TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14838, 2 December 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The shortcomings of the Insurance ordinary system of fire Inspection, insurance in America,

the land of groat fires, are notorious. But there exists an organisation, the Associated Mutual Firo Insurance Companies, with headquarters in Boston, which has done remarkable work in pointing the way to hotter methods. The "Factory Mutuals"— as the units of this Association are called —are associations of millowners who insure each other. They are not run for profit; their sole object is to insure the mills and factories of their mombers. In doing that, says a writer in the "World's Work," they have transformed buildings that at one time were considered the worst firo risks into the safest kind of buildings in America. The reason is the stress which tho "Factory Mutuals" lay on inspection. They forced the automatic sprinkler on a reluctant public. Enclos_u stairways, elevators, and well-shafts are also required. Whenever an application for insurances is made to one of the nineteen "Mutuals," a member of the Board of Inspectors visits the plant and makes a careful survey. This is worked out in detailed map form, and a statement is made by the inspectors of any alterations necessary to bring the premises up to the required standard—now a very high one. Rigid inspections are made of the insured buildings at varying periods, and any laxity on the part of the owners in complying with the inspectors' demands for improvements, entails cancellation of the policy. Of tho 105 firo insurance stock companies organised in New York and doing business in tho year 1871, there are only 20 left. Of the 71 that have since been organised, only 24 are still doing business. A history of tho Arkwright Mutual Fire Insurance Ca*.,pany, of Boston, published last yeas, in commemoration of its jubilee, contains somo significant facts. This company had insured altogether 3,630,000,000 dollars' worth of property, and had losses of only 3,118,000 dollars. Premiums returned to policy-holders amounted to 21,700,000 dollars. For the whole fifty years of its existence it had returned to its members on an average 84} per cent, of its -premiums, and in 1910, with 270,000,000 dollars' worth of property at risk, it was returning 94 per cent, of the premiums. Tho rigid inspection insisted on by the "Mutuals" should not be without its lesson for this country, where fire losses are proportionately higher oven than in tho United States.

Perhaps there are alive English in New Zealand to-day, "Specials." watching the work of the special constables with an interest made keener by their own experiences, survivors of the army of Londoners who enrolled as special constables in 1818. In that year tho Chartist movement came to a head, and groat uneasiness prevailed in various parts of the country. The greatest demonstration was planned in London, where 200,000 "wero to meet and march to the Houso of Commons to present a petition for reform. The Government, assisted by the Duko of Wellington as Commander-in-Chief, took prompt stops to protect the City. The procession was forbidden, and soldiers wero stationed at important points. Between 150,000 and 200,000 citizens were enrolled as special constables, among them Louis Napoleon, ' afterwards Napoleon HI., Who, as Mr Herbert Paul says, volunteered to uphold the law which he was so signally to flout later on in his own country. The demonstration proved a failure. Only 20,000 people gathered, and tho leaders shrank from a conflict with the police. Special constables wero again enrolled of 1867, after tho Fenian outrage at Clerkenwell prison, but their services were not required. "Punch" of those days has some interesting references to special constables. One picture shows a middle-aged and stout gentleman aroused in the early hours of a dark, cold morning, to be told that it is his turn for duty in one of tho most dangerous quarters of the slums. Special constables were again used after tho most serious of tho historic Trafalgar square riots of 1887. i Fifteen hundred held Trafalgar square on Sunday, November 17.th, and the volunteers served until January 18th. It is interesting to note that as far back as 1848 the strikers' boycott of to-day was anticipated, for we find a Chartist leader proposing that Chartists boycott tradesmen supplying special constables with goods. The choice term now so often on strikers' lips (not, however, when tho police are about) is apparently of much later origin.