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