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£ % The anpual meeting, which has 'Just been held, disclosed a :. : we rn \ ; "Financial Position of Company Discussed by President Macaulay in Annual Address Montreal, Feb, 14.--The phenomenal growth and success ds interest of the Bun pach year fo continuation this exp.usion, but it was more noteworthy still for an announceiient, ali startling in character, by Mr, Macaulay regarding the financial t the Company. He stated that so carefully had the directors anticipate every sible adverse contingency ld reduce the value of still leave untouched and © Company, An the momey market that even a panic which the assets by one hundred millions of do! unimpaired the shown surplus and reserves of the 8s would Mr. Macaplay dwelt as well in a most interesting and illuminating man- ner upon the relative merits of the varied securities in which insurance coms panies invest their funds, and of how traditional views on investment have altered owing to the changed conditions of modern business. He sald in part. #A mere statement of the increases over the figures of the previous year is'impressive. In income the increase Is $41,072,000; in assets $87,860,000; in surplus $9,157,000; in new assurances $112,836,000; and in total in force $408,925,000. A company with total business equal to these increases would be a large and powerful institu- tign. It is but three years since we rejoiced at passing the niilesstoneg of $1,000,600,000 of assurance in force, and yot already we are nearing $2,000, 009,000, while at this moment our as- sets exceed $500,000,000, "But there is another feature even more striking and important. Advance figures fhe cate that the increase over tie previoys year in the new business written by the combined life com- Tani cf the continent was approxi- mately 8 per cent, and the increase ii the combined total in force approxi: mately 9 per cent. Against these per- 3 let me place the figures of the ur new assurances increas- 44 per cent, while our--total in force increased 27 per cent. "I need not further emphasize the rapid expansion of our business. It is but a continuation, though in acceler- eting «legree, of our normal condition. hat-the Company 'is-extraordinarily yropular with the insuring public is evi- dent. But people will hardly 8s' ow so rronounced a preference without rea- That reason unquestionably is great strength of the Company, rnusual profit-earning power. 'm'n7s announced in the report v in excess of $40,000,000; s clearly intimated that had we 17 do 80 wa could have taken : a much larger amount. 'We follow our usual conserva- licy., We always have before s the possibility of a usiness ;n, which might occasion rinkage in market values of es of securities. Mortgage 8s may at such a time becemo y unsalable but that fact is not while every fluctuation in the ces at which stocks and bonds can tudned into immediate cash is quoted on the Stoek Exchange. holders into our confidence in most complete way, « hey refltize lio iy" cur directo "T provided nst any contingen of his kine You will notice that say that the vclues quoted. ars tl given by th: government department or lower. Thzre is much in those two words. They mean that the values given in the report are ap- proximately $62,600,000 'dess than the actual current values of those securi- ties on th changes,» Then we have the additional deduction from market va of $20,000,000, referred to in the report, and also the special contingency sserve of $12,600,000. These items total $95,000,000, and our unlised asscts and .other margins raise the amount to $100,000,000. "This medns that the market values of our securities could shrink by $100,000,000 without reducing our surplus by one dollar. Such a shrink- #ge is of course almost inconceivable. 1 indeed doubt very much if even the catastrophe of another world war could produce so drastic a depres- sion. Supposing-it did, we would still have intact our undivided surplus of over $54,000,000. We are hardly likely, I think, to be criticized for lack of conservatism. I do not know any sther financial corporation which has Mts assets so protected. I imagine we "mre more likely to be told that we ave been too conservative; if so, hat is a criticism we must endure, Our safety margins may perhaps be unnecessarily large, "but safety rust be our paramount consideration; and it, as we confidently 'anticipate, the margins prove 'not to he required, they will in time be available for dis- tribution among our policyholders, And what possibilities for our policy- holders do these margins represent! Investment Provisions "It may be timely to summarize briefly the provision of our law. They 'permit investments in:--first, mortgages (up to sixty per cent. of the appraised value); and municipal bonds bonds secured by mortgage; pre- ferred stocks of corporations which have paid dividends for the preceding five years; and common stocks of Sorporations which have paid divi for the preceding seven years, such dividends being not less thin Cour per cent. per annum or $500, . | the matter government | corporation & No Magle in 'Bond' "Consider mortgages. What com- pany has not suffered losses, and sometimes very heavy losses, on itd mortgage investments? As to bonds, some people seem to consider thal there is magic security in the label 'bond'. This popular belief is not supported by experience. The sure plus earnings and marging of many companies, over and above the divi dend requi.ements of their stocks, are much greater than the surplus earned by other companies in excess of the interest requirements of their bonds, Few experienced financiers would claim that the bonds usually offered are safer than, or even as safe as, stock of such companies as the Montreal, Light, Heat & Power, American Telephone and Telegraph, Commonwealth Edison, and many others I could nume. The payment of the interest on the bonds is cer- tainly no more sure than the pay- ment of the dividends on the stocks. In the very unlikely event of the divi. dend on any such choice stock being reduced, it would be certain to be far more than offset by increases in the dividends on others, Our own average interest rate has been steadily mounting year after year, due solely to increased dividends and bonuses received on our stocks be- vond the rates payable on those stocks purchased by us in 1923; the actual cash yield from these in 1928 represented a return of 2.38 per cent. on the purchase price greater than the dividends payable on these stocks at the time of purchase, while the average value of the rights and bonuses received during the inter- vening five years has amounted to a further .38 per cent. per annum. The Bill Before Parliament "I will now say a few words about the Bill we have~before Parliament. There has been so much misunder- standing and misrepresentation about tit that I think you would like a plain statement of the facts. "The original Charter, granted in 1865, authorized the Company's capi- tal at $4,000,000. An amending Act passed in 1871 contained a somewhat ambiguous clause, which has been in- | terpreted in some quarters as limiting the capital to $2,000,000. Five emi- nt legal authorities to whom we submitted the question assure us that tire original---authorization was unaf- fected by that amendment, but ad- vised us that it would be well to have put beyond doubt by a brief clarifying Act of Parliament. "We do not ask that the capital be increased; we merely ask that our right to issue stock up to the amount originally authorized be freed from legal ambiguity by a simple declara- tory clause. "But why do we require a larger capital than the present $2,000,000? "Chiefly for two reasons: (1) Because the present capital is manifestly out of all proportion to the magnitude of the Company's operations. It is absurd that a Com- pany, whose assets are already $600, 000,000, should be controlled by a capital of $2,000,000, "(2) Because we wish to ensure that this great Company shall never fall into undesirable hands. We can- not alter the status of our existing shares, but we can impose restrictions on the transfer of the new shares which will be an effectual safeguard. "It has been said that such an increase would divert 'from the policyholders profits properly belong- ing to them. This is the exact oppo- site of the truth. "The Insurance Act allows stock- holders to receive ten per cent. of the profits distributed from the par- ticipating branch. Our stockholders long ago reduced their share to five per cent, All our contracts for thirty years past have been made on the agreement that the participating pol- icyholders shall receive ninety-five per cent. of these profits, and that right any of our members could enforge in any court of law." ROUMANIA'S PRINCESS AS A LOVER OF SPORTS Princess Ileana, youngest daughter of Queen Marie of Roumania, Just twenty-one, enjoys an afternoon of skiing at Predeal in the Carpathian moun. tains, where she goes to school. Table Bay Even the fost perverse efforts of man cannot spoil the natural magnifi- cence of Table Bay, nor the natural beauty of its surroundings. I am temperamentally a stay-at-home per- son, and I liked the Cape because it reminded me of home, or rather of the South of England; it was settled and cultivated for one thing; for an other its woods of oak and pine were refreshing after mangroves and palms. The road to Simondium might have lain across a Dorset heath, but that instead of furzebushes there were ten- foot 'Proteas with flowers the size of cabbages; the town of Paarl might have been in the Vale of Evesham, where it not for the stupendous pol- ished dome of the Paarl Rock and the fantastic ridge of.the Drakensberg... One had all the amenities of our familiar landscape, with a lot of splendid mountains thrown in. Here one cannot get awa * from the mfoun- tains; except to seaward they bound every horizon, and especially near Cape Town, where they rise abruptly from a level plain, seem to Justify any height with which the tricks of the atmosphere may happen to invest them. 1 was not able to explore any of the outlying ranges, for they are not yet made accessible by roads and inns, and any ascent involves a con- siderable expedition, but I spent a good deal of time on Table Moun- tain. . . . What a top that was! I looked over great sloping sheets of rock, fantastically grooved 'and tunnelled, down to the Southern Ocean; as, standing at Dun Angus, I have looked over the bare blue slabs Qf Aran, down to Galway Bay; but with a dif- ference. - One can walk over the limestone of Aran, stepping across the narrow cracks in which lurk male- fern and maiden-hair; the Table Mountain sandstone is split by chasms ten feet wide and thirty deep, choked with giant heaths and proteas. But near by the elements have proved too strong for the rocks--the mountain is about the same height as Snowdon --and all has been washed away ex- cept some few isolated fragments, worn into the queerest shapes, that stand like Mesozoic monsters on the level surface of the subjacent slab. On such levels, on any place where moisture can lodge, and especially on the wet ledges of the cliffs, grows the most varied flora in the world. #eaths of forty kinds, brooms, and proteas of a hundred different forms 'on the more exposed tops; then lilies, @ladioll and tall dog-daisies; on this : these mountain; woods, in some places, 4s i wide, shady shelf a sheet of arum lies, and under the mossy, dripping nature planned on the it was man that seems and pitches his camp; at sunrise he crosses the mountain and is down in time to open his office at the appoint ed hour. So near is the town; when one sits on the ledge of the "lable one seems to be swinging one's legs over Oranjezicht, This was the morning before a South-Easter; one of those hard clear mornings when there is no very defi- nite light in the sky or anywhere else, merely a sort of yellowness between the dark bars of cloud; but on the purple mountains every rock-face and gully showed up as clear as if picked out by the beam of some luminary other than ours. From the Dassen- berg to Cape Hangklip their serrated skyline ran in a great semicircle at the nearest some thirty miles away, o the north and to the south rising beyond salt water, and in the middle beyond a plain noless level, and seem. ing even less substantial beneath a pale blue haze that veiled the crudity of black pinewood and yellow sand.-- Conor O'Brien, in "Across Three Oceans," ee freee. London to Paris (By Airway) England lies below like a gigantic picture puzzle; Its pieces--the meadows--rimmed by hedges, roads and streams, Fit perfectly each into the others. The oblong fields of France, precisely{ laid, Shading from saffron gold to indigo, Are like nothing so much As a multicolored patchwork quilt, --Margaret Nellis, -- | CAN'T GET] HURT MR. planted, Cough Mixture Week." ~~, Heintzman Planos } There was a young lady named Anna, Who wanted to have a'piano, Said her Ma it is true No other willdo a But a Heintzman Upright for ous 'MRS. R. M. TAYLOR, Nipawin, Sask. = Purity Flour There was an old lady named Bower, Who always used Purity Flour; She declared the day long To be healthy and strong Bat bread made of Purity Flour, MRS. HENRY COULTHARD, R.R. No, 1, Eugenia, Ont. Royal Yeast There was a farm woman named Mary, Whose bread was as light as a ; 'When asked to explain, She replied, "It is plain Royal Yeast Cakes your worries, will bury." MRS. T. GENOE, Ceylon, Ont. Wrigley's Gum There once was a hoy found & penny, Who being a Scotty was canny, 80 he bought Wrigley's Gum And he sald, "Oh yum yum! [ knew this was better than any." BLSIE ROBINSON, Box 76, Prescott, Ont. Red Rose Tea Said a sprightly old man in Toronto, "I drink all the tea that I want to. As I've drunk but Red Rose I've not got a red nose-- Wife, put on the teakettls pronto." MRS. H. W. Stevinson, Macleod, Alta, Mrs, T. Genoe. "No decision has - been reached as to when the con- test will be closed. Compare care- fully the rythm of the limerick with which you won a prize with the others and you will see just where they fall short. Mrs. T. Neal. Borry we cannot return any limericks : abmitted as they are -not kept. UP-TO-DATE Spider: Won't you step into my parlor? Miss Fly. Not unless you have & man, «serve cocktails and allow pet- 1 x ! Salada Tea A matron who lives in Nevada, "| deal more out of the 1929 automobile Big Ben Tobacco 5 There lived on the Island of 'Thacker, . 3 A jolly old farmer named Packer, 'Who said with a smile, "The 'Weed' that's worth while Is a plug of this Big Ben 'Tobac- * 1 MISS MOLLIE PATTERSON, Blenheim, Ont. Royal Purple There was an old woman at Shoos- ter, And she had a very sick rooster; Royal Purple, she fed, And she smiled and she said, "Now he crows again just like he use "ter." - MRS. WARD BULLER, RR. 8, Ridgetown, Ont. . Cutlcura A flapper neglected her duty To her skin--so she lost all her "beauty, Although all those pimples Detract from her dimples Outicura will cure her--poor cutie! MRS. HURST, Buckingham, Que. Williams' Pink Pills There was a young Toller named Tilly, Who became white and frail as a lily, 'Took Williams' Pink Pills, Which cured all her lls, And now she's as gay as a filly. x MISS ETHEL McKELLAR, Belmont, Ont. There is plenty of enjoyment for the whole family if all join in the fun of writing Limericks. Any nationally advertised article or service found in this or any previous. {ssues of this paper may be made the subject of a limerick. One dollar will be sent for every Limerick accepted. Give name and address and name of this paper, Write: Limerick Editor, Associ- ated Publishers, Rooms 4215, 73 Adelaide St. West, Toronto, 2. To a Poet Many singers, like the phoebe, 'Who have little to say, Declaim in places. prominent The livelong day. But one I know, a hermit thrush, With glamour to display, Even from all admirers Steals beauteously away. ; --Walter Hendricks, in "Spires an Spears." amram ------ A living-room is just a detour on the #sute from the bedroom to fhe garage. | Clutches that require '| but he also can do it with & far small. "['er expenditurs of energy. Ease of control is one of the most significant virtues of the d of new models that have just found their way to the market place; It is a char acteristic destined to reap a greater measure of applause with the sale of each mew 1929 model. Never before has the designer gone so far in his effort to meet the situa- tion prsented by the two facts of traffic congestion and the almost con- stant use of the car by its owner. Patently, the 'car needed is one that may be handled with absolute safety and with absolutely no fatigue to the driver. The latest automobiles mea- sure up to these vital specifications. Easier Operation gear-ghifting, Brakes, steering, | starting, clutch and light operation, and even the bumble accelerator have been given diligent study in the effort to improve them, The results of this study are expressed in different ways, but the effect sought, easier operation, always is th same. The engineer, who knows best, ad- mits frankly that while today's brakes are better by far, they still fall con- siderably short of perfection The lay buyer of motor cars may not agree with this technical appraisal. When he steps on the brake pedal of his -} 1929 model, - he will -find-less pedal pressure required for a greater des: patch in stopping. Booster Devices Reduction of pedal pressures in me- chanical brake layouts is one of the interesting developments of the mo- ment. In many of the systems, it is due to the incorporation of self-en- ergizing and booster devices that help the brake to apply itself after the operator has given it a slight start, Apart from this there is-a sign that the use of ball ang roller bearings in brake mechanisms is going to be tak- en up on a grand scale. I already is being used on two cars in the up- per price tiers. Antifriction bearings are expensive, it is true. But when the need for them becomed obvious and their advantages are thoruoghly them in vain. Air is Kept Out The dream; and I the dreamer who awakes Another factor in the increased efi ciéncy of mechanical brakes is the provision being made for better lubri- cations. In those cars boasting of cen: tral chassis lubri:ation, now out in greater namber, though still short of expectations in this direetion, prov sion has been made to care for the ofl ing of vital points of anchorage. - Hydroulic brake systems this yeu. in virtually every case offer the au- tomatic compensating cylinder. Kecp- ing the lines constantly filled with liquid, the energy required to operate the brakes is always light and uni form. By the use of this device, the deficiency that htis brake typa prev {ously p d--air getting into the system--has been eliminated Non-Clashing Gearset Looking at the gear auift, one notes numerous changes this year. Tae biggest single departure, from one standpoint, is the increase in the num- ber of four-speed transmissions. The non-clashing gearset, in another way, is the big development. Beyond these two changes, it will be found that shift levers have beer set on the clutch cover plate to get them out of the way and left within even easier reach. In the cransmlission, too, act! " {friction bearings are more commorly and advantageously used. If trafiic demands considerable gear-shifting. it may be accomplished easily In connection with the four-speed transmission, it 1s of interest that in- ternal gears are used. Silence, as well |The shift in every case Is standard. Low, rarely used, except in starting ona grade, is latched out t othe left. ~ As To Clutches or pres- | sure, and made the practice of clutch riding more costly ,are more promin- ent. The accelerator pedal shows a "in form to one that more ap- 7 s the foot with g spring Just shy of that low prin would make fuel feed ragged. lly speaking, the controls of 92) car show better than any 'feature, the advantages of the % Not only can the driver get a great ° proved, the car buyer will not look for 4 (rei as efficiency, is behind this practice. _