4 
MAJORITY REPORT. 
Insurance Fund Investment Account, and the other half may 
be dealt with at the option of the Society in one of the three 
following ways :— 
(1) It may be left in the National Health Insurance Fund 
Investment Account; or 
(2) it may be paid over to the Society for investment by 
the trustees of the Society in trustee securities; or 
(3) it may be invested by the Minister on behalf of the 
Society in such securities as the Society may select. 
611. The moneys in the Investment Account ave invested by 
the National Debt Commissioners in securities in which Savings 
Bank Funds may be invested and the interest is paid into the 
Income Account kept by the National Debt Commissioners. 
From time to time the National Health Insurance Joint Com- 
mittee, with the approval of the Treasury, after a survey of the 
position determine the rate of interest to be credited to Societies 
in respect of their credits in the Investment Account. The 
prescribed rate was 3% per cent. up to December, 1917, 
4 per cent, from that date until December, 1922, and has been 
4} per cent. since the latter date. Any balance of interest earned 
over and above that credited to Societies at the prescribed rate, 
and any capital accretions on changes of investment go to 
provide a reserve for the stabilisation of the rate of interest 
and to protect the fund against depreciation. 
612. So far as concerns the moiety of the funds available for 
investment which is transferable to the Societies, there is no 
corresponding arrangement for equalising the rates of interest, 
either as between Societies or as between one period and another. 
Within the range of securities on the trustee list, each Society 
makes its own investments and carries the whole of the interest 
receipts of each year to its Benefit Fund. Profits or losses, 
resulting from the sale of securities, are also carried to revenue 
in the year in which they arise. In the case of Branch Societies 
which make common investments for the Branches, the effect is 
the same, though the machinery is slightly different. 
613. There is little difference between the ultimate results 
of the two methods of investment. Theoretically, the Societies 
might be expected to realise a somewhat higher rate of interest, 
owing to the wider range of securities which is open to them. 
Practically, the results are much the same, since the Societies 
have, to a very large extent, preferred to invest in Government 
securities of the same type as the National Debt Commissioners 
have selected. Differences, attributable to accounting policy, 
i.e., to the creation of a reserve for equalising purposes in the 
case of one-half only of the funds available‘for investment, may 
be disregarded in this connexion. Any apparent inferiority in 
the results of official investment due to this cause should be