FIRE LOSSES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 84, 21 March 1928, Page 4

FIRE LOSSES.

“Hard times make many fires” Is a rather cynical proverb that may or may not have justification in fact. In any event, it would seem from an underwriters’ forecast that last year's leanness has been accompanied by a correspondingly heavy aggregate of claims against the fire insurance campa nies. In a recent issue of the “Mercantile Gazette” it was mentioned that the fire loss in this country during the past 28 years had averaged about £500,000 pei- auunm. In 1926 it was £1,159,600, and the complete figures for the calendar year 1927 are expected to be very much greater. As New Zealand had already earned the unenviable distinction of holding, head for head of population, the “record” of the world for fire losses, this is not very agreeable (lews. Apart altogether from the implication of the adage above quoted, it is held by those best qualified tu speak on the subject that through negligence or indifference to fire prevention, losses were lar greater than they might be, and that the most effective method of checking the wastage would be by the conduct of an inquiry into every fire, when the publicity given would have an extremely avluable educative, as well as deterrent, effect on the minds’ ot property owners.

While the Fire Board's Act provides that a fire board can institute an inquiry into any fire, the fqct that the board has to pay the cost of the inquest is a distinct bar to the free use of this machinery. Undeniably, the wastage by fire is a national loss, ultimately borne by tlie public, who pay premiums based upon carefullyprepared statistics of tlie average of hie wastage. As that rises and falls so must premiums ultimately move accordingly. It thus appears desirable that an inquiry be held into at least all fires involving damage above a certain amount or where tiio circumstances are at all suspicious. Any action in this direction, the under Writers say, must depend upon the practical degree to which the Goverimcnt interests itself in the matter of bearing the costs of inquiries as in the case of inquests into fatal accidents. The cases, it is urged, are parallel. In the one the object is

the safety of life, in the other of prop erty and, possibly, life as well. V bile the man in the street generally places a sinister interpretation upon the established fact that fires are more common in times of depression than in years of prosperity, underwriters and fire brigade superintendents point to a more normal cause—the reluctance of property owners, when they are in financial straits, to expend money on the provision of adequate fire prevention devices for their premises. While on the subject it may be worth while noting that the movement towards better times experienced in the Old Country last year has been marked by a very appreciable reduction in fire losses. The total cost of all fires in Gerat Britain and Ireland during 1927 was £6,495,000 as compared with £7,304,000 in 1926, thus showing an improvement of £809,000. As comment on these figures puts it, this is money saved to the community for the promotion of productive industry and the provision of remunerativ'e employment.