EXTRA EDITION. FIRE INSURANCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1908, Page 6

EXTRA EDITION. FIRE INSURANCE.

THE RATE QUESTION. WILL THEY GO UP? "Will rates go up and if so when?" was the question put to the manager of a local iiro insurance company to-day by a repiesentative of The Evening Post. "No" was the emphatic answer. "They must not while wo have the State Oflice as n competitor. Do you think there is a Minister in tho Cabinet who would have courage to raise the State rates when the business, if it does not show a handsome proiit, does not show a loss? But wait until the State Office has had five years experience, and then come to mo again. That some of the English offices will keenly feel the two Canterbury fires I have no doubt, but others will regard the losses as merely incidental to the business. It is all a question of management whether English offices are severely hit or not. Now, assuming tho insurances losses on tho Canterbury fires (Timaru and Christchurch) at £300,000 and assuming that tire income from the whole of the companies doing business in New Zealand amounts to £450,000 a year, and charging 33 1-3 per cent, for- working expenses against the premium income; and estimating losses by bush fires and othor causes at £50,000, the result of these two fires alone will be that the premium income from now on to tho end of the year is absorbed, and the deficiency will not be met by now business. Nevertheless I 7 do not think the rates ■» ill go up yet, and I know of no steps taken to bring them up." Enquiries .mi other quarters showed that, as ono laanagcr put it, "For some time past insurance companies' losses in the Domi/ ion have been paid with premiums collected elsewhere." Losses in Canterbury hiist year amounted to £119,000, and in Wellington £50,000, while at the close of. 1906 the Lambton-quay fire cost' £80,000 in insurance. [BI TELSGBArit. — PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, This Day. • Mr. Kirker, general manager of the South British Fire Insurance Company, interviewed by an Auckland Star representative, asserted that New Zealand had never been a profitable field for insurance companies, and during 1904-5-6, the companies, as a whole, made a losa over that period of - £112,876. Tho loss for' 1907, he believed, would be £50,000. The year 1908 had opened badly. The Timaru and Christchurch fires would cost the companies quite £300,000. Under the' most favourable circumstances the loss on insurance business this year must be at least £200,000. In reply to a question if rates would bo increased, Mr. Kirkec said ho hoped . all engaged in fire business in the Dominion would find themselves, able to obtain such improvement in the rates as wouldi enable the companies to make some small profit. He would not be surprised if the condition did not improve to see a number of the companies considering the question of withdrawing altogether from the Dominion. Tho Fire Brigade legislation had further increased the burdens.