FARMERS' FIRE INSURANCE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LI, Issue 9066, 11 April 1906, Page 5

FARMERS' FIRE INSURANCE

The report of the anmiaJ meeting of the Farmers' Insurance Association unfortunately miscarried yesterday, but we now give the following account of the discussion, from our Elt-ham correspondent : —

I Mr Boddie, in moving the adoption of the report and balance sheet, sadd he sin- , cerely congratulated the f armeafc of- Taranaki, and the formers of the whole colony : on the successful flotation of the Association 1 . During the past year membere had had the opportunity of making themselves closely acquainted with the workings &i the Association. This Association had been the first of, its kind to recteive i1» warrant from- the Colonial Secretary, under the Act. The Otago Farmers' Mutual had doing •' business previously, although they had not received their warrant. I1» would be interesting to compare the workings of the two companies for the same period, at, a, later 6tage when' the report; andl- balance sheet of the. Southern Astßooiationi was -^available. There were considerable difficulties' which had to be overoouie v by thfe.Diropton&,of this Association (in. ,iie initial ; stages. The - associated oom.pariies were vneceisarily anxious to see this [project a failure' and consequently had declined' reinsurance. As the Act provided t that no policies should beii&sued until aa aggregate amount of not Jess than' £40,000 worth of insurance had. been applied for, this' meant that directors themselves had ,to take ,>the .individual responsibility of risk of loss .until-, thgt amount -had been secured, so that they /had spent 6 rather anxious tune ior the first few months. The position' of the Association was .now absolutely^ safe, as based upon calculations' /made by Dr. Hunter.; the : Inspector ol Mutual -Eire Insurance Associations, appointed by the -Canadian -Government. -The\amount of/insurance- which had actually; been accepted- by -itheryAssociatUjin , ly bean, accepted to date- by the Associartdon amounted, to $60/780, besides this there avo^ f prospective', business (risks a* .present- covered) pother* companies, which ? had,pron^d-bu6ine§6 to this Association at.e^ira.tio^*^f,'-curr#jitvpolicy^v,bi)ch would .brin^-'the.-itotoj/.amount to £100,000. He }Consid^edi..-tHat.. before, the. unext -annual meeting the Directors mighj^,>co^dep>% wn^jfi^^bpy^sajamoujajaisg to;' £160,000, tf^Jfopfi. inja£BjvatsCtJJßß 413^000 < worth of risks wou^^,bgHSp4 : b^tJb&Ag&icteitioD. «s^mst*mm4«SM^».pK» j^griiUSj^dLelo^ly se>tfegfdJßjric4-ste j'Earanaki. Doing before that amou^w«grreaohed he was certain, that „theJl^Tfeotors would be able to reduce the~piremium6 far below anything, that, had, J^esn .jdjeamt of. The 'avi^a^p,remium?cselfgf9?%%Etrmers' Mutual Associations- in ; (sJanada was 4s 2d per £100 for' what fa'rniers in New Zealand had in the past-been* -paying 16s 13s and now 10s per £100. Members must naturr a^yfcon«lude^tbaib:the\-Tirfc6Wm>New Zealand were better than in,Cagada,,a3 in the latter^ country^ they _accep^tedj.cyclone, % -tlightr"7ahdif liv£ "stock* risks, and yen. with" ?th&s© aditiona! risks ■ -successful business ihad' been, done aib.4s 2d-per £100. Taking .these facts, into consideration, there- .was 'no reason why this. Association's premiums "could not be cub down tos s per £100 iwithin the next two years.- "This would; .only b© accomplished, however, by farmers recognising the, fact- that the matter rested ,'in their own hands, by- insuring their property in" their own office. There were now now difficulties to overcome in the way of obtaining loans from either the Government Advances to Settlers' Office or from private money lenders as the Government had. decided to accept insurance policies in Mutual -Offices* over property for which loans, had been, applied. One difficulty which had confronted, directors in the earlier months of the Association's exis-tence-was the apatuy displayed- by farmers in insuring- .their property in this .office. Altogether £82. 2b Id had been .paid out in, agent's fees to secure business. pMe might have been saved if the rank and 'file! 'had" Been a little more enthusiastic tdtter the matter, and had come into Eliham and, handed their own proposals into the pffite. The branches of the farmers' (Union, -from, where .they had expected to get' the greatest support in this matter 'had proved an "absolute ' failure. Mr 'p. Gattanaeh. had) Tendered excellent service ,to the AssociaMon. To his energy and 'good <»mmonsense.more than half .the soOcees of the Association was due,' for many 'months' fclkV gentleman had put in a considerable amount of work for which the remuneration be received was totally in.adequate. He hoped that the new.darec3 toxs would retawOlr Cattanach'e services 'for several years,' as' his 'serviced were •needed to-supplying good confidential re.pprte on risks offered to and' accepted 4>y , the company. _The .directors m& b^eo very careful in taking' 'only first-class risks 'from both a commercial and a moral ■point of View. The Association holds premium notes to the value of £3000 ; ' these, he hoped, the Association would never have occasion to resort to, but these •notes-stood in exactly* the same position as paid up capital, if any loss should arise. He considered, thait the 'directors might now go a step further and take the risks over the dairy factories and creameries of the province. (Hear, hear.) They had now readied that stage when they could offer adequate security. He considered that there was mo greater risk attached to a, dairy factory or a creamery n than to any risk on ordinary farm property. He thought that the premiums of factories and creameries -could be (reduced, by at least oO per cent-. ,In the secretary (Mx Trie^rajn) the Association, had an excellent officer, who had don© the whole of the work in connection with the inauguration of the Association for the nominal sum. of £25, plus a very small commission. The secretary had opened- up a very up-to-date set of booka, from which any shareholder cdtfld immediately ascertain the position ' of,' the Company. The-sum of £19 7s 6ct, directors' feejj, wene'less than the actual out-of-pocket expenses incurred by directors in attending meetings of the^Assooiaition during the past year. The sum of £88 commission.- • allowed to agents in securing £55,000 worth. ,«f business might ; appear high, but as proposals were accepted on the basis of a three years contract, \ it would be seen that the commission would not be recurrent ; and that the only ex- \ pense in future* would be in obtaining corii fidential Teporte from time to tame. Any I points not referred to would be answeired if shaieholders requested. Mr T. 0. Hodgson seconded. He said - he would like to tender his small mite* . of appreciation and .gratitude to the direc- - I tors. The Association'e success was enl tirely due to their energy and dogged per- - 6T6tenee. They all knew that if thas Asso<ciation bad gone under that it would hay© - been impossible to start such- an AsBOC&a- >. tioa in any other province. Coming, to s the question of insurance of dairy corny panics, he strongly "supported th» ide»*of \ such risks being taken by this Assooiai- tion. The National Dairy Association 8 had long mooted taking -such a step on i- their own; arid all must recognise that it sr would be better for one Association to be i© doing the whole business instead of two. The project was worthy of consideration. Burned dairy factories were almost a* scarce as poverbial dead- donkeys. In ewe of a fire in a dairy factory, the loss K 6 -would be heavy, but the premiums on eUioh insks would also' be heavy in proportion.

Other qiiGsbions \yhich also affected the farmers* were marine insurance, and aocid«nt insurance. He hoped now that the Association had got a good start that the value of risks undertaken by the Association would soon reach £250,000. NotEing sxic-ceed'cd like success, and he felt sure that the majority of fanners would inswe in the Mutual now. OFFICERS. In reply to a question from Mr Burgess (Warea), "the Chairman stated that factory risks were not yet taken by the Association. # 1 In reply to Mr Young (Hawera) it was ( stated that the rates charged by other companies on dairy factories Tanged from 21s to 24* 6d per £100. The motion was then put and carried unanimously. The following directors were then elected for the ensuing year, the first six having been directors for the past year: — Messrs Boddie, Blair, Baker, Dive, Lambie, Maxwell, J. Thomson. Directors' fees were fixed" at 10s per meeting and actual outl- of -pocket expenses incurred in attending same. Mr Naughton was re-elected auditor at a fee of £4 4s for the ensuing year. GENERAL. Mr T. O. Hodgson asked, how did agents get the Teply to the question on the proposal form, "Are you a member of the Farmers' Union?" He thought if all 'insurers were members of the Farmers' Union that they ought to pay their subscriptions to that institution. The Chairman, in replying, said he would have liked to have seen it made a hard and fast rule that only risks should be accepted from members of the Farmers' Union, but as | they had to do business for a start they j had to take anybody they could get, but lie hoped that if any one insured who was not already a member of the Union that he would soon become one. In reply to a questdon touching on the question of accident insurance business, the Chairman stated that there was no provision for this "in the Act. The Executive* of the New Zealand Formers' Union were, however, now just about completing arrangements with an Accident Insurance Company, by which members of the Union would be able to insure at 25 per cent, at least under curaent rales. Mr Burgess (Warea) moved a hearty vote of thanks to the directors for their able administration during the past year. He was sure the preliminary expenses in instituting the Association had been extremely small, and spoke volumes for the management. , Mt R. White (Te Roti) seconded the vote, which was carried by acclamation, and the meeting adjourned. At a subsequent meeting of directors Mr Jas. Boddie was unanimously xe-elecil-ed Chairman.