FIRE LOSSES

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1929, Page 2

FIRE LOSSES

The magnitude of the fire Josses in

New Zealand is necessarily a matter of grave concern to; every insurance manager and naturally the subject of reference at every meeting or shareholders in insurance companies. The fact that the losses have increased while the insurance premiums are actually at the lowest point they have ever touched in tiie Dominion may be nothing more than a coincidence, for it may be assumed that, in existing, circumstances, the inspection of the risks that are olfered to companies is exceedingly, rigid.

There is undoubtedly keen competition for business on the part of the large number of companies that are operating in New Zealand, but the care'which, as Mr Moloney, chairman of directors of the National Insurance Company, said at its annual meeting, an underwriter has to exercise in the consideration of the proposals for insurance that are made to his company, may be expected to lead to the. rejection of any hazard that is not regarded by him as reasonably sound. It is quite clear that the people of the Dominion are securing the insurance of their property against lire at the present time on terms tln.it are exceptionally favourable to them.

Mr Moloney put the whole matter in an unusual light when he observed that while the prices of nearly all commodities and the wages of most wage earners have advanced during the past fifteen years by more than 50 per cent the cost of insurance has during that period gone down. Government competition in the insurance business has forced the premium rates down to their present level. No doubt it was to effect a reduction of the cost of insurance that the Government entered the field, and the reduction that has been secured may he claimed to he a justification of its action.

In view, however, of the remarkable growth of the fire losses in the Dominion it may he questioned at the present time whether the premium level is not lower than is warranted bv the nature of the business. The suspicion that some, at least, of the fire losses are preventable has provoked a renewal of the suggestion that every fire that occurs should he the subject of judicial investigation. Fo this it would hardly be a valid objection that the effect would he to involve the State in an expenditure that might be of no benefit to itself.

The truth is that every fire represents, ms Mr Downie Stewart observed, a direct waste of wealth, and that the whole community is the poorer as the result of fire loss. There are many fires the origin, of which is so clearly accidental that an inquiry into the cause of them would be of lid public advantage. The interests of the community would certainly, however, be served if fire inquiries were held much more frequently than is at present the case. The determent value of an investigation of the pause of mysterious outbreaks of fire has never yet been tested in New Zealand,