GOVERNMENT INSURANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14188, 11 October 1909, Page 5

GOVERNMENT INSURANCE.

LOSS ON FIRE BUSINESS.

. —SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Saturday. A loss of £5707 is shown as the result of the year's operations of the State Fire Insurance Office, of which the annual report to December 31, 1908, was laid before the House of Representatives yesterday. The loss, explains the deputygeneral manager (Mr. J. H. Jerram), is mainly due to the bush fires and the Christchurch conflagration in the early part of the year. The premium incume for 1908 amounted to £26,657, as against £23,194 for 1907, being an increase of £3462. The income from interest was £251, being an increase of £143 on that of the previous year. The claims, including those unsettled at the end of the year, amounted to £18,903, showing an increase of £6202. The necessary proportion of premiums reserved as unearned has in the past been fixed at 33£ per cent. The deputy-general manager does not consider this to be sufficient; and, in accordance with the best insurance practice, the proportion has been increased to 40 per cent. The reserve for unearned premiums now stands at £10,663. The expenses were £10,146, as against £8355 for 1907, and include contributions to 18 fire boards under the Fire Brigades Act," 1908, amounting" to £501, which is £278 more than the total amount contributed during 1907 to eight fire boards. The remainder of the preliminary expenses, viz., £634, has been written off. . . ' -. '

Mr. Maurice Fox, in an actuarial report on the Government Life Insurance Department, remarks on the satisfactorily steady results of the Department's business during the past three years. The new business has steadily increased, the ratio of expenditure to income has remained practically stationary, the yield from interest has improved -in a marked manner, and the mortality experience has been exceptionally favourable. As a result the Department is in a position to allot increased bonuses all round, and to make substantial -reserves, which will enable it to commence another triennial period with every confidence. The net funds of the accident branch of the Department • amounted, on December 31, 1908, to £9598, being an increase of , £3093 for the year. The whole amount was carried to the general reserve, which thus reached £21,785. The premium ir.come for the year was £20,898, as against £21,477 in 1907. Claims amounted to £11,926, as against £11,288 in 1907. ' ,