NEW ZEALAND INSURANCE CO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 191, 15 August 1933, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND INSURANCE CO.

The accounts of the New Zealand Insurance Company show the effect of the depression on the earnings of the Company and the process'of adjustment to the new conditions. For some time the Company was able to pay its dividends out of investment earnings, leaving the underwriting profits to be used in other ways. For the last three years there has been a widening gap between the dividend total and the return from investments. This year these earnings are down by more than £6000, and the total is short by £30,000 of the amount required for the dividend. At the same time underwriting profits have fallen. All this, of course, is a result of local and world conditions, and the difference would be greater were the Company's affairs not directed so wisely. Such a Company, with its large investments, must feel the" fall in interest, and, as the chairman pointed out in his address to-day, the New Zealand loan conversion will aifect revenue in the current year, so that it will be "difficult to avoid a further shrinkage in interest earnings." The position of the Company, however, is not seriously affected by these conditions, and remains very sound. The underwriting losses showed a decrease last yearj and the proportion of loss to premium income fell. The Company is very much more than a New Zealand concern. It does business in thirteen other countries, and, as Sir Alfred Bankart remarked, these ramifications are valuable to New Zealand. The. development of such a great world-wide business, and its successful direction \n difficult times, are something of which this country and this city may justifiably be proud. '.