DOMINION FIRE LOSSES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 561, 23 April 1913, Page 5

DOMINION FIRE LOSSES.

HEAVIEST IN THE WORLD. £4,500,000 IN EIGHT YEARS. [L«Y TKLKGKAPH.—FJIESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, Tuesday. New Zealand's fire loss rate was referred to by the president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce in his speech at the annual meeting to day, He said the losses amounted to four and a-half millions in the past eight years. The amount per head last year was 12s Id (whiflh was about a world's record), against 10s 2d for the United States and Is 4d for Europe. Wooden buildings must be responsible largely for the heavy loss, but many of the fires occurred in the best risks and blocks. Over-insurance or full insurance might be a contributory cause, and was one to a certain extent in the hands of the companies to remedy, though insurance was largely a matter of good faith on the part of the assured, and insurance companies could not always be blamed in cases of overinsurance. "The moral hazard in New Zealand ," he added, may not be low, but inducements to carelessness should be avoided." The direct monetary loss to the Dominion now is so severe that it behoves all interested to find a remedy. The most practicable one appears to be the compulsory holding of an inquiry after every fire.