MELBOURNE SHIPOWNERS V.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 45, 19 February 1864, Page 3

MELBOURNE SHIPOWNERS V.

AN AUS TE ALI AN LLOYD'S. (From the Argus, February 6). The proposal submitted for the consideration of the shipowners of the port, at the meeting held at Scott's Hotel, on Thursday last, is altogether different in character from that lately propounded by the Chamber of Commerce. It aims at no ambitious project, and suggests nothing which cannot be carried out Avith advantage to all concerned. It contemplates only one legitimate object, mutual assurance against loss ; and the tendency of all recent experience has been in favor of the establishment of clubs of that character. Marine insurance companies have either been extraordinary successes or singular failures. There is so great an element of risk in the business, that where transactions have been hastily and carelessly entered into, the proportion of loss has been ruinously large. So much has depended upon the judgement of the agents employed, that Avhere business has in any way been forced, and Avhere assurances havo been accepted without examination of the vessel, or after hasty inspection, for the sake of commissious, the loss has usually been out of all proportion to the gain. Tempted by the successes of more Avatchfully managed institutions, marine insurance offices have sprung up like mushrooms, only to disappear again before the first blast of misfortune. Insurers, on the other hand, have found that when the amonnt of floating proI perty for Avhich they paid premiums be- [ came large, it was better for them to ' become their own insurers. The sums

which they 'paid annually, to swell the profits of the best offices, verj - " much more than covered the risk the offices ran. One after another of the large chipping firms at home have, therefore, become their own insurers, finding it less costly to lose a ship pciiodically \ than to insure their whole fleet from year to year. The smaller clubs formed in many of the ports of the mother countiy merely apply the same principle to the business they conduct. Usually these clubs arc formed of the shipowners of the port, aud the ships they take risks upon are the property ofthe members, ov are well knoAvn to them. The experience of the managing members enables them to fix the premium for every voyage in the fairest and safest manner. Voyages that are easy and pleasant at one season, and therefore may be undertaken with little risk, are dangerous at another period of the year, aud therefore are not to he lightly ventured upon. A port which a ship of a certain size or class may visit with safety, another vessel may enter only at considerable hazard. These considerations are well weighed by men Vihose experience has been of a practical character. The vessels themselves are well known to the managing members of the club. They may have been built in tho port, or stripped and refitted in it. What they are, how they are found, and how they are kept, does not pass unnoticed. They are handicapped as to premium, therefore, as carefully and as accurately as if they Av-erc racers entered for a large stake. These clubs employ no oxpensive staff, and do not maintain an extensive and costly rgeuey. They do not accept business fur the sake of swelling the number and amount of their risks, or that money may be put into the pockets of agents Avho live by insurance commissions. Tliey do not, as a rule, accept policies upon vessels other than those owned by members, and geneial marine assurance is no part of their business. The results, generally speaking, are satisfactory. The pre miums are less than Avould be accepted by proprietary offices, and they return in the shape of profits into the pockets of those who paid them. If a ship is lost, hor value is paid over, and usually a lie wer or better vessel takes the place of the lost one on the register of tho port. These clubs, in short, merely do for small communities of shipowners that which large companies and extensive private firms are able to ilo for themselves. These, Aye believe, aro the limits Aviihin which the shipowners Avho assembled on Thursday propose to confine their scheme, aud there is no doubt that the operations of a mutual insurance club may be made to conduce to their own advantage and to the credit of the port. Owners of ships who desire to have their \-es.sels upon the club's list, Avill feel .themselves compelled, to fit. them properly for sea. Such a club Avould not accept a risk upon t any vessel which was insufficiently furnished Avith ground-tackle, or Avas defective in sails or rigging, or Avhich Avas in an improper state of repair. Numerous are the craft now plying along the coast that at present labor under one or more of these disadvantages. The premiums might be fixed at so low a rate that the owner of tho smallest coaster Avould no longer feel himself precluded from insuring his craft, mul yet the club might be prosperous. Por severe as are the gales that often blow from seaward, experience has shuwn that there arc few seas Avhich can bo navigated Avith less peril and loss than that Avhich girds tho Austrlian colonies. Tho classification of the shipping insured by the club would not be a difficult task to a committee of local men all as perfectly familiar Avith the history and character as Avith the appearance of the vessels brought under their review. One ofthe first effects of tho operations of tho club would be a marked improA'ement in the stato of the fleet of sailing coasters. -The society's certificates would be quite as valuable as those of an Australian Lloyd's, though the pretensions of the club would be much more humble. We cannot suppose the promoters of the proposed club contemplate entering ou the business of general marine insurance. That work must still be left to those offices whose special business it is. Let the proposed association confine itself purely and simply to mutual insurance, and there can be no doubt of its success, while the desirability of its formation Avill be admitted by every shipowner.