The Daily News. FRIDAY, JULY 1. OVER-INSURANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 70, 1 July 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JULY 1. OVER-INSURANCE.

Over-insurance against loss of any kind of property is an incentive to crime. The larger the insurance, the larger the profit to the insurance company—if the property does not burn, is not sunk, shaken to pieces by earthquake, or what not. Many insurances are effected without examination. In the case of household.'chattels there is frequently no difficulty in getting a £l3O cover on £IOO /worth of goods, for the reason that it ( is not usual for insurance companies 10 < value the goods they insure. In the \case of the incendiary who first overinsures his shore property and then apipiies the kerosene, the risks of loss of I lifle are not so great as. in wilful wrpek at'jsea. An Act to prohibit insurance companies from taking a risk over any property unless the minimum value has been assessed by impartial assessors has .been needed in New Zealand for many yeijirs. The mere verbal assurance of a [proposed insurer is not sufficient guarantee that the property he desires to'have covered is of the value of the co\ier. It was urged in the House of Lojrds yesterday that the over-insurance of iships should be made illegal. It is •presumed in the case of ships, as with shcjre .property, that the owners may obtain a cover exceeding the value of the property. If the companies allow it they are the greater sinners in the first instance. The owners who allow rattletrap oveiMnsured vessels to go to sea are criminals—there is no other word. Everybody knows that vessels that are meire "paint and rust" do go to sea, and that they are heavily insured. Everybody knows, too, that mysterious wrecks occur, and that the insurance is paid. We have had mysterious wrecks in New Zealand, and some deaths as a cause. As. it is not possible to send greedy owners who over-insure their .paint and rust to sea in their own ships, the next best thing to do is to make it a crime to effect any insurance on any property thg!t has not been assessed by competent and independent valuers. All business people who read this know that they could to-day get' fifty pounds 1 worth of property, insured for over fifty pounds-in a variety of companies, ana that the whole 'business could be ..done in the office of the company. Apparently, the same beautiful system obtains with the insurance of ships. It must cheer a stay-at-home shipowner vastly Ito receive his over-insurance on a j Wrecked vessel that has carried better .'lives than his to the bottom of the sea.