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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Life

Life.

Australian Mutual Provident Society. Auckland Branch, A.M.P. Buildings, corner of Queen and Victoria Streets, Auckland. Head office for New Zealand, Customs and Hunter Streets, Wellington. This branch was established in January, 1884, and the building (formerly Hoffmann's) was purchased by the society in 1883, and was altered for the accommodation of the business. It is of three stories, of brick and cement; the ground floor is used for the branch offices, and the upper flats are let to tenants.

Mr. Clement William Hemery, District Secretary for Auckland, is one of the oldest officers of the society. He was born in the Island of Jersey, in 1847, and began page 301 his business life in Liverpool. Mr. Hemery came to Melbourne in 1868, and four years later entered the society's employment in that city, where he held the office of cashier at the Victorian branch till 1883, when he was transferred to Auckland as agency clerk. Mr. Hemery succeeded the late Mr. D. J. McLeod as district secretary in 1888. He has (1901) been treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association in Auckland for the last eight years.

Australian Widows' Fund Life Assurance Society, Limited. Head office, Melbourne; head office for New Zealand, 6 Custom House Quay, Wellington; Auckland branch office, 105 Victoria Arcade, Queen Street. Capital, £1,500,000; annual income, £240,000. This society was founded in 1871. Mr. A. E. D'Arcy, the secretary, was formerly superintendent in the Auckland district for the Mutual Life Association.

Citizens' Life Assurance Company, Limited. Head offices, 21, 23, 25 Citizens' Buildings, Castlereagh and Moore Streets, Sydney; chief office in New Zealand, Custom House Quay, Wellington; Auckland branch office, 192 Queen Street. Mr. Odard H. Taplin is the District Superintendent for Auckland, and the resident secretary is Mr. J. Frankis Lane. An account of the company is given on page 529 of the Wellington volume of this work.

Mr. Odard Hoult Taplin, District Superintendent at Auckland for the Citizens' Life Assurance Company, Limited, was born in Westbury-sub-Mendip, Somersetshire, England, in 1870, and is a son of Mr. T. K. Taplin, a West of England gentleman. Mr. Taplin was educated by private tuition, and left England in 1890 for Sydney, where he at once joined the Citizens' Assurance Company as an agent. In the beginning of 1896 he was appointed district manager of the Auckland branch, and subsequently became superintendent. Prior to leaving England, Mr. Taplin was a member of the Second Battalion, Prince Albert Somersetshire Light Infantry, and in the matter of sport he devotes himself to shooting, cricket, football, and cycling.

Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Company; Auckland branch, Colonial Mutual Buildings, corner of Queen and Fort Streets, Auckland; head office, Melbourne; chief office for New Zealand, Wellington. Local director, Mr. Seymour Thorne George; local secretary, Mr. F. T. Ward. The district controlled from the Auckland office includes the provincial districts of Auckland and Taranaki, and extends as far south as Wanganui in the Wellington provincial district.

Mr. Frederic Thomas Ward, Local Secretary to the Colonial Mutual Life Office in Auckland, was born in 1864, in Tasmania, and was educated at the Hobart High School. He came to Dunedin in 1881, when he joined the staff of the National Mutual Life Office, and three years later became accountant to the Equitable Life of New Zealand. In 1887 Mr. Ward joined the Colonial Mutual in Wellington, and shortly afterwards was placed in charge of the Auckland office. He was married, in 1889, to a daughter of the late Mr John Kissling, of Auckland, and has one son and four daughters.

Equitable Life Assurance Company Of New York, United States of America. This company's head office in New Zealand is at Wellington, and it has branches all over the Australasian Colonies. The director resident in Wellington is Mr. H. D. Bell, the well-known barrister and solicitor, and the general manager in Australasia is Mr. C. Carlisle Taylor. Mr. Percy M. Thomson is inspector of agencies in New Zealand, and the district manager in Auckland is Mr J. R. M. Stewart. The company is considered to be financially one of the stronest in the world. It has a capital of £58,373,185; a surplus of £12,711,975; and the assurances in force amount to £219,670,088.

Mr. J. R. M. Stewart, the popular Auckland Manager of the Equitable Life Assurance Company of New York, is a son of Mr. George Vesey Stewart, of Katikati, and was born at Lisbeg House, Ballygawley, County Tyrone, Ireland, in the year 1862. He received his early education at Coventry, England; came with his father to New Zealand in 1874, and finished his education in Auckland. For about nine years he was in commercial life, and in 1888 he joined the office of the A.M.P. Society, in which he attained the high position of chief agent. In the year 1900 he was appointed district manager in Auckland of the Equitable Life Assurance Company, which has in him an officer who is considered one of the most successful life insurance experts in the colony.

Hanna, photo.Mr. J. R. M. Stewart.

Hanna, photo.Mr. J. R. M. Stewart.

New Zealand Government Life Insurance Department. Head office, Custom House Quay, Wellington; Auckland branch office, 105 Queen Street. The department is described on page 533 of the Wellington volume of the Cyclopedia, and Mr. W. J. Speight, the district manager for Auckland, is referred to on pages 108–109 of the present volume.

Mutual Life Association Of Australasia. Head office for New Zealand, Wellington. Auckland office, Mutual Life Buildings, lower Queen Street. This Association is fully described in the Wellington volume of the “Cyclopedia.” The Auckland offices are handsome and commodious and were formerly the head office for the Colony.

Mr. William Lambert, District Secretary for Auckland of the Mutual Life Association, is a colonist of long standing and extensive commercial experience. Born at Islington, London, in 1847, he sailed for Sydney with his parents in 1852, per ship “Francis Walker.” His father, the late Mr. W. Lambert, established himself in that city in the business of a general printer, but some three years later came to Auckland, finally settling in Dunedin in 1856, and founding the “Otago Colonist” newspaper. The subject of this notice was educated at Christ's College and Grammar School, Christ-church, and at the Dunedin High School. His first business experience was gained in the wholesale house of Messrs. W. Watson and Sons, of Dunedin, where he remained ten years. After a similar term in Messrs. Sargood's Dunedin house, Mr. Lambert removed to Melbourne, and was appointed cashier in a large building society. A year later, in 1886, he accepted the position of manager for New Zealand of the New York Life Insurance Company, and conducted the company's business until the New Zealand branch was closed in 1894. Mr. Lambert then went into business in Wellington as manufacturer's agent and indenter, subsequently accepting his present position. A large increase in the association's business in Auckland has been developed since his advent. His experience
Mr. W. Lambert.

Mr. W. Lambert.

page 302 in connection with the New York Life Insurance Company is of great value, whilst his long residence in the Colony necessarily gives him a large personal influence. For over twenty years he took an active part in the Volunteer movement, and for some seven or eight years was captain of the Dunedin Artillery Corps—one of the finest in the Colony. In Wellington, Mr. Lambert was secretary and treasurer of the City Bowling Club and the Northern Bowling Association, and latterly of the Thorndon Club.

National Mutual Life Association Of Australasia, Limited. This company's head office for New Zealand is in Wellington, and the Auckland branch office is situated at the corner of Queen and Swanson Streets. A detailed article on the company appears at pages 539 and 540 of the Wellington volume of this work. Mr. J. B. Gou'd is the company's district manager at Auckland.

Mr. James Baring Gould, District Manager at Auckland for the National Mutual Life Association, was formerly stationmaster at the Wellington station of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, and is referred to in that capacity at page 353 of the Wellington volume of this Cyclopedia.

The Provident And Industrial Insurance Company Of New Zealand; head office, Dunedin; Auckland branch (Mr. W. H. Churton, manager), 28 Shortland Street.

Mr. William Henry Churton, who is a Fellow of the Society of Auditors of England, has represented the Provident and Industrial Company in Auckland since 1893.

New Zealand Accident Insurance Company (P. A. Edmiston, general manager), Auckland. Board of Directors for 1900: Messrs Thomas Buddle (chairman), C. B. Stone, F. Battley, W. S. Wilson, R. C, Carr, and J. L. Wilson. The New Zealand Accident Insurance Company was established towards the end of the year 1879. The late Mr. W. A. Thomson, then well-known in life assurance circles, was the promoter and first general manager, and the Board of Directors was composed of six leading city men of the time; namely, David Boosie Cruickshank, who remained chairman of the company until his death in May, 1895, G. B. Owen, C. J. Stone, B. Tonks, Thomas Buddle, and J. L. Wilson. As the pioneer of accident insurance in the Australasian colonies, the institution had many difficulties to contend with in its early days, but steady progress was made, and now in its twenty-second year (1901) it ranks financially as one of the strongest institutions of its size in the colonies. The head office is in Auckland, but the company's operations extend through Australasia, and there are branches and agencies in each colony. Besides general accident, the business of the company embraces sickness insurance, employers' liability and indemnity, public risk, coupon insurance, burglary and theft, Plate glass insurance, and fidelity guarantee. The subscribed capital is £20,000, of which £10,000 is paid up, the liability of shareholders being unlimited. Steady dividends have been paid from its incorporation. On the 30th of June, 1900, its reserve funds stood at £60,000, and the total assets at the same date amounted to £85,900, of which seventy-five per cent. was invested in colonial Government securities. From its establishment in 1879 the company had, up to the 30th of June, 1900, returned to insurers upwards of £200,000 in the shape of bonuses to policy-holders, and the payment of 25,000 claims. These figures are by far the largest in the annals of colonial accident insurance, and a record for this side of the Equator.

Mr. Philip Augustus Edmiston, the General Manager, was born in Kent England, but arrived at Auckland with his parents at a very early age, in the ship “Mary Anne,” Captain Ashby. He was educated at the Auckland Collegiate Grammar School and at Christ's College, Canterbury. For many years he was connected with auctioneering in Auckland and the South Island, and Joined the company as accountant on its inception. In June, 1884, on the retirement of the late Mr. W. A. Thomson, Mr. Edmiston was appointed general manager, and the records of the company show with what ability and success he has filled the position.

New Zealand Plate Glass Insurance Company, Ltd., Mercantile Chambers, Queen Street, Auckland. Head office, Dunedin. Agent, Mr. J. T. W. Stevenson.

Auckland Fire Underwriters' Association. Office, 111 Victoria Arcade, Queen Street, Auckland; Mr. H. Goulstone, secretary.

The Auckland Marine Underwriters' Association, which was reformed in May, 1900, was previously in operation for many years. Committee for 1900: Messrs J. Bowden (chairman), A. S. Russell, A. E. Dean, B. Burt, and C. E. Palmer (honorary secretary).

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