WELLINGTON.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 405, 10 September 1861, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(From the Wellington Independent.)

INSURANCE COMPANY. J

Perhaps there are not many in this province who are awat c of the success which has attended the Auckland Association above named, and we think the piesent moment extremely favorable for calling attention to it. The Company has been sufficiently long in existence for the directors to make two annual reports to the shareholders, both of which afford evidence of satisfactory progress. At a general meeting of the shareholders, held on 'the 29th July, it was resolved to increase the capital of the -company to £250,000, by the issue of 1,500 new shares, preference of purchase being given to Auckland, and the southern provinces, to which the business of the company ia about to be extended. By adopting this plan, the shareholders are making it really a New Zealand Institution, rendering it thereby still more secure, profitable, and beneficial. The capital of the company was previously, we believe, .£100,000,. upon which seven and a-half per cent, or £7,500 have been paid up. By.the course now determined upon, all the provinces will possess a local interest in the company, from which it is almost palpable there, will flow numerous benefits. First, there will be a greatly increased business—a business far larger In proportion than could have arisen if all the shares were'continued to be held in one province, with proportionably increased profits; secondly, there will be a much greater security against loss, as the rusks will be spread over such, a.largely in-. creased surface, a point of the utmost importance to a business of this nature; and thirdly, there will be numerous inspectors, directly interested in watching over the success of the company, who will keep in check any inclination to act unfairly —a means of the most valuable kind to its pros-

perity. Insurance is not like banking business; the former may be transferred at the period when a premium is due, the latter presents greater difficulties in the way of joining a new institution. Several important advantages arise from having a Colonial Insurance Company, rather than the agencies of foreign companies. One is the facility of communicating with the directors; another the securing of the profit which arises from carrying on the kind of business needed for the country; and we may add another, almost special to New Zealand but of the utmost consequence, that of knitting the several provinces together by the best of means-r-social and economical'institutions.

With reference to the first, we would remark that very many buildings, especially in the country, remain uninsured because" :tlVey do not come under any existing English classification ; buildings, for instance, with clay chimneys, which are as safe as those erected with brick, if entirely built of clay. Sometimes when applications have been made to have insurance effected on buildings of this description, promises have been given to apply to the home office for instructions;. which promises have remained without yielding a result, either never having been fulfilled or they* have not received attention at headquarters, so far as the colony is aware. A difficulty, was at one time thrown in the way of insuring houses having stoves, though they may be so arranged as to render them as safe as chimneys; yet wooden steamboats with immense funnels are insured without hesitation, though the risk on first consideration would appear enormous. Now had we a colonial company the application would be made at once to the directors, from whom a reply would be obtained immediately, and doubtless, so far favorable as arranging for a premium to suit the particular risk, should it be supposed to have any speciality about it. With reference to the profit lost to the colony, it should be kept in mind that there are three items of which a premium or rate of insurance is composed—the amount necessary to oover the risk, the expenses of couducting the business, and the profit required for the shareholders of the company with which the insurance may,? be effec cd. All these all communities have to pay, and it. is the last that is lost to the colony". The expeises must be incurred whether the office be foreign or colonial, so likewise must the item to meet the losses which take place; but it rests with the colony whether it will retain or part

with the profit arising oat of that which is in principal a purely mutual undertaking. This item amounts to some thousands, and if all insured as they ought to do, would amount to many more. We have known an agent to a Foreign Insurance* Office talk as it, when a fire took place and an insurance had been paid, a present had been made to the colony by some benevolent institution in England or elsewhere, while of course all that had taken place was merely that a portion had been given to the sufferer of what many had contributed in the colony for their mutual safety. Every facility should be given to those intending to insure and every , inducement, to ; insure should be offered. The former would be affordtd, as we have endeavored to shoT, by the facility of communicating direct with the head office of the company. The latter might be attained by publishing on every occasion, the sums paid parties who had suffered, calling attention at the same time to the probable inconvenience which would have arisen had they not possessed such a source through which to meet their losses, and by making the public better acquainted with the subject through the press. > The facility being afforded and the requisite knowledge possessed through the colony, we doubt not the numerous country settlers, who do not or cannot no*r insure, would do so, when those, disasters which often bring ruin on some, and great inconvenience on many, or on their agents, on whom too frequently the necessity of providing funds for rebuilding would otherwise fall, would be met by their appropriate remedy. If advantage was not taken of such suitable opportunity, there would be no claim on friends or on agents for assistance; after having neglected so palpable a duty as that or insuring. Destruction by fire might take place in a province far beyond- the meaus of any mere provincial office to meet,'which would prove only an ordinary though severe loss to an institution having so broad a basis as that afforded by the mutual action of the whole community represented by a New Zealand Insurance Office, Buch as the one before us is proposed to be. The great fire in New York in 1834 or 1835 is a strong case in point. ...:.-.

We therefore hail with pleasure the prospect of a speedy establishment of a New Zealand Insurance Office and Bank, and we hope also soon to hear of a Loan and Trust Company, such as they have in Australia. ;

The visit to the Southern Provinces of Messrs. Williamson and Daldy to urge the first two matters will, we cordially hope, answer air the expectations which induced them to undertake it.