LOSS BY FIRE

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19648, 7 August 1935, Page 8

LOSS BY FIRE

TENDENCY FOR INCREASE. .' SITUATION IN DOMINION. ' INSURANCE COMPANY.’S YEAR. (By Tejeg:.raph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Tuesday.. Although fire losses decreased in J. 933 and 1934, there are indications that the improvement is not being maintained. Addressing shareholders at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Insurance Company to-day, Mr Oliver Nicholson .said that since_ December fire loss, particularly in North Island areas unprotected by a fire brigade, had increased. There was an unpleasant tendency to revert to former bad experience ■tp an extent which was causing some fear that the recent era of low fire waste might prove of short .duration. Fire losses, and also losses arising from motor accidents and losses to individuals claiming under the Workers’ Compensation Act were all a waste and a charge upon the community, Mr Nicholson added. Most fires and accidents were preventable by the exercise of proper care. It .should be the general aim of all to exert an unceasing effort toward fire and accident prevention, so that such effort might eventually become Universally instinctive. Mr Nicholson also remarked that the difficulties of finding suitable investments for surplus funds had not diminished during the year. “ "The present horizon of the financial world is blank as regards an encouragement to expect a hardening in the rates of interest.”