MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE 

 AND THRIFT IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 



AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 



THE INSURANCE OF TOBACCO TI^ANTATIONS AGAINST HAII^ IN BOSNIA AND 

 HERZEGOVINA. — Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung (Viennese Agricultural Jour- 

 nal) Vienna, No. 79, 30 September 1916. 



For many year.s an endeavour has been made to solve the problem of 

 insuring tobacco plantations against hail in Herzegovina, where the tobacco 

 harvest and the vintage may be said to supply the rural population with 

 the whole of their revenue. Since for fiscal reasons the tobacco monopoly 

 could not consider indemniying for damages by paying a higher price 

 for tobacco, some other means of protecting the tobacco planters against 

 the loss caused by such natural causes as hail had to be chosen. 



At first no scheme of the sort could be realized owing to the conser- 

 vatism of the native producers. Only a comparatively small number of 

 the communes which grew tobacco decided to enter into voluntary con- 

 tracts for insurance against hail. In 1910, therefore, an ordinance compell- 

 ed all the planters of the regie of Bosnia-Herzegovina to insure their to- 

 bacco plantations. The following are the chief provisions of this ordinance : 



Insurance of tobacco plantations against damage by hail is obligatory 

 for planters of the regie and is based on the principle of mutuaUty. 

 Broadly, the following are the chief features of the S3^stem. When 

 the planters deliver their tobacco to the regie they pay a quota thereof, 

 proportionate to the quantity they deliver, into an insurance fund. 

 The premiums thus have the form of deductions from their normal profits. 

 The sums intended to indemnify them for losses by hail are taken from 

 this insurance fund, the damage sustained being estimated by valuation. 



The insurance premium is i per cent, of the normal return made by 

 the monopoly for the tobacco, and is paid, as has been said, into the insur- 

 ance fund. If however such premiums do not suffice to compensate for 

 the damage, they may be increased until the}^ are equal to 3 per cent, of 

 the return. The weakening of the insurance fund by the pa^^ment of in- 

 demnities is counterbalanced by loans bearing no interest from the pro- 

 vincial treasury. 



If when the premium-quota has been raised to 3 per cent, obligations 

 can still not be met — that is if losses cannot be indemnified and loans 



