PREMIUMS TO INCENDIARIES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5545, 24 November 1879, Page 2

PREMIUMS TO INCENDIARIES.

Time after tinie weliear of hoiis'es buriie'd down which a£ler inquiry prove to have been greatly over-insured. Another instance is afforded by the recent inquest at JSTorsewood on the attempted destruction of the Working Men's Club. That there was a wilful attempt to set the club premises oh. fire thih'o can be no reasonable doubt, although it is far from proved that Lauervig did it. The coroner's jury censured the Insurance Company for taking such a risk, and this censure was fully justified by the facts disclosed. Lauervig may not have set the place on fire, but this does not affect the question of whether the place was over-insui'ed or not. The evidence showed that he was prepared to sell the prdpertyj presumably including the freehold) foi 1 £200, the pay:ments to extend over a considerable time. The builder who put up one part of the premises stated the exact cost of that portion, and he estimated the cost of the whole at from £250 to £300. Yet the agent of the North British Insurance Company unhesitatingly took a risk of £300 on the building. He was rnoi'o cautious than many agents, for he did inspect the building, but even he does not put the value down at moid than thd £300. It is certainly strange that lie should take a risk of the full value. The place may have cost £300 to build, though this appears an outside estimate, and it was certainly not safe to allow it to be insured for more than £200— £150 would be about a fair risk. If a man can insure his house at its cost he has a heavy premium offered to burn it down when times are depressed and he is in want of money. He is probably unable to sell the place, but he gets full value by burning it down, and in many cases the inducement is too strong to bo resisted. If the Insurance Companies were the only losers nobody would have much cause of complaint, but it is the honest insurers who have to pay the loss. Tho Companies, when adjusting their rates, do so upon the experience of the past. If losses have been heavy in the past the rates are proportionately increased. Incendiary and accidental fires are lumped together, and the total, with expenses and profits added, represents the amount which tho companies I have to raise by premiums. If they made it a rigid rule not to insure any property for more than two-thirds of its value the number of fires would bo greatly reduced, and honest men would not haA'e to pay such exhorbitant premiums to make up the losses caused by incendiaries.