SOUTH BRITISH INSURANCE COMPANY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 245, 9 October 1908, Page 2

SOUTH BRITISH INSURANCE COMPANY.

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, October

At the annual meetiug of the South British insurance Company the chairman said the net premium was C 15,511 less than in the previous year. This was chiefly due to the company's having abandoned au important section tit business which had been l'ound unprofitable. The expenses had increased by .ClO.fioti, which included the cost oi converting the company to a limited liability concern and the payment under the Fire brigades Act. The underwriting profit was tI4.7US, or -J.(M per cent... as against 15.01 per cent, in the previous ear. In New Zealand there ha 1 been an absolute loss oil the lire Lusi- , ness. This was not .surprising considering the utter inadequacy of the lire rates and the harassing legislation. The highly satisfactory results of the Company's business for the year were ali the more satisfactory in view of these drawbacks. Auckland, Last .Night. lu-sponding to a vote Oi thanks, the chairman, on .behalf ot himself and the board of directors, remarked that it was absolutely certain that in any business there must' be times of excessive prosperity. They could not say that they had a lxul year when £IO,OOO had | been passed to the reserve fund. Considering, however, their wide field itought to have been more. They had had tacked upon them legislation which was disastrous in the last degree so lar as their business was concerned. In other industrial enterprises the feeling was just t'he same. The profits brought into New Zealand through insurance com panics were greater than from any other source, except the products of the soil, lln somo districts they bad to pay contributions for fire brigades, but they were no better off in the least and not a whit further ahead. It was muy fictitious, and he thought it was not fictitious, but very real, for from 0 to 9 per cent, of the income from those districts 'went in that direction. He believed that on the whole the incoming year showed better prospects than those apparent at the beginning of the year just, passed. Mr. J. Kirker (general manager) returned thanks on behalf of the officers, and stated that although the past rear had been less satisfactory than usual they could not expect to turn out the same ratio every year. If such were the ca>e insurance companies v.ould not ib'e in the position that they 'were. Messrs John Edson and W. It. Wilson were re-elected directors.