OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5938, 19 February 1881, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

San Fkancisco, January 18bh, 1881,

ABOUT INSURANCE COMPANIES.

New Zealand is represented by three insurance companies in.this country, and the following item will doubtless interest their shareholders. It refers to a subject on which I wrote last year. I should explain that our Legislature is in session, and that Senator Johnson, of Sacramento, is the gentleman who led the assault upon the insurat'Ca companies. A Sacramento oorcorrespondent says :—During the last session Johnson was engaged in a herculean struggle against foreign insurance companies doing business in this State. As a result the agents representing the several companies were to be seen daily in the lobby and around the various chambers of the Capitol. He has resumed the fight. by introducing four bills relating to insurance matters. One declares that " no company shall declare any dividend in excess of one and one-half per cent, par month upon its paid up capital until the net surplus of suoh company over and above its liabilities shall equal the actual paid-up capital of such company." Another sect on prohibits the ■ issuing of polioies upon more than the actual cash value of the property insured. .Section sof the same makes " eaoh stockholder individually liable for his proportion of losses," and does not permit any company sot organised under the laws of the State to transaot business therein. Another bill provides that "every company shall have a subscribed oapit&l sbock of 500,000 dollara, 25 per cent, of which must have been paid up before they can transact business in the State." Ko foreign company can engage in the insurance business in this State unless they have a paidup capital of 500,000 dollars unimpaired and deposited in the United States. In section

19 of the same the oompany must stipulate and agree with the Insurance Commissioner that "in all litigation between it and any citizen of the State that the Courts of the State shall have exclusive jurisdiction of such litigation."

You may depend upon it some legislation will be had this session, and the National, South British, and New Zealand may each prepare to invest 200,000 dollars (which is likely to be the limit) or withdraw. If the Refunding Bill is passed it could be invested in three per cents, at par, and in the event of withdrawal at any time these bonds would certainly sell at a considerable premium, because they will be the last issue of United States bonds this century. Now, I think that;it would be very unwise to withdraw.This is the great field for insurance work, and foreign companies who make a deposit in United States bonds in any State oan, by virtue of such deposit, do business all over the Union. Whether New Zealand is able to sustain so many local, English, and foreign offices is a question. My idea is that it is sound policy to Bpread the risks. The Boston and Chicago fires proved the ruin of so many American companies because these companies depended upon local risks; the English, French, and German oompanieg, which did business in all parts of the world, were able to bear their losses, although relatively greater, because their resources were drawn from a wider field. It is for your enterprising business men to Bay what you shall do; only, if you onoe withdraw, it would be exceedingly uphill work to get a New Zealand company any commercial status again. ODDS AND ENDS. The total immigration from Europe last year was 480,000. This year promises to be still more extensive. The following item appeared In an Eastern paper. Is it true ? And if so, what are you going to do about it ? We must tend down Moody and Sankey to preach the gospel of faith and good works, and sing you back into the evangelical fold. The .Eastern psper says:—"A strange report conies from New Zealand in regard to the Rev. Dr Duff, son of the famous Scotch Presbyterian missionary of that name. It is said that be and his family have been received into the Roman Oatholio Churoh. Five Wesleyan ministers at Dunedia have applied to the bishop for ordination, He has ordained one, and holds the othera on probation."

And now comes a charge against the Canadian and Imperial Governments of wilful and deliberate fraud in relation to the Halifax award. The subject came up in Congress, when it was stated that the Liberal Government are deeply ashamed of the ineffable disgrace brought upon England by the Tories. Ib waa also stated that the matter' had been represented to the London Government more than a year, without anything being done, and there was a disposition to force matters to an unpleasant it sue. If the allegations are true, tha whole affair mast be reopened, for the award was made upon manufactured and fraudulent returns. Several members of Oongress appeared to think "that the British Commissioner, Lord Ripon, was cheated by the Canadian representative, which is very probible, Sir John M'Donald not being of the scrupulous kind, judging from the railroad business first and Jasfc. The disclosure oomes from the Canadian side. Professor Henry Youle Hind, the compiler of the analytical index to the documents of the Halifax Fisheries Commission, declares that, in order to make it appear that the value of the fisheries to the Canadian people wa3 greater than it really was, the statistics laid before fche Commission •were falsified for a period covering 25 years, the evident purpotso being to cheat the United States. The document, which was thus prepared and presented to the Commission ha* never been printed in the proceedings of the Halifax arbitration, and its circulation was exceedingly limited. Some copies are in existence, however, and Professor Hind has repeatedly urged the Governor general to make what reparation is possible to the United States by causing an inquiry in Parliament, by punishing the guilty official or officials, and then laying the whole subjeot in an official form before our Government. The Canadian authorities are a little tardy in coming to time under the information of the Professor, and he now threatens to send the documents in question to Washington. He characterises the papers as showing " beyond all doubt o? oavill" the intention to cheat or swindle. The German saloonkeeper, who shot the boy for 5 cents in a beer reokoning, has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment. He had baen bothered by hoodlums, and shot the wrong man, and the Judge thought that sufficient excuse. This misoarriuge of tha l»w in murder cses has led to the papers suggesting th't the next of kin should aot as avenger of blood; and by way td drawing marked attention to the subject, Senator Johnson, an abla lawyer, has introduced a bill into the Californian Senate for legalising thia method. The bill is as under :—

Sac. 1. AH punishment for, murder, excepi

that committed in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate arson, rape, robbery, burglary or mayhem, is hereby aboliahed, except as hereinafter provided. Sec. 2. The punißbmeat for murder shall be that tho murderer's life shall be forfeited to tho relatives to the Beoond degree of the person or persons murdered. Sec. 3. It shall be lawful for'the relatives to the second degree of tbe person or persons murdered to take the life of the munjerar at any time within two years after the discovery of the murderer, provided, that in case the said relatives be minors, the limitation Bhall not attach during their minority, and that if said relatives be aged, crippled, or females, they shall have the privilege of employing other persons to take the life of the murderer.

Your readers can draw their own conclu* sions ftotn the foregoing fact. Another bill hag been introduced enabling a man to plead

justification, under oircutnstauces similar to the Schroder-Lefevre case in-Oakland. RESOURCES OF AMERICA.. ! Without entering into anything like details regarding the manifold '■resources of this vast Continent,.or dwelling upon its manufactures and industries, varied and progressive as they ; are, it may not be uninteresting to quote a few of the results of field agriculture last year. She soiling value, to the'produeer of last season's crop, according to the Bureau of Statistics, wag: — Dole. Whsat, »t 96 cents per bushel ... 480,849,00,0 Corn, at 40 cents per bushel . ... 617,485,600 Oata, at 27 cents per bushel 128,000,000 Potatoes, at 47 cents per bushel... 80,636,000 Tobacco, at 8 cents per pound ... 27,998^000 Buckwheat ... ... 8,008,799 This does not include cotton, rice, tugar, fruit, dairy produce, provisions, live Btock, &c, but it is .sufficient tc show you what Amerioans are doing. After deducting 275,000,000 bushels of wheat for seed and home consumption, there was 205,000,000 bushel* of wheat left for export, against which New Zealand shippers of breadstuffa have to compete. Turning to the report of the Bureau of Statistics on Foreign Commerce for the past fiscal year, I find that the total value of all exports, being domestic products and manufactures, was 823,946,353 dollars, or £164,789.270; imports of foreign merchandise, 767,954,746 dollars, or £133,591,949 ; giving a trade balance in favour of the United States of 131,197,321. This, to ordinary minds, will account for the rapid accummulation of wealth which is taking place in this country, and to its industrial development. Inasmuch as this process has been going on for three years, and is now certain to continue, an idea may be formed of the influence which the United States is destined to exert on the financial andinduetrialoperations of the world. Its trade, however, which showa the largest credit balance, ia with Anglo-Saxon countries. - Breadstuff's stand first in the order: of value ; then cotton and cotton manufactories; provisions rank third-; mineral oil,,fourth ; and tobacco fifth. These'flve leading iteiq* constitute 83 9 per cent, of the entire value: of exports of domestic merchandise from the United Statfs. • / ; ■ , THE MAIL TRANSIT CHARGES. ' I learn that Mr Creighton received a letter last month, after the mail departed, informing him that the United States Government was prepared to make a reasonable concession to-the Colonies (say 50,000 dollars a year) in the matter of overland transit oharges,: in consideration of maintaining postal and commercial intercourse•• with them by the present mall route. The difficulty in carrying this intention oat lies in the fact that all money transactions arising out of the postal service are had with Great Britain direot, and that no payment oauld be made to the I Colonies on this account without a vote of Congress. His opinion on the point was requested. This is one of the difficulties arising from a state of ssmi-independenoe. The whole affair has been brought to a satisfactory olose, bo far »a the United States is concerned; but New Zealand and New South Wales, being "dependencies," must pay for the privilege of British connection In the probable loss of £10,000 a year on their mail service. The United States Postmastergeneral has written to, the New Zealand Government, stating the facts of the case, and requesting your Government to oom-1 munioate its views in the matter. The tone is very friendly, and whether the money question is immediately settled or not, the Colony has gained immensely by the recognition and consideration it has received from the United States Congress and Government. I think the best way might be to fix upon a certain amount, to which the United States Government would , agree, aud then request it to intimate to the English Government that it was prepared to make this abatement on the annual freight charge of enclosed mails,to and from Australia, the London authorities meantime crediting the contracting Colonies with the amount. This is a rouad-about plan, but it is the best that ocours to me. If you could manage your own affairs, like the Sandwich Islands, for example, or Samoa, or any. of the other mighty powers in the South Pacific, there would be no difficulty; but being a British oolony, you must go round the stamp several times to unwind the ball of red tape with which yon are tied, I don't know how it will all oome out. As a collateral advantage, however, whioh must be credited to Mr Crelghton's exertions, the United States postal authorities have made a valuable ooncession to the Colonies. Mr Horace Davia writes to him that ihe Washington Government '' ha» involuntarily.; reduced the trans territorial oharges on Australian mails, other than to England, from 25 cents per ounce, the amount agreed upon in 1874, to 15 cents per onnoe." Thiß shows their earnestness aud good intention. Indeed, too much cannot be said of the friendliness of the United States public men, to New Zealand eipeoially. I suppose you don't care about social gossip. Anyhow, I am not in a humour to repeat it, so I conclude with the remark that tbe mail has been delayed several days owing to the snowstorm and long sea passage.

8,008,799

Jacob Terry.