CORPORATION INSURANCE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1882, 16 October 1913, Page 5

CORPORATION INSURANCE.

(To tile Editor.) . Sir, —As a certain amount of publloi itv in the press seems to have been, given to a statement made by me at tho' fast council meeting, on 'the subject of city corporation fire'insurance, it may, be as well for me to state exactly what then took place, and with your permission to'avail myself of the publicity of your valuable columns I shall proceed to do so.

Wlieh the Excess Insurance Company, which carries on the business of insurance brokers, tendered some considerable timo'ago for the corporation insurances, a lengthy debate took placo in the council covering all aspects of tho question of our city corporation lira risks. The discussion was long and somewhat acrimonious. Councillor Hindmarsh, in characteristic . manner, made a flamboyant attack upon tile Underwriters' Association and the insurance companies of New Zealand generally. He declared that they were a ring formed for tho purpose of exploiting the public, and that tho ncweomer, the Excess Insurance Company, was imbued with a pure nublic spirit and actuated only by motives for tho welfare of the public. In my own speech on that occasion I pointed out that tlia Underwriters' Association was a couiv bination, tho result of necessity. I showed that no individual ono of the companies carrying on business in New Zealand was prepared to, nor could it except in breach of sound principles of business, carry the whole of largo risks such as the corporation risks, and combination was therefore a necessity to enable reinsurance to be effected. After the conclusion'of this debate tho question stood over until last council meeting. At that meeting a report came down from the Finance Committee that it liad effected the corporation insurances with tlie Standard Insurance Company, who act for the Underwriters' Association. ■

When this report was under discussion I inadd a speech of two sentences. I said: "At the previous debate on this question some vituperative speeches wero made against the Underwriters' Association and nnicli praise was lavished on the Excess Companyj as being a new competitor in the held and one which would creatc hcaltliy competition. 1 should like to point out that this new competitor has now joined what Councillor Hindiiiarsh picturesquely termed 'the ring.' " In that final statement it appears I was incorrect. That I regret, and publicly express my regret. I was wrong, however, only in so far that certain negotiations taking place between the Excess Company and the Underwriters, had not as 1 thought reached finality. Though the Excess Company has not yet joiucd the association it has applied to tlio President of the Council of the Underwriters' Association to do so. I do not blame the Excess Company for' this action. lam iertainly not antagonistic to the association, my remark was made for the obvious purpose of shjwing that what I had said at tho first meeting of the council was correct, namely, that an individual company cannot liopo to carry on a successful business unless it' works in conjunction with tho other companies. The very, nature of the business demands this.

I regret to have taken up your valuable spaco and the time of your readers by so long a dissertation on tliis comparatively unimportant matter, but I liavo done so out of regard for the delicato susceptibilities of tho Exccsb Company.—l am, etc., T. C. A. HISLOP. . October 15.