BUSINESS DEPRESSION

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11247, 27 June 1922, Page 6

BUSINESS DEPRESSION

BETTER TIMES AHEAD “INSURANCE WORLD UNDERGOING A REACTION.” SIR ARTHUR WORLEY’S VIEWS. Amongst those who have been staying at the Midland Hotel during tho past week or 1-0 are Sir Arthur "Worley, C.8.E., and his daughter, Miss Worley, both from England, who arrived on the Niagara from the United States quite recently. Sir Arthur Worley, who was knighted for hin war services in connection with tho Ministry for Munitions, is the general manager of the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company, and he is at present making a business tour of the principal offices and agencies of his company. From here Sir Arthur and liis daughter are proceeding to Sydney, returning to England by way of the Panama Canal, as soon as their engagements in Australasia shall have been completed. The matter which, primarily, is responsible for Sir Arthur's present visit to Australasia is the purchase by his company of the chief interest in the insurance corporation known as the Insurance Office of Australia, which Sir Arthur hopes to develop in connection with colonial policies and methods suitable to the tastes and proclivities of local business and possibilities. “ROSY” TIMES GONE. Insurance companies, all of them, said Sir Arthur, have had fairly rosy times during the past few years; but those times had now gone, and the insurance world to-day was undergoing a considerable reaction —he might almost call it a reverse. The reasons for this were several. Bad trade conditions were, to a great extent, responsible for their present lack of business, and the reports of practically all the British insurance companies would furnish very depressing reading at the present time. As an example of this state of affairs, Sir Arthur referred to the extremely unprofitable nature of presentday marine insurance, the condition of which branch of business was causing much depression and concern in the city of London, especially in "connection with the matter of reinsurance companies. Several of these, he said, had recently failed; but, since most of the lines were, in the aggregate, fairly safe, Sir Arthur did not apprehend that the stability of any of the larger British companies would be affected to any material extent. However, continued Sir Arthur, bad as trade conditions were in the British Isles at the time he left there, he had received certain advices since which inclined him to think they were by way of improving. Cotton quotations were better, the tin-plate industry was on the mend, and the Bradford wool market had a very much healthier look of late. NEW ZEALAND’S CREDIT HIGH. Referring to the Dominion, Sir Arthur stated that New Zealand’s credit ranked very high in the city of lamdon; higher, he declared, than that of any other Crown colony. That, ho continued, was entirely due to the confidence felt by the British investors in the Dominion’s Government policy; and there was, besides, not the least doubt as te the great productive possibilities existent over here. Sir Arthur paid a handsome tribute to the Dominion generally, and to Wellington in particular, where the developments which have occurred since his visits of 1909 and 1915 have struck him very forcibly. When the "Times” representative called on Sir Arthur Worley, he found him a very busy man, muph rushed, and with only a little time at his disposal. Ho was going, he said, to have lunch with Mr Dalton, the British Trade Commissioner, and with the Hon. Mr Downie Stewart. Sir Arthur paid a tribute also to the State insurance business in the Dominion, which, he 6aid, was managed excellently, and was conducted with harmonious relations as regards other insurance businesses. So far as her State insurance system extended, Sir Arthur thought New Zealand appeared to he very successful. IMPROVEMENT LOOKED FOR. During the war, said the general manager, insurance business, for the most part, had been quite profitable; but since then there had been a bad reaefion.’’ He was afraid the present year was not going to turn out any better than last yepr. when premiums oame down, losses increased, and expenses became heavier, to a large extent. Like all the rest of the world, however, Sir Arthur smilingly asserted, he was inclined to look ahead for an improvement, not only in his own particular lines, hut in trade conditions generally. Accompanying -Sir Arthur Worley and Miss Worley at the present time is Mr Colin R. Colqtilioun, the North British and Mercantile Company’s manager for Australasia. The party leaves Wellington to-day (Tuesday) by the steamship Maunganui for Sydney.