Fire.
Alliance Assurance Company, Limited
(successors to the Union Insurance Company of New Zealand), Stock Exchange Buildings, Princes Street, Dunedin. Telephone, 354. Post Office Box, 19; Bankers, Union Bank of Australia, Ltd. Branch manager for Otago and Southland, Mr: Charles Robert Smith. Chief agents in Invercargill, Messrs W. Tedd and Co., auctioneers, “The Rialto,” Don Street. Head office for New Zealand, Hereford Street, Christchurch, under which the company is further noticed in the Canterbury volume of this work.
The London And Lancashire Fire Insurance Company
, corner of Water and Crawford Streets, Dunedin. Telephone, 188. P.O. Box, 114. Bankers, Union Bank of Australia. The head offices of this old established company are at 45 Dale Street, Liverpool, and 73 to 76 King William Street, London, E.C. The security of the company totals £3 686,092, and the losses paid since its inception amount to over £11,397,000. The attorney for Otago and Southland is Mr. H. D. Stronach, who was appointed from the Liverpool office on the 1st of November, 1896.
The Manchester Assurance Company
, which was founded in 1773, and re-organised in 1824, occupies a very high position amongst British Fire Offices, and its methods have made it a popular company with insurers in all parts of the world. Its accumulated funds total nearly £3,000,000. Messrs J. G. Ward and Company are the chief agents and attorneys for Wellington, Otago and Southland; and they have appointed Mr. James Richardson, for many years chief of the Standard Company's Fire Department, as local manager for Otago. Having a complete local administration, the company offers to insurers similar advantages to those possessed by its colonial competitors, and consequently receives a large measure of public patronage.
Mr. James Richardson
, who is widely known as one of the most experienced fire underwriters in the colony, is the youngest son of the late Dr. Frederick Hall Richardson, and was born at the end of 1846, in Cheltenham, England, where he was educated. He came
with his family to Otago in the early days of the settlement, and on returning to England served an apprenticeship to mercantile life. After his return to New Zealand Mr. Richardson had about seven years of mercantile experience and also of “roughing it” before joining the Victoria Insurance Company as fire inspector in 1875. In 1880 he accepted the position of chief of the fire department in the Standard Insurance Company, where he also acted as deputy during the general manager's absences. When Messrs J. G. Ward and Company accepted the attorneyship of the Manchester Assurance Company they selected Mr. Richardson for the Otago management, and their choice has no doubt been fully justified by the results of his operations. Mr. Richardson having travelled in Switzerland and other European tourist resorts, early recognised the value of the scenic assets of Southern New Zealand, and has done much to advertise them by contributions to the press. During vacations he has visited thirty of the cold lakes, and is the author of guide books issued by the present Government and its predecessors. It was largely owing to a paper read by him before the Otago Institute that the Barrier and Resolution Islands were set apart as sanctuaries for the unique wingless birds of New Zealand, whose extinction on the main land is inevitable, owing to the introduction of weasels and stoats into the colony. Whilst the study and practice of fire insurance has been the work of his life for the past twenty-five years, Mr. Richardson has always taken a keen interest in field sports during his spare time, and to this must be attributed his surprising juvenility of appearance. He has been an active member of the Hunt Club, captain of the Dunedin Hockey Club, a well known rifle shot, and was one of the founders of the Amateur Athletic Club. Like many more distinguished men, he believes in exercise in the open air as a necessary alternative to the wear and tear of modern competition, and now finds it in handling rod or gun when opportunity offers. Mr. Richardson is an honorary life governor of the Otago Benevolent Institution, has filled positions as president of the Insurance Club and North End Improvement Committee, and served for some years on his local school committee. He has several times refused nomination for the City Council and the House of Representatives, for business reasons preferring to take no part in municipal or general politics.
Phoenix Assurance Company
(Mr. Thomas McKerrow, District Manager), Dunedin. Head Office, London. Head office for New Zealand, Wellington. General Manager, Mr. R. M. Simpson. This company, which was established in 1789, has a capital of £2,688,800, assets of £1,834,000, and an annual premium income of £1,500,000. Claims for
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over twenty-six millions have been paid by the company.
Royal Insurance Company;
Head office, Liverpool. Head office for Australasia, Melbourne. Messrs Henderson Law and Company, Chief Agents for Otago district, Exchange Buildings, Water Street, Dunedin. The “Royal” is the largest fire insurance company in the world, and has been established over half a century in Australasia. The total funds exceed twelve millions, with an annual revenue of over three and a half millions sterling. The company's ordinary fire policies cover loss arising from gas explosions, bush fires, and lightning; and rents of buildings rendered untenantable by fire are also insured, which affords a valuable protection to property owners and lessees. Messrs Henderson, Law and Company have represented the company in Dunedin from the early sixties, the chief agency for Otago having been held by their firm ever since the company commenced operations there.
Mr. Henry Robert Law
, Chief Representative for the district of Otago, is the second son of the late Mr. Henderson Law,
founder of the firm of Messrs Henderson Law and Company, merchants, Dunedin. He was born in Dunedin, and educated principally at the Dunedin High School. He afterwards joined the service of the Bank of Australasia, and after twelve years and a half retired to become a member of the Dunedin Stock Exchange, with which he is still connected. After the death of his father in 1900. he joined the firm of Henderson Law and Co., and when his brother, Mr. James Alexander Law, died in 1901, he became sole partner.
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