THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1908. AN INSURANCE COMBINE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9046, 4 February 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1908. AN INSURANCE COMBINE.

We are informed on good authority that the fire insurance companies have practica'lyf decided to increase the rates of insurance in connection with all classes of risk. The benefit which hss accrued to the general public for some years past, owing to the lowering of rates, is, presumably, to be withdrawn by the increased premiums that will have to be pajd when the new tariff of rates comes into force in the near future. It will be remembered that fire insurance rates were reduced chiefly as the result of the competition that ensued upon the establishment of the State Fire Insurance Department. It is, not going too far to aver that State Fire Insurance was instituted in order to protect the defenceless public against possible extortion at the hands of private companies, and quite needlessly, so it would appear to-day. If our information is correct, and we have very good reason to believe that it is, the State Fire Insurance Department is prepared

to raise its rates in accordance with the increases proposed by . private companies, and generally to act fri conformity with its business rivals. It seems a little paradoxical that the Government should legislate against combines and trusts and so forth, while a State Department enters into a combination, which has as its object the increasing and maintaining of standard prices. But we suppose that even in tbo case of a State Department it is more expedient to behave in a business-like way than to run the risk of demonstrating that private enterprise can often achieve as good, if not better, results, than all the machinery, rank, pomp and splendour of a State organisation.