The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1885. Fire Insurance

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 3, 18 June 1885, Page 2

The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1885. Fire Insurance

_ «- The movement which was commenced in Feilding in the direction of forcing the various Fire Insurance Companies doing business south of Rangitikei to bring doWn their rates, has gathered additional strength from the warm manner in which it has been followed up in Palmerston. At a meeting of insurers held there on Monday evening last it was resolved, " That the town and district be canvassed to ascertain the support insurers would give to a company taking risks at the rates ruling in Wanganui and Woodville, present risks to be insured as they expire, and that a document be signed by those willing to insure accordingly." A gentleman was at the same time appointed to undertake the canvass at once. As the good people of Palmeraton never do anything by halves, we do not fear that many insurers will withhold their names from the list. In this matter insurers have received unexpected — although perhaps unintentional, but none the less valuable — assistance from Messrs Dxti'hie, Nathan, and Wiiliams, of Wellington, who, in plain terms, condemned the Colonial Insurance Offices for their grasping and dilatory mode of conducting their business. A futile attempt at reply was made by the " Wellington representatives of the several offices," who had not the courage to sign even a Round Robin, but preferred concealing their identity behind a norn de plume. In place of justifying themselves or refuting the charges levelled at them, they flaunt before them that Captain Williams had been so unfortunate as to lose several vessels, and that the Companies in which they were insured had paid their policies. One would naturally ask, What is the object of insuring unless to guard against loss ? It would appear that a misconception exists between insurers and insured which had better be cleared up at once, for if insurance offices make a virtue of paying for losses by wreck or fire, which are supposed to be covered by premiums paid on policies of insurance, and take credit to themselves because they do not take advantage of every legal technicality which may be known to exist by the Insurance Directors, but of which ordinary laymen are necessarily ignorant, it is high time that insurers began to make some efforts to come to a common understanding and learn how far they are really protected against loss by their policies. One great fact insurance agents appear to have lost sight of altogether is, that public confidence in their offices may be easily destroyed, and when that is the case old policies are allowed to run out, and no new ones are issued, so that collapse is certain. The greatest blunder of all about to be committed is that some of the Companies intend to bring themselves under the Limited Liability Act. This means neither more nor less that shareholders, through their dirertors, have discovered that with unlimited liability, as at present, their risks vi too great, so they will endeavor t< shift them from themselves with all convenient despatch. But although this may be a blunder on the part of the Companies, yet in the end it will be all the better for the insurers, as many Companies which eke out an existence now by re-insurance premiums will be closed up altogether. As we have shown on a previous occasion the system of re-insurance is the strongest evidence of weakness in a Company, inasmuch as it gives undeniable proof of its inability to pay the risks it has accepted, and is compelled to divide them with other companies. This is the one great cause for premiums being kept so high, for instead of an insurer having only to pay his share of the working expenses of the office which has occepted his risks, he has to contribute a quota towards those of managing every office in this Colony, and a few in Australia and Europe. We are going to change all that, and endeavor, on this Coast at least, to pay only for work done and for value received.