Provident Buildings, Triangle, Dunedin. Messrs Kirkcaldy and Co., are general managers.