FIRE INSURANCE RATES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 112, 4 February 1908, Page 7

FIRE INSURANCE RATES.

RUMOURED INCRKASK BY ALL COM. PANIIiSr ■ (BY IKIiEGnAPH—r»ESS ASSOCIATION.) y Maslertciy February 3. The " Wairarapa Ago" is informed, on gooi authority, that the tire insurance companion • lmve practically 'decided to; increase the rates fur - insurance in connection with all classes of risks, and that there is [pod reason to be- V : - lieve that the State Fire insurance Depart. . mcnt is. prepared to raiso its rates, in accordanfiQ; witlu the increases proposed by the pri. vato companies, and generally to act iu coa<. formity wit.lv it's business rivals. . ; : The "Age" remarks:—"lt seems a littlepara. doxical that the Government should legislat# . against combines and trusts ami so forth, whik a State department onters ihto a combination which has;as its object tlw' increasing and . maintaining of .standard prices; but.wesupposo' that even in the case of a State department it is more expedient 1 to behave in, a businesslike way than to run the risk of demonstrating that private enterprise can often achievo as good, if not belter, results than all tha machinery, rank, pomp, and splendour of a State department," . ,