STATE FIRE OFFICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 28 July 1928, Page 12

STATE FIRE OFFICE

INCREASED PREMIUM INCOME (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. New business during the year was restricted on account of the general denres- % I ° n J states the annua] report of the Fire Insurance Office. There was fncome re on® i° Ver £lO - 000 I" premium , 01 ? a lower average rate over iq?e of the business for and ’an ?,lS? oed ,Jf orkinpr expense ratio cent underwriting profit of 5.06 per Claims for 1927 were substantially above those of the previous year, both in amount of actual losses incurred and in ratio to premium income. While the actual causes of the majority of fires remain obscure, it would seem the economic position as an indirect cause was very much more important than was generally suspected. Exclusive of taxes and fire board levies the ratio' to premium income for 1927 wils 24.23 per cent as against 25.35 per cent for 1926. Taxes and fire board charges absorbed 9.08 per cent., as against 10.31 per cent, for 1926. NEW ZEALAND APPLES (United r.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (United Sei~vice) LONDON’, Thursday! Mr H. P. Stephens, representing- the New Zealand Fruit Board, held a conference with representatives of the New Zealand shipping companies. He obtained a promise for the 1929 season alternatively of three steamers with a capacity for 20,000 cases of apples each for direct shipment to Rotterdam, or Hamburg, or two vessels with a capacity of 25,000 tons each. It is expected that the Rotterdam steamer will carry th e usual shipments of honev.