MUNICIPAL INSURANCE AGAINST HAIL IN SASKATCHEWAN 



41 



cide points on wliich they could not agree. The Commission's regulations 

 as to this provision are printed on the back of the report which the inspector 

 leaves with the claimant after his first inspection. Onl}^ two claimants 

 availed themselves of the provision in 1915, and in both cases the two arbi- 

 trators agreed without calling in a third person and the award was not in- 

 creased but reduced. 



Two general and twenty-one regular inspectors weie employed in 1915, 

 all of them then or recently engaged in farming and eleven of them reeves 

 or councillors of a municipality at the time of their appointment. 



e) Finance. — The following figures show the financial working of 

 the scheme before 191 6. 



Number 

 of Municipal- 

 ities under 

 the Act 



Number 

 of Claims 

 Received 



Amount paid 



in 



Claims 



Costs 



of 



Administration 



1913 

 1914 



I915 



115 

 126 

 127 



S 788,389.50 

 896,365.26 

 917.293 96 



5,300 • 



3.568 



3,991 



S 756,960.11 

 512,900.75 

 670,809.42 



•S 26,928.52 



30,029.24 



35,871.51 



These results were received as evidence of a great success by the Hail 

 Insurance Commission. Nearly two million dollars had been paid to the 

 farmers in indemnities ; in 1914 and 1915 payments, aggregating % 35,000, 

 had been made into a tax adjustment reserve fund ; and a surplus of more 

 than half a million dollars had been accumulated. 



In the report issued early in 1916 the Commissioners l^id stress on the 

 economical nature of the scheme they administered. They stated that out 

 of every dollar collected from the farmers 73 cents had been returned to 

 them in the form of indemnities, 21 cents were held as a reser^^e fund against 

 future abnormal losses, and only 6 cents were absorbed by the expenses of 

 the Commission and the commission paid to secretaries of municipalities. 

 In the case, however, of nineteen private insurance companies, which were 

 the rivals of the Commission in the province, only ^j cents out of every dol- 

 lar collected were returned to the farmers in the form of indemnities, and the 

 remaining 67 cents went to pay expenses and make the profits of sharehold- 

 ers. The insurance effected by the Commission would, if it had been car- 

 ried on by private companies, have cost the farmers $ 3,000,000.00 more 

 than had been the case. 



The Commission had originally no power to borrow money except for 

 administrative purposes. It was however deemed advisable to in\est a 

 portion of the surplus, and therefore the Act as amended in 1915 allowed the 

 Commission to borrow money for any purpose, using its securities as colla- 

 teral. 



f ) Additional Insurance. — There was some discontent with the amount 

 of indemnities received for losse. was sit stated that when a crop was en- 



