FIRE INSURANCE PROBLEMS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9613, 6 October 1909, Page 4

FIRE INSURANCE PROBLEMS.

The interesting address delivered by Mr F. Haughey in the Town Hall on Monday evening last calls to mind, indirectly, that the householders and business people of this town pay a very large sum annually in fire insurance premiums. The amount paid by way of compensation for losses is very small indeed, and it is, there fore, clear, considering the individual interests, as a wnoie, that thousands of pounds are paid away each year for which there is no return. Mr Haughey, we understand, is opposed to Fire Boards on the ground of expense, but seeing that in cansiJering the cost of fixe insurance, or, let us siy, protection from fire, the whole question should be brought under reView, it seems to us that he is merely touching the fringe of a great problem. Fire Brigades might, al3o, be objected to on the ground of expense, but they are essential, and if they cost a grdat deal more than they do now they would .-till have to be maintained. Seeing, therefore, that protection from fire is such an expensive matier as things are to-day we cannot help asking whether there is not some plan by which the cost, could be reduced substantially. We understand that the total sum paid in fire insurance premiums annually in Masterton is, at least, £15,000. Here is a very Lrcje sum of money, and the fire hi3to-y of the town certainly suggests t'.ut a municipal fire insurance scleme would , pay the citizens handsomely. If the residents of Masterton enjoyed the benefits of protection from fire at the present cost, and had in addition to pay but nominal rates for municipal conveniences, while I ere was a substantial annual sum f.-c public improvements, we miff i< well aver that Masterton. had reached the El Dorado of "Municipaldom." We commend municipal fire insurance to Mr Haughey as a subject worthy of his steel.