FIRE RISKS

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1124, 11 May 1911, Page 6

FIRE RISKS

EXHIBITION INSURANCE RATES,

WHAT UNDERWRITERS SAY

"It's positively abMird-all this talk iilioul llic liijrli insurance preiniuni> on Ihe Exhibition," said one ol' Wellington's lending underwriters (o u Dominion rcpoi Iff yesterday, referring In Mr. Thos. Bellinger's remarks at Tuo.-day's meeting of tiie Wellington Industrial A-sccia-tbn. "The man does nut know what lie is talking about, or lie would not go on :ts he is doing. He fays ibat what they have to pay is 55., (H. Hi!., and Ills, (really l)s. for exhibits ]:er cent, for a (iiiartnr of the year, when (he ordinary rate is (is. 6'd. iK'r cent, lief annum for Mich a building. Quite so. A brick building witli concrete lloors and no. partitions, which is empty half the year, it a somewhat different proposition to nu Exhibition. Go and look at Ihe stores now— they are putting up thousands of feet of timber inside each buildin,; in light, flimsy partitions. There will be nil manner of signs, illuminations, decoration?, as well as highly iufkimmable Anyhow, i don't think even Mr. Ballin-. per would speak as he docs if he knew anything about the history ol' fires in exhibitions. I'erhaps. he (lops not know that there were two or throe incipient fires in the last New Zealand Exhibition at Cliristchurch. lie must have read of the great lire, which demolished a third of the Briirr-els Exhibition. It was en fire twice as a mntler of fact, and tho lass was over XI.IMIO.OOfI sterling. Bees ho think they had no fire appliances and watchmen?

"If I told a plumber that he should bo sellim; his J;!l enamelled baths for £~ 10s. he would mo.-L probably tell me to mind my own"business, yet Mr. Balling?! , can make long speeches about Ihe 'exorbitant' rates the insurance companies -insist on charging. As a matter of fact, there is not a company making sixpence profit out of fire insurance in' New Zealand, the country which has Ihe highest fire average in Ihe world. If they do make enough to pay a dividend, you- can take it from me. tlint, the profit is lieing made in otner departments and in the .handling of the money which passes through. The public, has been told that the Slate l-'ire Office offered cover for Is. 6d.. but it has not been advised that tlr.it offer was withdrawn after the. manager had made iiu|iiirif>. He would have, to get London cover, and they were not going to give it to him onsiieh terms. A lot ol baldardnsli lists been talked. Both the Exhibition authorities, and the exhibitors are, believe me, being treated most reasonably.". Fires in Exhibitions. Another leading authority on fire underwriting was even more emphatic. He said- "If an exhibitor whom I did not know and was not a client of ours were lo offer mo .£5 per cent, to cover an exhibit I would refuse it—that's what I think of exhibition risks, I say that, too, knowing that the building is probably one of the finest of its kind in Austraiasia." . "I'll give you a little information about fires in exhibitions.," be continued, "that should convince anyone in his sound senses that an exhibition risk is a bad ono. In tho Brussels Exhibition last year there was a lire in August, one in fceptember, one in October, and according to the papers 'further fires' in November. In the last big exhibition hold in Aew Zealand, at Uirislelnirch, thero were, three incipient, fires—one from a fused wire, one from fat being allowed to boil over, and one from a bale of flax in tho slanawat.il court taking fire. There was a. fire in the New South Wales Exhibition of ISB2, and considerable damage was done by fire to the Juvenile Exhibition, held at Parramalta in 16S-1. Some peopy. will also remember the great, loss of life in Paris some fifteen years ago when a bazaar or -small exhibition took fire. Kircs, indeed, arc the reverse of usual in connection with exhibitions, and it is nonsense to object lo the rates being charged in' Wellington. A\hy, at the New Plymouth Exhibition exhibitors had to pay 50s. per cent., st Blenheim, 4. r )S. , per cent., at. Hawera. (ills, per cent., at Christchurch, 75*. per cent, ordinary and 30s. per cent, in tho Art Gallery, in each case, for th.o term of tho exhibition, which in C'linstehiirch only lasted over thrco months. Compared to the;;' figures, 9s. per cent, for three months is surely a reasonable figure. It is one that is so reasonable that I don't want to do any business with exhibitor*. , "The big risk is recognised by others than insurance men. Tho Ha-cbour Board were content with i:20,000 insurance en Iho stores when being used for the purposes for which they were erected, but for exhibit ion purposes they decided on having that sum just, doubled. Now, iices that harmonise with Mr. Hallingcr s lalk? "A Wonderful Precaution." "Then they talk that they are going lo have watchmen ill the exhibition during Ihe night hours, liy the way it is said one would think that it was a new idea In have watchmen—a wonderful precaution! The simo thing was said in the ca.-e of the Melbourne Exhibition, but one morning, before the opening, at about '1 o'clock, Superintendent Klein entered the building and walked right through it without seeing a watchman or being accosted by the special police detailed for duly in the building. Fie reported the circumstance, the next day, and it created rather a sensation among the insurance men and exhibitors. On December 22, 1010, the huge meat works of Morris and Co., in Chicage, were destroyed by fire, and ii lives wire lost. There, were watchmen, but. where were they? There was a fire in the New South Wales Exhibition Building in 1882, but tho watchman in the building knew nothing about it until the door was burst ■Vi from outside. Watchmen are usually old men, and the dark hours are natural (o sleep!' .