FIRE INSURANCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 864, 12 November 1870, Page 3

FIRE INSURANCE.

*■ as follows : —What's the uext topic ? Say fire insurance, on which subject talk among business men is sufficiently rife, and rather strong, as talk is apt to be when the speaker is suffering from a sense of injustice. *• Here wo are," argues one insurer, whose indignation makes him go into the plural, " paying enormously high premiums on our fire risks, although the risk is lessened by at least fifty per cent, as compared with what it was three years ago." •' Yes, and the worst'of it is," days the interlocutor, " we were years ago promised a large reduction when the water supply was introduced ; while the fact is, the rate has been actually increased since that was done. Before the water pipes were laid, rates were £2 2s per cent. Since then the same risk has been raised to £2 12s 6d. It is au increased charge, with a risk vastly reduced. We won't be satisfied until we start a local insurance company." " That's a scheme, now," was the rejoinder, *' that the Government ought to try ; it would at least be as wise as their gas adventure, about which there still seems a hankering after the flesh pots of profit and loss, of patronage and power and the little influences which hang to the skirts of any Government department.'