FIRES IN NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13374, 16 March 1909, Page 6

FIRES IN NEW ZEALAND.

So far as some recent remarks by Captain Hut;o, tho Government Fire Inspector, deal with the undue proportion of fires in New Zealand, they are amply supported by statistics. The fact that the Dominion, with a population barely one-fourth that of tho Commonwealth. should account for practically one-half the amount paid by insurance companies for firo losses in Australasia, is one that requires more explanation than is afforded by the

greater use that is made in New Zealand of wood as ft building material. The required explanation was found by

Captain Hufio in over-insurance, and tho laxity on the part of insurance* companies in taking risks that overinsurance implies. To say that overinsrurance is the cause of many firee is not necessarily to say tha.t all these fires are due to what, if justice were served, would result in convictions for

arson. There is a suggestion that this is so in some cases, but in many others it may well be that the contributing cause is the carelessness arising from a knowledge that if the worst happens, it will not be very disastrous, since tho actual loss will be covered by tho insurance. The remedy, according

to managers of fire insurance companies, lips in the Government legislating to compel an official enquiry to bo held into tho circumstances of every firo, instead of only doing so, as at present, when there is loss of life, or when the circumstances under which the fire oc-

curred are such a.s to arouse suspicion. They maintain that it is impossible to inspect all firo risks so thoroughly as to eliminate all danger of over-insurance. This may be so; a rogue who meant to profit by a firo on his premises would probably mane go to beat the companies, no matter how close the inspection for valuation might be. But between a system so rigorous n? to make over-insurance practically impossible and tho present extremely easy-going method thero is a very wido difference. The ease with which insurances can be effected, according to a Duncdin insurance manager, depends upon tho character of the would-be policy-holder. Plone.sty seems to be, after all, its own reward

in this respect, though it is to bo feared that dishonesty sometimes masquerades so successfully as to sharo in the benefits. There Seems, however, to bo a tendency to exaggerate tho difficulties that the companies would experience if they soiicht a fairly exact valuation of all the risks

they are invited to undertake. It should not bo necessary to engage, the services of separate expert valuers for buildings, furniture, and all the miscellaneius classes of sjo-ods that are insured agaiust fire. Builders' and tradesmen's receipts and invoices would, as a last resource, lurui.sb materia! for a tolerably close estimate, but before demandiiny rhose the companies could make Uie'-if the working knowledge of values that is possessed by many mcii. If every fire were followed by an official enquiry the insurance companies and their shareholders would no doubt be saved a proportion of their present low"s. but it wonld lie at the expenre of tin* State, anil we do not think the companies are entitled To ask for State protection until they first take greater pains to protect themselves.