42 CANADA - INSURANCE AND THRIFT 



tirely ruined by hail the indemnity of $ 5 an acre compensated not for the 

 full value lost but onl}' for the cost of putting the crop in. To meet this com- 

 plaint the Commission, as empowered by the amendments of 1915, inaugu- 

 rated a system by which farmers in municipalities already under the Act 

 might, by appl3dng to the secretary of their municipality, pay an addition- 

 al rate of 5 cents an acre, and thus insure their crops for an additional § 5 

 an acre, or § 10 an acre in all. 



Participation in the additional insurance thus initiated was naturally 

 confined to grain growers within the 139 municipahties under the Act, and 

 even on their part it w^s entirely voluntary. There was therefore a danger 

 that risks would not be sufficiently distributed. The Commissioners stated 

 that to guard against this they had in the first place employed agents 

 in all the municipalities under the Act to solicit adherence to the scheme 

 for additional insurance ; and in the second place had arranged with several 

 good insurance companies for reinsurance, in every district where risks 

 which could not easily be faced were in the least likely to occur. The rate 

 of 5 cents an acre was less by one cent than the usual rate, but the Commis- 

 sioners claimed that this fact was justified by the economy of their adminis- 

 tration. 



According to an approximate estimate pubhshed in vSeptember 1916 

 the value of the additional insurance in force was $ 2,000,000 and the 

 total revenue from insurance $ 1,000,000. 



§ 3. The BREAKDOWN OF THE SCHEME. 



a) The Results of 1906. 



In a review of the first three A^ears of their labours published at the end 

 of 191 5 the Commissioners hint at a jjossible eventual abatement of the 

 assessment rate of 4 cents an acre for insurance under the Act of 1912. 

 "It is the intention of the Commission ", they say, ' to maintain the 4 

 cent assessment rate at least until the reserve fund equals one year's 

 re\'enue, thus placing its finances upon a sound basis so that claims can 

 be settled earlier in the season ". 



But far from bringing them nearer a point at which the}^ can lower 

 the rate, 19 16 has proved the whole financial basis of this scheme for in- 

 surance to be unsound. The following figures summarize the business of 

 the year : 



Number of municipalities under the Act. . . 139 



Approximate acreage under crop insured. . . 7,000,000 



Number of Claims 10,000 



Amount of Claims $3,600,000 I t. c.^ 



TA Z ( S3,DCO,000 



Expenses $ 50,000 ) 



Revenue $ 950,000 



Deficit on the year $2,700,000 



