CO129-447 - Governor Sir May - 1918 [1-3] — Page 352

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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