THE OLD AND THE NEW

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33665, 15 October 1974, Page 22

THE OLD AND THE NEW

The National Insurance Company’s new eightstorey office block in Gloucester Street (right) will be officially opened today by the chairman of the company’s board (Mr J. P. Cook). The company’s Christchurch offices since 1928 have been in the Hereford Street building (left). The new office block is the culmination of more than 100 years service by the National Insurance Company of New Zealand, Ltd, to the people of Canterbury. National appointed its first representative in Christchurch only a few days after the company was formed in Dunedin in September, 1873. Since that time the company’s Christchurch office has been actively servicing the fire and general insurance needs of both the city and the farming community of Canterbury. National Insurance was established in Dunedin by a group of businessmen who felt there was a need to provide an insurance service for the burgeoning commercial activities of the Otago province and for the protection of its fast growing population. In his book “Underwriting Adventure,” an account of the first 100 years of the company, Gordon Parry says that the businessmen of Dunedin felt that if Auckland, “an unstable, struggling town” could maintain two insurance companies, then “surely Dunedin, the economic and commercial hub of the Colony could do likewise.” Within days of the company’s formation, there were representatives appointed in Christchurch, Invercargill, Queenstown, Clyde, Riverton and Balclutha.