Page 6 Advertisements Column 3

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1920, Page 6

MCENTENARY OF ROYAL EXCHANGE ASSURANCE.

"TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENT SHALL COME, GREETING." v With these words the existence of t!i-> Royal Exchange Assurance, as such, literature began. They stand, a gracious salutation, at the head of the deed of indenture given under the Great Seal ot' Great Britain by George the First, of England, and herald the birth, as ;i corporate body, of the Royal Exchange Assurance. ~ They are the inaugura! words of a Royal Charter, dated and granted the 22nd June, 1720. The passing of time brings the world tlfis year, in Christian reckoning, to A.D 1920—it likewise brings the corporatidi; to its second centennial year. The Roya' Exchange Assurance will then be t\v.; hundred years old! A goodly age. The chief interest of a bicentenary to be sought in the event which it commemorates, but when the result which ensued from that event is still in evidence, multiplied manifold and grown beyond all dreams, of the originators, then the history of its development and expansion acquires an interest equal to that of the primary event itself. The event in the present cas.e, was the granting of the Charter—the result is the Royal Exchange Assurance as it is known to-day, with its tradition of 200 years of business well and honorably conducted, and its unimpeachable position as a premier Insurance Office, ancient in ib years—modern in its methods.

IN 1720. There were no railways, nor omnibuses, nor even stage coaches. Steamships were unknown, and war vessels were built of heart of oak. There were no telegraphs, no cables, no telephones, and the general Post Offic! had only just been opened with a very elementary service. There were no canals in Great Britain, and the roads were quite unsuitei to vehicular traffic. Gas as an illuminant for public use had not been invented, and in London streets were undrained, there were no house pipes or gutters, and dustmen and scavengers were unknown. Old London Bridge, built in the time of William Rufus, still spanned the Thames, Mechanically-driven machinery was nowhere in use. There was no such thing as incometax; the calendar still followed the Julian year, as in Russia to-day, and umbrellas had never been seen in England. British possessions outside of Europe consisted of certain lands in the American—including Newfoundland, our oldest colony—and two small company settlements in Africa; in all some two and a-quarter million square miles. Today the Dominions of the British Empire comprise an area of 13 million square miles. It nearly forty years after 1720 before the foundations of our {ndian Empire were begun, and seventy years had passed ere the first of the Australasian settlements was made. The acquisition of the greater part of our African Dominions is modern history. The progress of the Corporation in all branches of its business during the past 200 years has been marvellous, and today its business connections touch all parts of the world, including the islands of the South Sea. The New Zealand branch is conducted in and controlled from Wellington, while branches and agencies are established in all parts of the Dominion. A board of directors is appointed, and resides in Wellington; an! consists of Messrs William Brown. .George Wilson, and Alexander Macintosh. Mr. Osmond R. Bendall being the general manager for New Zealand. /.I'll? presence of this institution in this Dominion has been, and still is, of advantage to New Zealand. The Corporation not only transacts all classes of insurance business, but has also large investments in property and advances on mortgage. Local Agents;—Gilmour and