SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1894. A NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD SUBJECT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4901, 13 December 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1894. A NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD SUBJECT.

It is universally held that Insurance Companies should in every ■ way support Fire Brigades, and help to maintain tliem in n state of efficiency asmnch as possible. Occasionally in order to give way to popular feeling the Insurance Companies do contribute towards the support of the Brigades, but as a, rule tlicy do not in this Colony consider it either part of their duty or conducive to their interests to do so. That is the stand taken by tho Wellington Underwriters Association, and we notice also recently by the Napier Association. Now most people would naturally suppose that the Fire Insurance Companies would bo amongst the first to support the Fire Brigades, that it would be, in fact, greatly to their interests to do so. On the contrary, however, the Fire Insurance Companies take quite an opposite view, and although it will be admitted that they have some logic in their arguments, yet it cannot be denied that they also display more than the usual amount of commercial selfishness in the matter. They (the Insurance Companies) say that the more efficient Fire Brigade you have the more the public relies upon them for protection from fire, and consequently the less they insure their properties. Why then, they 1 say, should we contribute to the > support of an institution which, by j its existence, tends to retluco our , business ? We are quito willing to 1 take the risk of fires, that is why we ; aro here. The public know they t are protected against loss to a large extent by insuring, and they are willing to pay us accordingly for the risk we take, ■ The more efficient a Fire Brigade is the lesser is the fire risk, and the, public, of course, see this and do not insure. This is the Insurance Companies' view of the matter, and a very curions position it is if it is thought out. mention this as it is one of those things not generally known to the uninitiated, and explains the action of the Fire lusnrauce' Companies in many instances when they have refused to contribute to the support of the Brigades.