The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1895. MUTUAL MUNICIPAL FIRE INSURANCE.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 134, 5 December 1895, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1895. MUTUAL MUNICIPAL FIRE INSURANCE.

The report of the Invercargill Municipal Fire Insurance League is now before us. The proposal is to adopt a scheme based on the same' lines as Mutual Life Insurance which has proved such a commer- 1 cial success. The objections to the existing state of things are the same as those we have advanced on*several occasions and are as follows :— There is no necessity for the maintenance of the , costly machinery of the 25 fire offices ■ how doing business in every large total in Ne* -Zealand. The cost can only be : --be met out of the excessive premiums ywe have been called to pay, , and which are now generally increased. '"Nor would the present difficulty be met by the hi'

traduction of any foreign company or companies not already doing business in i New Zealand; this would only make ', the position worse, as the premium payers would have to pay the additional cost of the extra competition for business, and, in tiie end, the newly introduced company would join the ring, as other offices have done which originally started on a colonial basis. The cost of doing all the business now done by the twenty-five fire offices in any large town should not muoh exceed the cost now paid, by some single offices. Municipal Fire Insurance will be absolutely safe to the insurer, and can be administered with far greater economy. As instances of the excessive cost of administration of joint stock companies in the colonies, last year the public paid in premiums to one company i>14,033, and got back in losses paid; another company received in premiums £115,000, and paid £35,000 in losses ; another received in premiums i-29,000, and paid £6700 losses ; another £265,000 of premiums, the losses being £154,000 — Sydney Bulletin. The Australian Insurance and Banking Record shows that it cost £5,618,685 to administer losses paid £11,402,373 in twelve years. Those undisputed figures suggest that the increased rates are imposed rather for the increase of profits, already too great, than to meet ordinary losses. Under the proposed system the aggregate of premiums will pay the aggregate of losses and return to the insurers bonuses which now go to extravagantly paid officers, high dividends, and large reserves that amount to many millions. It is proposed that should a sufficient amount of support be promised from a fairly representative number of towns, boroughs or Counties, to hold a meeting of dele gates in the most convenient centre to consider the suggestions of the League. It is probable the subject will be discussed at the meeting of the Borough Council this evening.