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have
case of Chinese companies is remembered. Some of the se
companies in the past, besides being weak financially,
been willing to accept unsafe risks at unsound rates, and
it is even possible that some have been fraudulent adventures
from the outset. Whether such companies are fraudulent or
merely unsound through lack of expert knowledge, the result
is that the public suffer and the reputation of the Colony in
affected. The fact that serious fires have been rare during
the last few years and that fire insurance companies have con-
sequently had several good years is believed to have stimu-
lated the activities of fire insurance companies of the above
nature.
4.
The object of the Ordinance is not to discriminate between
British and foreign, or local and non-local, companies, nor
The
is it to provide a special fund for local creditors.
Chamber of Commerce urged the creation of a special liability
fund as a subsidiary object of the legislation, but the sound-
ness of the proposal is open to question, and the Government
had no knowledge that such a policy had been adopted in any
part of the British Empire. If such a policy were adopted
it would seem that the deposit, starting from a certain minimum
should vary with the amount of business done.
Life insurance companies have been already dealt with in the Life Insurance Companies Ordinance, 1907, Ordinance
No. 11 of 1907.
6.
The main provisions of the Ordinance are as follows:-
(a) Subject to sub-paragraph (c) below, every
insurance company which carries on fire or
marine insurance business within the Colony
must make a deposit of $100,000: s.2,3 and F(1).
5.
i