FIRE INSURANCE RATES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10301, 8 March 1905, Page 2

FIRE INSURANCE RATES.

Another development (says the Wellington Post) has taken, place m connection with the rates for fire insurance. It will be remembered that on its commencing to do business tlie Department made an all-round reduction of 10 per cent, on the rates ruling for the various fire risks, and' that the insurance companies, after a conference, retaliated by coming down to the Department's level and going one better by reducing the rates on the W class— which includes dwelling houses and similar risks— hy 33i per cent. Tlie Department has now followed) suit, and has reduced its rates for this class of hazards to the level of the companies. The Department is thus offering the same charges all round! as the companies. Mr Brindley, the manager of the Department, stated to a Post reporter that the companies by their gratuitous reduction of 331 per cent, on the W class voluntarily curtailed their receipts by £60,000 per annuiiu. The Department, he says,, can still claim an advantage over tlie companies, inasmuch as the Act provides that after provision has been made for a. sinking fund. 1 — a provision that is ope. rative only when the Department has to raise, a loanr-the profits are to he divided* tnennially into two parts, half going to reserve and half to the policy-holders as a bonus. The reduction just announced comes into force immediately. }[ r W. Miller, the district manager for Gisborne, who relurtned from Wellington tins morning, informs us that the business already written, by the Department has exceedledl all anticipations, and that Mr Brindley, the general manager, lias no fear whatever of the boycott by tlie other companies being successful. Tho State only want a fair share of the business, and that is sure to come.