Poverty Bay Herald AND tot Const News Teller PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 657, 22 March 1879, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald AND tot Const News Teller PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1879.

Fires, like certain diseases, have lately assumed all the features of an epidemic ; and like epidemics these visit some places with severe attacks, leaving other places almost unharmed. The insurance offices are the doctors who are called m to apply relief, and assuredly, most of these have had their work cut out for them of late. There is no doubt, whatever, there has been a series of heavy claims, which have drawn largely upon the subscribed capital of the shareholders. Fires began to rage m the North Island shortly after the commencement of the new year. No sooner had the Christmas holidays and the holidays, following on them, passed over, then fire after fire succeeded, on each other, as if Auckland had made these a source of supply for general illuminations. The example no sooner set by the people of the city of scrip, mining and land speculation, then the epidemic extended to other localaties, sweeping southwards, and eastwards, by which many towns, small and large, suffered greatly The insurance offices have been called upon to contribute among them, within the last three months, something like £130,000, and, as a consequence, the heads of the several branches and agencies m the two islands have received instructions to ■reduce their risks upon buildings of wood which run m whole blocks. In Christchurch the companies have offered rewards for the discovery of incendiaries, and if we be not mistaken they have got hold of at least one insurer who, instead of recovering his insurance money is likely to receive something very different to what were his expectations. The position of Insurance Companies, says a contemporary is, at this, present time, very far from satisfactory. So long as business was properous, their risks were reduced to a minimum, but now the trade is experiencing a temporary depression their risks have been multiplied. It is to be feared that the loose manner m which insurance business is managed and the effects of over competition have something to do with the serious destruction of property going on. We do not assume that incendiarism is the prevailing source of fires, but there is a good deal of

force m the old saying that the love of " money is the root of all evil." There is something very singular m the fact that well insured buildings are the most combustible, and that fires follow a depression of trade or a tightness m the money market, just as the pestilence succeeds the scourge of war or famine. Then again, fires are very rare m the neighborhood of fire brigade stations, or where there is an abundant supply of water. They usually crop up during dry seasons, and m neighborhoods where water is very scarce, and they almost invariably occur during the stillness of night or at an early hour m the morning.

The insurance companies, however, must be left to deal with the evil. It is for them, to protect themselves by diminishing their risks. If they will go on competing for extravagant risks and insuring old wretched hovels at their original values they must put up with the consequences. We feel satisfied that a good deal of the destruction of property going on, whether arising from carelessness or something infinitely worse, is attributable to the over competition of Insurance Companies, and the loose manner m which the business of some offices is conducted. The amount of business done is considered, rather than the profits realised. This forcing and stimulating of a business that requires the exercise of the greatest care and discrimination, can only result disastrously to the Companies concerned, and we are not at all suprised that some of the Insurance Companies have been compelled to seriously consider the present rather unsatisfactoxy position of affairs.