C.O. For Colonial
Colonial Office 23556
74
MEMORANDUM RE HONG KONG LIFE INSURANCE ORDINANCE
30 JUN 08
135 ORDINANCE, 1907
I have carefully perused the correspondence with the Colonial Office in this matter, and also the documents sent over by the Governor of Hong Kong in February last, putting forward the objections which have been advanced against various clauses in the Hong Kong Ordinance: these criticisms being made by Mr Chalmers King, the well-known English Consulting Actuary; by Mr E.J. Smith, F.I.A., F.F.A., of the Standard Life Assurance Company; and by Mr J.L. Robertson, F.F.A., of the Canada Mutual Life Insurance Company, who took his diploma as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1908. I have also read the Memorandum prepared by Mr A.d. Harding of the Colonial Office, and have perused the relevant sections and Schedules of the Ordinance.
The objections are mainly centred (1) on Clause 9 as to Deposit to be made by Companies, and the conditions on which such deposit is held, and may be withdrawn; (2) on Clause 24 of the Ordinance, involving a test of solvency; (3) on minor points in the Ordinance and its Schedules, where it is thought that some hardships or injustices may arise; and (4) on certain points in which the Ordinance follows the Imperial Act 1890, but in respect of which it is suggested that both might conveniently be altered, mainly by Mr King.
I deal with these four classes of objection or suggestion, seriatim, in the present Memorandum:-
I consider that
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(1) As to sections relating to deposit, there is no hardship in the provisions of Clause 3, as to deposit to be made by Companies already established or registered, or hereafter to be established or registered, within the Colony; and that the provisions for making a deposit equivalent to £20,000, partly by an immediate payment of £5,000, and partly by
(1)
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