EARTHQUAKE INSURANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20900, 16 June 1931, Page 10

EARTHQUAKE INSURANCE.

SCHEME FOR POWER BOARDS. MR. J. S. BARTON'S SUGGESTION. A scheme for insurance against damage by earthquake, suggested to power boards by Mr/J. S. Barton, S.M., chairman of the Napier Commission, has been considered by the Auckland Power Board. The board decided at a meeting yesterday to adviso Mr. Barton that the scheme submitted by hirn was one which required careful consideration by the whole of the supply authorities throughout New Zealand, and for this purpose it was intended to submit details of the scheme to the Power Boards' Association.

Mr. Barton suggested that the donation of £2OO made by tlie board to the Napier earthquake relief fund should be used as the nucleus of a larger fund, and that a contribution by all boards at the rate of two-thirds of a penny in the pound of the total revenue received should be made. He estimated that this would- yield £IO,OOO.

In reporting on the scheme the general manager, Mr. R. If. Bartlev, said that while the suggestion might possess merits in certain directions, he could not seo how it could be adopted on the basis suggested. He thought the estimated levenuc was excessive, and that a more satisfactory method of dealing with a schemo of this description would bp some form of insurance with the premium re quired on very substantial capital much less than £IO,OOO a year. lie could not recommend the board to adopt the scheme put forward. The board decided to have inquiries made concerning the possibility of an earthquake cover for the whole of the supply authorities of the Dominion under the following headings:—Power station buildings and plant; other buildings: overhead reticulation; underground reticulation. Similar inquiries are to be made concerning cover on this basis as applicable to the undertaking in Auckland.