NATIONAL INSURANCE

Evening Star, Issue 19410, 19 November 1926, Page 9

NATIONAL INSURANCE

ANNUAL MEETING OF COMPANY ■■ KEEN COMPETITION IN INSURANCE BUSINESS At the annual meeting of the National Insurance Company yesterday the adoption of the annual report and j balance-sheet was moved by -.Mr John Moloney, whoso remarks were reported in last night’s issue. Mr H. F, Nees, in seconding the motion, said tho chairman had dealt very fully with the operations of the company, and on • the principle that good wine needed no busn, he did not consider it was necessary for him to say anything further. * Mr H. Baron pointed out that underwriting profits last year amounted to £176,000, and £32,000 had been paid j out in dividends. It seemed to him | that only a very small proportion of i tho underwriting profits was paid out as dividends. It was true it had been a gradually decreasing amount; but, ■whereas seven years ago £IO,OOO was paid out of the underwriting profits, this year only £3OO was paid out of them. Ho realised, of course, that it was a very nice thing to have these reserves to meet any great disaster, but he noticed that the whole of their dividends—this year particularly —were being paid out of the results of their investments. He thought the board could take into consideration the question of distributing a larger proportion of tho underwriting profits, considering that theirs was an insurance company, and not an investment company. A number of shareholders felt the same as he did on the matter, and had asked him to bring up the subject. The Chairman said ho would give them a few figures concerning the operations of some other companies. One company had a capital of £129,000, with reserves totalling £7,184,000 fifty-five times the capital. The capitaj of another was £132,000, reserves £5,397,000, or forty-one times the amount of the capital. Tin's company had been in existence 129 years. The I chairman gave instances of three other companies where the capital was exceeded by the reserves sixty-six times, thirty times, and twelve times respectively. He said these were the people whose policy they followed. If it were good enough for them, it was good enough for their company. Mr Baron said ho did not want to be misunderstood. He was not saying anything about increasing the company s reserves—he liked to see heavy reserves—but he thought there should be _a larger distribution of the underwriting profits F. W. Mitchell said that the profits distributed over the past seven years were £230,000, and the underwriting profits were £169,300. They had distributed a great deal more than the underwriting profits. Mr Baron replied that the income from investments came to a considerable amount.

The motion_ was carried. On the motion of Captain Sundstrura the two retiring directors (Hon. W. Dqwnie Stewart and Mr G. R. Ritchie) were re-eiected.

Captain Sundstrum said that, while he did not desire to criticise the action of the directors, he would like to see the company doing a little in the way of allotting bonus shares. He knew the directors had the interests of the company at heart, but he hoped they would keep tiro- opinions expressed that day steadily in view. Tho Chairman reminded the speaker that the directors were also shareholders, and were looking after the interests of all

_ 111 returning thanks for his re-elec-tion, Mr G. R. Ritchie said bethought that, when the circumstances warranted it the directors would consider the matter of an increased dividend. It had been mentioned to him on more than one occasion that the National Company was too conservative and had lost business by its conservaiivenoss. Statements like these, based on small, trivial things, took a long time to live down, but the losses this year pointed to the fact that the company was not an unduly conservative company. The losses had not been due to had underwriting. They could always congratulate themselves on the fact that their underwriting was conducted on safe lines—some of them said too safe lines—but the company had had its lingers in most things where there had been misfortune. The premium income showed an increase, and ho hoped it would continue to improve. As they knew, competition in insurance was very keen. There were thirty-six or thirty-seven companies operating in all of the small towns throughout the dominion, and they could see that the staff must he very active to maintain the prestige and business of the company and increase its income in the face of the competition. He only asked them to cast their eyes round the walls of the room, and see the pictures of disasters which the insurance companies had to face, and they would realise that it would be better to leave the control of affairs in the hands of the board, which he was sure they could do with every confidence. (“Hear, hean”) The Hon. Downie Stewart, in returning thanks, referred to the able services rendered to the company by the late general manager, Mr Mallard, who had served them for thirty-eight years. Messrs E. R. Smith and W. T. Monbraan were re-elected auditors. Votes of thanks were accorded the directors and staff.

Mine Alexandra Kollontay, former Soviet Minister to Norway,_ has been appointed to Mexico. _ She i.s Russia’s only woman diplomatist. A woman scon is to command a Soviet transatlantic steamer. She is Captain Marie Malnginoy, Russia’s first woman soa captain. A young woman twenty-three years of age is city treasurer of Washburn. Wisconsin, United States, a town of 4,000 inhabitants, and a young college graduate is mayor. Another young woman is treasurer of Huron, which is claimed to bo the lowest taxed town in tho State of South Dakota.