CATTI,E INSURANCE IN BURMA 53 



the sanitary' regulations as to contagious disease have been broken. Mem- 

 bership is restricted. Valuations are made half-yearly by three experts 

 appointed yearly by the general meeting. Substitution is permitted if values 

 are equal. The premium rate is 5 per cent, per annum payable half- 

 yearly in March and September. Funds are deposited with the local credit 

 society at call. Deaths have to be vouched for by the experts and the 

 society" only pays two thirds of the value insured. The skin and flesh belong 

 to the society which sells them, if saleable. Hence the owner stands to get 

 two thirds of the value insured, whether his animal dies of a contagious 

 or non-contagious disease. Societies are managed by a general meeting 

 and a committee. 



Pending the formation of the central reinsurance society, the form- 

 ation of village societies was restricted, and in the period July 1914 to 

 June 1915 only seven such societies were registered. In the year July 1915 

 to June 1916, 247 societies have been registered and a further considerable 

 increase is expected in the coming year. Of the 305 village societies in exist- 

 ence on 30 June 1916 about a hundred had not yet become afSHated to 

 the central society. The bulk of the new societies registered only started 

 business in March or April 1916, and results cannot therefore be appreciated 

 till October next, at the earliest. 



Judging by the steady accumulations of funds by those societies which 

 have been working for several years, and in view of the fact that onty 

 two thirds of the value is paid in indemnity, there is ground for believing 

 that the 5 per cent, rate of premium is unncessarily high and somewhat 

 likely to hinder the progress of insurance. Burma has, however, except 

 in the northern wet zone, enjoyed a remarkable measure of immunity from 

 rinderpest in the last ten years. As it is yet too early to say that this 

 immunity is due to the improvement in veterinary control, and not rather 

 to good fortune and disease cycles, it is perhaps better to err on the safe 

 side in the matter of the premium rate. 



Many of the villages in which cattle insurance societies are formed 

 are in tracts only partially served by the Post Office, and there is conse- 

 quently difficulty both in remitting premia to the central society and in 

 the pa3^ment of indemnities. Such difficulties of course check expansion 

 but they will decrease with time. 



In three areas during the year ending 30 June 1916 epidemic disease 

 — anthrax — appeared and accounted for mortality above the average. 



There is every indication that the adoption of co-operative cattle 

 insurance in these five districts where co-operative credit is already well 

 estabhshed will promote better protection of cattle against disease, better 

 relations with the Veterinary Department, and a decrease in mortality. 



The statements given below show results to 30 June 191 6. It has 

 not been necessary to draw upon the government guarantee loan. 



Cattle are at present often undervalued : they average about Rs.30 

 per head whereas a truer average would be Rs. 40. The proceeds of skin 

 and flesh have exceeded expectations. 



The societies are audited, along with the agricultural credit societies 



