FIRE INSURANCE RATES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 209, 28 May 1908, Page 7

FIRE INSURANCE RATES.

— <h~. — A RUMOURED RISE. NO DECISION ARRIVED AT. Inquiries made yesterday elicited no foun-dation-for tho report that insurance companies aro about to raise their rates. It is well known that the ruling rates are below the point that means payable business, and that a riso must take place sooner or later, but no decision has been arrived at yet. AUCKLAND SCEPTICAL. [BY TELEGKAPH. —PIIESS ASSOCIATION.] ' Auckland, May 27. Regarding'a telegram received from Wellington intimating " on excellent authority " that a genoral adyancp in premium rates would bo made by insurance companies next spring, inquiries hav'o been made among a number of local men interested in tho insurance blisiness, and from'the replies to questions put it is gathered that' no importance whatever is attachod. here to such a statement. One gentleman expressed the opinion that tho telegram was probably ..tho outcome of someone's brilliant imagination. Ho also pointed out that a conference of underwriters was lield in Wellington quite recently, and that though tho question of premiums had been unsettled for somo timo, nothing in the direction of an increase transpired at that conference. ' Another gentleman stigmatised the suggestion as absurd, and he also attributed it to a flight of fancy.'' Thero was a goneral feeling, ho said, that rates were too low, and that the companies in Now! Zealand were losing money. He did not think that' thero was any thought of an increase: at any rate, it had not reached concrete form. Still another gentleman prominently identified with the insurance business in Auckland, who was spoken to on the question, added: "I can't say anything about it at all. The, whole thing came as a complete surprise to me. It is tho first I have heard of anything of tho sort." NOTHING KNOWN IN CHMSTCHURCK (BT TELEGRAPH. —PIIESS ASSOCIATION.) Christchurch, May 27. Local insurance agents interviewed to-day by a "Truth" reporter'did not givo any support to tho statement contained in a Wellington telegram to tho effect that a.general advance in rates-would bd mado in tho spring by companies carrying on business in tho Dominion. Several of tho local managors stated that they had no knowlodgo whatever . of the proposod advance. Ono manager, while declining either to affirm or'deny the statoment made, said that tho present rates were ridiculous, and an advance should havo taken placo two years ago.