The Daily News MONDAY, MARCH 12. TEMPTATION TO INSURERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8060, 12 March 1906, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, MARCH 12. TEMPTATION TO INSURERS.

Nearly every law made in every country pre-supposes that man in the bulk is dishonest. It requires force to keep people in the narrow path. Even this has not the desired effect, so there are law courts. If man were honest, only the very simplest enactments would be necessary for the conduct of the people. Somotimes the law is too severe. At other times it is lax. Apparently the law in relation to lire insurance is as lax as possible. Most people insure their property, and it is very necessary in New Zealand, where the dwellings and business places, for the most part, are built of resinous timber, usually in such a position that the lire can most quickly consume them. " Dead men tell no tales," and a house that is burnt to ashes is not eloquent of the cause of conllagration.

Men and women are liable to temptation. The fire insurance companies place temptation in their way. The ordinary person, when he takes out a " cover" for his premises or furniture, makes a statement as to its value. It is a rough statement generally—the statement of a man ,who is not expert. There is nothing to prevent a person in New Zealand from getting £3OO insurance on & 100 worth of goods, merely because the average insurauee company doesn't take the trouble to see for itself whether goods to the insurance value are on the insured premises. If a person is dishonest; he stands a first-class chance of " making a rise " by overinsuring. The company that covers fifty pounds' worth of goods with a £l5O policy is urging a man to commit arson. It is as guilty of a mis demeanour as the man who lights the match.

At an inquest on a recent Auckland fire the jury found that a man had caused the fire " in the interest" of a relative, that the relative was an accessory, and that the premises were insured beyond their value. The question for the Legislature is, Why did not the company which covered the premises carefully value the premises before it gave the cover i Why did the company take the risk of accepting the insurer's word that the value was as stated? Why, in fact, is any corporation allowed to place temptation in the way of people who may not "scruple to make a rise," when matches are cheap and a glutted property very poor evidence ?

* # # # Tub only country in the world whero fire insurance is not permitted is Turkey, the Sultan having made it a crime for anyone to insure, becauge of the general disposition to " rub a £IOO policy against a iSO house," as a method of turning a dishonest penny. Life insurance, accident insurance, and fire insurance are all excellent things, and New Zealand is hardly likely to copy Turkey, but the negligence of the insurance companies is a serious menace to the morals of the community, .Before effecting any fire insurance on any property, either large commercial properties or small dwellings, particularly the latter, a valuer should make an independent valuation and report to the company. The policy should be registered at the Deeds' Office, and a declaration signed by the valuer of the company and the manager that the goods insured are of the value of the " cover." * # # # Ax present the companies gamble with chance. They are the chief sinners,and, if anythinggoes wrong, they sutler for their own negligence, the people who sin through the temptation offered haying to answer solely for the joint sin. Arson is not more common in New Zealand than elsewhere, but arson from greed is com • moii enough to make it necessary for simple remedial legislation of the kind indicated. Fire insurance ageuts are not chary of giving a big insurance ou goods they know nothing about, because the bigger the insurance the bigger the premium and the profit-if the fire doesn't happen. This expansive benevolence of file insurance companies should be stopped, and the or.ly way to stop it is to make compulsory valuation before insurance.