LOSS BY FIRE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 58, 2 December 1926, Page 10

LOSS BY FIRE

WHAT COUNTRY SUFFERS COMMUNITY PAYS THE BILL CONTINUANCE OF STATE REBATE Some pointed references to the heavy toll fire is exacting in the Dominion were made by the Minister in chalge of the State Fire Office (Hon. W. Nosworthy) yesterday, in announcing the decision of the State Fire Insurance Office Board to continue the present 12) per cent, rebate for a further twelve months. The Minister stated that from August, 1923. when the rebate system was instituted, up to the end of tins year, the Department would have rebated to its policy holders out of profits about £74,000. ' In view of the fact that the insurance companies had each year adopted the same rebate as the State office, the saving to the insuring public as a whole amounted to a very large sum indeed. “State fire rebates,” he proceeded, ‘‘are dependent upon underwriting profits, and, while the experience of the Department up to the present warrants a continuation of the 1-r percent rebate, it is necessary to point out that there has been a marked increase in fires throughout tile Dominion within the last twelve months. Fire is dissipating the assets of tins countrv to an extent which gites cause for serious concern. Property to the value of over a million pounds was destroved during 1925, and it is estimated that considerably more than this amount will have gone up in smoke during 1926. A large part of this loss could have been prevented. “It is, unfortunately, a popular belief that fire insurance makes up at least a part of the loss. Tins, is fallacious. From a national point of view loss by fire is irreparable; all that insurance does is to levy a tax on the community for the benefit of the individual Iftser. Sooner or later the community as a whole pays the fire loss bill, and nearly every fire causes the deviation of capital for replacement purposes which otherwise might be used to increase the wealth and prosperity of Hie community.”