INSURANCE COMPANIES’ PROFITS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18736, 14 December 1922, Page 3

INSURANCE COMPANIES’ PROFITS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —My letter which you were good enough to publish on 30th idt., was written with tho sole object of sounding a note of warning against tho misinterpretation of this company’s present position. I believe the matter is of sufficient public interest and importance to crave your indulgence to reply to Mr M'lntosh’s' letter in your issue of December 5. Mr M'lntosh has written as a public accountant. 1 venture to hope that others loss skilled in finance and financial statements will have seen in my letter more than apparently he has seen. His statement is more or less a repetition of tho advertisement. Statistically it may be correct. But when offered as an inducement to invest in new insurance ventures it should be explained that the present resources of this company are the outcome not of large underwriting profits but of tho accumulation during half a century of the balances at the credit of underwriting account, none of which has been ' distributed nor is legitimately available for distribution to shareholders. My letter supplied tho explanation which had been omitted from the advertisements. To explain further would needlessly'trespass on your space. , Possibly Mr Jas. M'lntosh read my letter not through his public accountancy spectacles but through those of his provisional directorship of.the concern to whose gratuitous misuse of this company’s name I felt called upon to draw attention. In tho latter capacity Mr M'lntosh is invited to advertise tho history of this company paying, as doubtless he would wish to pay, particular attention to its early years. As a public accountant Mr M'lntosh will find sufficient material in my first letter, but if more be desired I shall be happy to supply it.—l am, etc,, P. 11. Upton, General Manager, South /British Insurance Company (Ltd.). Auckland, December 9.