STATE FIRE INSURANCE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9028, 6 November 1925, Page 2

STATE FIRE INSURANCE

| annual report. The annual report cl the State Fire insurance Lnlite, tor ilie year ended December bi, iPiM, contains the loliowmg particulars: Tito total net revenue Iroin all sources amounted to £IyG,3OU, showing an increase of £21,061 over 1923. L lie: net premium income was £160,U7U, as compared with £i04,164 ior the increase for the year being £10,9011. The claims for the year totalled £60,817, as against £46,178 for 1923, A majority of the tires continues to arise iroin preventable causes, and an awakening of public interest in the problem of lire waste could hardly fail to have Urn effect of reducing the present annual ioss, thus preserving national wealth, which at present is being dissipated, and warranting further i reductiuiis in insurance rates. All too often it is forgotten that from * a community point of view fire insurance saves nothing, it merely casa’ibutes the loss. Official records show that the aggregate amount paid out by all offices in insurance losses in New Zealand during 1923 was £796,281. Figures are not yet available for 1924, but the loss will certainly be much higher than for 1923. Bearing in mind that the amount paid by insurance offices represents only part of the lire waste, it may be estimated that a million and a-quar-ter pounds 1 worth of communitymade wealth was converted into smoke and ashes and thus utterly lost during 1924. Exclusive of Government taxes, which amounted to 8.68 per cent, the working-expense ratio to premium income was 29.48 per cent, and without Fire Board coiircibatious and depreciation of office premises only 25,1 per cent. The expenses. include the Department’s contribution to the Public Service Superannuation Fund, which was paid for the first time, and expea- : diture on office equipment for the new Head Office and new branch office a t Palmerston North and New Plymouth. The average net workingexpenses for all offices for 1923, as shown in the Government- Statistician’s returns, was 36.05 per cent, exclusive of Government taxes. The first bonus rebate declared under the provisions of I lie Stale Fire Amendment Act, 1922, was fixed by the Board at 15 per for twelve mouths" from Ist August, 1923, and therefore aperated during the first seven months of 1924. During this period the loss ratio rose very considerably above that of the same months of 1923, and the Board, after full consideration, considered it prudent to reduce the percentage to 10 per cent, for the period of the second rebate —viz., Ist August, 1924, to 31st July, 1925. The sum granted m rebates to State Fire policyholders during 1924 was £22,005, or an average of 13 per cent, of the Prenrum income for the whole year The amount granted during 1 1923 w;m £10,996, making a total of £33,001 for seventeen months. The in fcitution of the rebate system by tin State Office necessarily Involved the associated companies in a similar concession to their policyh< Iders, and the Government Statu ician estimates the total saving t(> the insuring public on account of the first rebate as £340,000, On this basis the two rebates will have saved over £560,000. The surplus for the year, afterproviding for the bonus rebate (£22,005) and all necessary reserve funds, and the writing-down and depreciation of office premises and furniture, amounted to £31,131, cf which £5,902 was derived from underwriting profits for the year. The assets, £530,283, for the first time exceed half a million pounds, showing an increase of £36,322 over the total for 1923. The presentation of the twentieth annual report makes it opportune to recall that the Office was opened on the 4th Jatmarv. 1005 with an advance of £2,000 borrowed fiom the Treasury, being i at dial time the first competitive Stare Fire Office in the world. Under fiercely competitive conditions, which involved a reduction | in (he then current rates of 10 per | cent- on trade risks and 33 1-3 per ) end on dwellings (which reductions have c- ntinned over since.). j fin* Office showed at the end of th° | firU veer e.n income r.f £ 13.135 a”d ; a net surplus of £4Bl. r l "-pntv rears later the annual income Pad orewn to 6190,300 and the as--res jo over £530.000. The only Continued on Pace 3.

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