THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1873.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 217, 25 April 1873, Page 4

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1873.

We wish to draw attention to the exorbitant charges at present made by the Insurance Companies on ordinary town risks. • Naseby is probably no exception in this matter. If not, a very strong and united protest should be made from' the Goldfield centres. Here, at present, in spite of wide streets, water laid on, and an efficient Pire Brigade, the premiums run as high as 70s. per cent. The main argument used by Insurance Agents to defend these high rates, is that the buildings, from the speed with which they are run up, are peculiarly suscep-" tible to danger. This, however, applies with greater force in another way : for greater facilities exist, owing to-this very weakness of construction, for putting out fire, by making a gap in the row of houses in danger. The Companies have thought fit to combine together to squeeze the public. So openly is this done'that an Agent, on being told that another office is doing a certain risk at a lower rate than what he offers, at once runs off, to the accused office, and triumphantly returns with the assurance —from personal in-j spection of the books— : that the agreed imposition has been duly extracted. The public may very well take a hint from this successful action on the part of the Companies, and combine too. There is an unlimited field for the floating of a Goldfield Company—or, what would be better still, a Co-opera-tive Society among the business men on the Goldfield to secure one another against loss from fire. At present, every business man holding ordinary stock requires to pay away from £ls to £2O per year. The total amount flowing yearly from the Goldfield to Dunedin from this source would, it we could accurately compute it, astonish the most incredulous. It is very desirable that this monopoly should be broken through, and security from fire be obtainable at a reasonable rate. We hope that our contemporaries, more especially those on the Goldfield, will ventilate this matter thoroughly. ■» • Many local requirements should be dealt with by the Provincial Council early in the session, which we wish to draw attention to. First, there is that much-vexed question of Commonage, which should be taken up with promptitude, as, very probably, to meet it, alterations will require to be made in the Land Act. The Black's Progress Committee have had this matter under consideration for a long time, and no doubt the member for the Dunstan will be coached up on the point, and-be an able help to any measure originated for our benefit which would also bear a general interpretation for good. Secondly, we may refer to the sum of money necessary to put the Houndburn Hill road into a permanently serviceable state. A sum of money is, indeed, already promised for the work, but still it will have to be urged repeatedly. Again, there is that standing monument of Government folly, the "Naseby Court House, in which papers and

documents of a far greater value than the building are crammed in open holes, and even on the floor, within a few inches of the stove pipe. There are the unsold sections in the town boundaries that should be secured for Municipal reserves; and, though mentioned last, yet it is of more importance; than all that we have mentioned, that bur members should watch and urge the energetic carrying out of the Public Works. A meeting of the Town Co-ancil is, we hear, to be held at two p.m. on Tuesday next, to discuss these questions, and prepare a plan of action to urge on our somewhat apathetic representatives.