FIRE INSURANCE RATES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2112, 11 February 1908, Page 2

FIRE INSURANCE RATES.

STATE OFFICE PREVENTS A (RISE. (Special to Times). t , WELLINGTON, Feb. 10. “Will rates go up, and if so, when?” was the -question put- to the manager of a local fire insurance company on Saturday. “No,” was tlie emphatic answer. “They must not, while we liavo the -State o'ffice as a competitor. Do you think there is a Minister in the Gabinet who would have the courage -to raise the Sta-to -rates, when the business, if it does not show a handsome profit, does not- show a loss? But-, wait until the State office lias had live years' experience, and then come to me again. That some of the English offices will keenly feel the two Canterbury fires I have no doubt, but others will regard -the losses as merely incidental to the business. It is all a question of. management whether the English offices aire severely hit- or not. Now, assuming the insurance losses on the Canterbury fires (Timam and Christchurch) to be £300,000, and assuming that the lire income from the whole of -the companies doing business in Now Zealand -amount to £450,000 a year, and charging 33 1-3 -per cent, for working expenses, against the premium income, and estimating losses by bush fires and other causes at £50,000, the result of these two fires will be that tlie premium income from now on -to the end of ithe year is absolved, and the deficiency will not.be met by new business. Nevertheless, I do not- think the rates will go up vet, and I know of no steps taken to bring them up.” Inquiries in other quarters showed that, as one manager put it, “for sonic time past insurance companies’ losses .in the Dominion have been paid with premiums collected elsewhere.” The losses in Canterbury district last year amounted to £119.000, and in AVe I>l burton ,£50,000. while at, the close of 1900 the Lambton Quay lire cost £BO,OOO in insurance.