COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4216, 24 September 1874, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH BRITISH INSURANCE COMPANIES. (From the Southern Cross, September IG.) To the Editor: Sir, —My letter in Monday’s Cross dealt solely with statements made in a sub-leader in your Saturday's paper, and not with anything that either Mr. Pierce or the New Zealand Company had stated; and I must respectfully decline a newspaper controversy with Mr. Pierce on the merits of our respective companies. But as I shall not trouble you again on this matter, I will now say a few words on, the question at issue. When stripped of all extraneous and cloudy surroundings, the question seems a very simple one. A person is invited to join others in a partnership in a certain business, and to pay a named sum for the privilege. He has to determine whether it will be wise to do so or not ; and to enable him to come to a conclusion he will, I venture to think, satisfy himself as to the property, the liabilities, and the probable future profits of the concern. The table I troubled you with shows accurately the property of the two companies for each share in them. It does not give the liabilities of either, neither does it estimate value of future profits. Without a careful actuarial investigation the two latter increments in the calculation could not be arrived at, and as they are eliminated in regard to both companies, no injustice is done to either by the mode of calculation. Mr. Pierce’s substitution of a new table for that previously’placed before us, has not improved the case very much. It is rather an attempt to mystify and change the venue, at least, so it seems to me, and is entirely fallacious.' Whether a purchaser pays 90s. at once, or takes advantage of the credit offered, he has to pay the 00s, There is no question about that. And he is urged to pay the 90s at once, that he may get interest upon it, or rather he will have interest on 40<*. If he responds to this invitation the capital of the company on commencing business on December Ist, will be £2-10,000, including £40,000 reserve, and with the liabilities of all the risks of the company then current. If ho elects to buy on the partial credit system, and not to receive the interest from the company, he is entitled to deduct from the present price of 00a., the interest accruing on instalments not paid until they become due. This interest will bo, I think, at 10 per cent,, about 7s. 3d., which deducted from 905., leaves 82«. 9d, as the present price to a purchaser who prefers not to take interest from the company, but to use the money required for deposits in some other way. But, surely, this docs not really alter the case. If he gets 10 per cent., say privately, he does not get it from the company, and my table is accurate, and shows the exact comparison between premiums of assets of the two stocks. Mr. Bierce says I deny to new shareholders In his company prospective advantages—l suppose from profits ; X have done nothing of the kind. But If his new shareholder Is to be credited with prospective advantages, X humbly think that the new shareholder of the South British should also be credited with prospective advantages, for I hopefully trust that there may be prospective advantages for even the South British shareholder, whose V feeble " advocate I have the honor of being In this case. My reference to the,losses for a particular half-year was solely to add force to my argument. Every Insurance Company doing a largo business is liable to such occurrences; witness the case of the Royal, and the Liverpool and London, through their Am erican losses, two of the foremost institutions in the world in insurance business. I most emphatically repudJa'o being animated in that reference by any such motive as is Insinuated by him; 1 think 1 am above sucli

folly. Air. Fierce further says; they will not continue to mate comparisons. I say wo did not begin them. I wrote only to correct errors made in comparisons, to the detriment of the South British shareholders, whoso interests I felt It my duty to protect to the best of my ability. I acted simply on the defensive. As to living at peace, I can only say that I have done all in my power, from the day I became connected with the South British, to live at peace with the Now Zealand, and to work with it, and remove any feeling of jealousy or irritation caused by the advent of a new insurance company founded and managed by Auckland men ; and I venture to think that what I have done in this way has not been in any way detrimental to the interests and business of the New Zealand Company. That company, however, needs no “ comparative tables,” referring to the South British in an invidious manner, to prove that it has a large business and wide connection ; that its stock is a profitable investment at a price ; or that it has done good service to this city and the Colony at largo. There is a fair and wide field for both the New Zealand and the South British ; they both have capacities for great good, and it is a pity that anything like petty jealousy or other unworthy feeling should be permitted to interfere with their usefulness. As I before intimated, I shall not trouble you with any further communication in regard to the subject of this letter.—! am, &c., A. Boardman, Manager South British Fire and Marine Insurance Company of New Zealand. September 15, 1874.

BY TELEGRAPH.

AUCKLAND. September 23. Mr. Alexander Saunders reports ; Sales ; South British, 51s. Buyers: Bank of New Zealand, 3555.; National Bank, 095.; South British, 50.; National Insurance, 2Ss. ; Caledonian, * 160 s, Sellers—National Insurance, 305.; National Bank, 71s.