Insurance of Live Stock. 543 



will get all tho premiums ? For if you go to tlio National Insurance 

 Company, you will see the same men receiving claims as insm-crs every 

 year." In the first instance, then, he thought that the heacl-tax to be 

 placed i;2)on all cattle should he as low as a shilling, or sixpence twice 

 a year, an amount at which no one could reasonably grumble [" On 

 the birth? "J No; on possession at the time, say at Lady-day and 

 Michaelmas, On many grazing farms, cattle were put on in the 

 spring and taken off in the autumn. It would be well, therefore, to 

 take it twice a year. 



He had made this suggestion to Lord Spencer, who expressed 

 himself as favourable to it. Sujiposing he had 300 head of cattle at 

 Michaelmas, what was a shilling a-hcad to pay upon them'? Just 15Z., 

 a mere bagatelle. As to the premiums to be paid on foreign cattle, 

 that, he might be permitted to say, was quite foreign to the subject. 

 Tho only way to act was this : He would insure them by insiu-ing 

 their lives, and taking care that they did not come out of the slaughter- 

 house. 



It was a difficult question to decide upon ; but ho was entirely 

 opposed to voluntary insurance, which would be i:)artial in its opera- 

 tion. The system would leave the farmer entirely to the tender 

 mercy of his neighbours, who would not insure, and thus there 

 would be no real insurance at all. 



Once more he must express his regi-et that the "stamping-out" 

 system had not had a fair trial, though he admitted that many districts 

 were much indebted to it. 



Mr. Albert Pell wished to say a few words with regai'd to 

 Dr. Farr's proposal, for establishing a system of volxmtary insu- 

 rance. 



Dr. Fare : The plan which he had submitted to the Government 

 was for the establishment of a compulsory or universal system of 

 insurance. That which he had laid before the meeting was founded 

 on the voluntary jirinciple. 



Mr. Pell might be allowed to remind them, on this point, of the 

 old proverb, which really had much weight in it, that " it is well to 

 be off with the old love before we are on with the new ; " and at this 

 moment they were enjoying the benefits of a very wide and valuable 

 system of compulsory insurance. The scheme, according to which 

 the rinderpest had been dealt with by Parliament and the Government, 

 was simply that of a comjudsory insurance ; the valuation premium 

 not being ascertained until the animal was sick or dead, which 

 was the best time for valuing it. That, in his mind, was a valuable 

 plan to adhere to in such an emergency, and he should be very 

 sorry indeed to relinquish in any way the existing method by which 

 compensation was recovered in cases of loss, for another system 

 based ujjon the principle of voluntary insm-ance. Whether in the 

 course of time, when they had got rid of the plague, and things had 

 retm-ned to their normal condition, it would be advisable to form a 

 general or larger insiu'ancc company, was a matter that required a 

 great deal of consideration before deciding upon. Taking Dr. Farr's 

 own figui-es, he should not himself, speaking from his own experience, 



VOL. II. — S. S. 2 N 



