MUNICIPAL INSURANCE AGAINST HAIL IN SASKATCHEWAN 47 



any deficit which might occur. Should this be insufficient a pro rata distri- 

 bution of available funds was to be made among claimants, and any re- 

 maining deficit paid out of the possible surplus in the succeeding year, or 

 if this should fail by means of the levy of another and similar 20 cent rate. 



This and kindred plans were however rejected by the committee on 

 the grounds of impracticability. " A great deal has been said and written" , 

 thej^ state in their report, " about making an assessment upon the assessed 

 acreage or upon the ' excess seeded acreage '. We have fully discusssed 

 the advisabiHty of making an assessment of this kind and our opinion is 

 that such assessment would not be practicable at the present time. In 

 the course of a few years it might be possible to provide the administra- 

 tive municipal machinery necessary to secure the accurate information upon 

 which such an assessment must be based, and which would have to be se- 

 cured yearly prior to 15 June from each individual ratepayer. To make 

 such an assessment in 1917 would be practically impossible without a heavy 

 expense being incurred in each municipaUty. The ' excess seeded acreage ' 

 assessment is a more or less compHcated form of assessment upon the seeded 

 acreage basis ". 



2. Plan adopted by the Committee. — The proposal of the committee was 

 that " the revenue of the commission be raised by a flat rate of 6 cents per 

 acre upon all assessable lands in the municipalities except such as are 

 withdrawn and that the pro rata clause be retained ". 



The adoption of the committee's proposal by the legislature will there- 

 fore leave the insurance still hypothetical, in theory if not in practice. The 

 committee in substance declined the responsibility of making a proposal 

 for guaranteed absolute protection. " There is no doubt ", runs their report, 

 ' ' that reUable data to place hail insurance rates upon cannot be secured ; 

 hail insurance has not been in general operation long enough to provide 

 such information, we can only use such figures as are available and when 

 we recommend an increase of 50 per cent, over the existing rate, and when 

 we consider that if stich a rate had been in operation from the inception of 

 the scheme all the losses including 1916 could have been paid in full, we 

 beheve that we are recommending a rate that will not be oppressive, that 

 will not depart from the present method of assessment, that will give full 

 protection in ordinary years and a fair protection in disastrous years, a 

 rate that the ratepa3-er will know is the maximum amount that can be 

 charged upon him, and a rate that will place the present system upon a 

 safer and sounder financial basis than it has been on heretofore ". 



The committee further proposed that the Commission should be dis- 

 abled from reducing the fixed rate of premiums " until a surplus has been 

 accumulated which together with the current rate would equal 12 per cent, 

 of the risk carried ". 



c) Further Amendments Proposed. 



As regards lands which may annually be withdrawn from insurance, the 

 committee proposed that the second and third categories of these should 

 include patented or unpatented quarter sections, as already described, 



