WIDE ACTIVITIES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20602, 1 November 1941, Page 6

WIDE ACTIVITIES

ORIGIN OF PROFITS The fact that the major proportion of the business of' the company was dong abroad and only one-sixth of the past year’s premiums came from New Zealand was stressed by Mr V. J. Larner, chairmap of directors of the South British Insurance Company, Limited, at the annual meeting of shareholders at Auckland. “Had we been dependent on our profits made in New Zealand alone, they would not have sufficed to pay shareholders even the bonus of 6d declared this year,” said Mr Lamer. “The aggregation of small premiums in the hands of insurance companies, most of which pay the maximum rate of taxation, is of great benefit to the revenue of the country. A year of heavy losses must be deplored even more by the Treasury than by insurance companies.

Spread of Business

Correcting a popular misapprehension that the major portion of the insurance business of the Dominion was handled by the two Auckland companies, the chairman said the New Zealand and South British companies between them handled only about one-fifth of that business. The remaining four-fifths was absorbed by the State insurance office, about three dozen other insurance companies, certain groups of Lloyds’ underwriters and some mutual associations. “Nor would we have it otherwise,” added Mr Larner. “Owing to the special earthquake hazards inherent in New Zealand, it is not desirable that an undue share of the insurance cover should be appropriated by any one concern, -instead of having the risk distributed over such a wide range of organisations, many of them with very substantial funds invested in other parts of the world.