SCHOOL INSURANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 19

SCHOOL INSURANCE.

I HOW THE FUND OPERATES, j NO LOSSES TO REVENUE. (By Telegraph. -Special to "Star."* WELLINGTON, this day. i Criticism of the Education Department for carrying fire risks on school property has raised a suggestion that fire in such buildings causes direct loss to the Consolidated Revenue. This is denied by the Hon. R. A. Wright, Minister of Education, who shows that the Department has a fund enabling it to cover its risks for about half the usual premium. The Public Trustee, stated the Minister to our correspondent, has in hand an insurance fund which can. under the Public Revenues Act, reach a maximum of £1.00,000, and towards which the Government pays from the Consolidated Fund £10,000 per annum. This has been the practice since 1922. This insurance fund was intended to i cover risks on all Government buildings through the Dominion, but, as in the year 1924, the destruction of several large city schools made serious inroads into the fund, it was decided that the Education Department should pay in addition a sum of £10,000 a year, practically thereby covering its own buildings. The policy adopted in case of fire is that a claim is made on the insurance fund for the cost of re-erection of a building of the same capacity as that destroyed and of the same material. If the capacity is greater or the material is brick instead of wood, the education purposes loan account is charged with the extra cost. The present value of buildings covered by the £10,000 insurance is approximately five millions. For the year ending March 31 last the insurance paid by the Public Trustee totalled only £5000. This was certainly a light year as regards fires, and it is" probable this year that losses will total at least £10,000. Even so, the damage is covered by 4/ per £100. tvhich is. of course, a much cheaper rate than is offered by any insurance company. * j