The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-03 00:00:00

EQUITABLE FIRE INSURANCE

COMPANY.

SECOND ANNUAL REPORT.

On Wednesday the annual general meeting of this com-
pany took place at the London Tavern, Bishop sgate-street,
Mr. A. C. Barclay in the chair. The following gentle-
men were also present :—Mr. James Finlay, Mr. P.
Bainbrigge, Mr. R. E. Procktor, Mr. Daniel Noble,
Mr. Henry Eve, Mr. G. Bartley, Mr. C. A. Harries,
Mr. James Lees, Mr. J. Irvine, Mr. W. Tucker, Mr.
M. Young, Mr. J. Fullarton, Mr. F. R. Starr, general
agent for the British North American Colonies.

The CHAlRMAN—Gentlemen, I will first call upon
the Secretary to read the advertisement convening this
meeting.

The Secretary then read the advertisement.
The CHAIRMAN—I have to express my regret at. the
absence of John Moss, Esq., one of the directors, who is
unable to attend in consequence of the loss of a near
relative. The Accountant will now read the b alance-
sheet.

The following statement of accounts, from commence-
ment in Aug., to 1850, Dec. 25, 1852, was then read :

To subscribed capital.
Premiums on insur-

ances
Duty

£191,500 0 0

£36,662 5 3
5,195 5 1

Interest on investments
Income tag on dividends
Poundage on duty
Current claims
Balances due to agents.
Suspense account

41,857 10 4
518 1 7
35 9 5
84 5 3
5,000 0 0
37 6 7
15 14 0

£239,048 7 2

By subscribed capital not called up £153,200 0 0
Loss on engines sold 5O 0 0
Renewal receipts and policies, can-
celled 823 0 3
Losses by fires
1 Expenses and loss by Paris agency
(since closed) 1,328 13 7
Ditto and ditto by Brussels ditto (do ) 545 16 7
Expenses incurred in establishing so-
ciety, and cost of management, in-
cluding home and foreign salaries,
law charges, rent and taxes, travel-
ling agents, provincial agents, office
expenses, &c 12,029 12 3
New York current account. 3lO 6 3
Commissions 4,648 5 5
Duty 3,414 11 11
Dividends paid to shareholders 1,234 12 8
Policy stamps lB2 14 6
Printing and stationery 1,368 16 2
Advertising 402 18 4
Postage and carriage of parcels 295 11 7
Directors' fees 1,394 11 11
Re-assurances 362 11 10
Balance of deposit, and call due and
in course of payment 10,529 10 0
Balances due from agents 4,621 9 9
Thomas Lamie Murray 5,407 13 3
Office furniture
Cash invested, and at bankers 12,022 2 10

£239,048 7 2
"To the Chairman and Court of Directors of the

Equitable Fire Insurance Company.
"Gentlemen,—On replacing in your hands the balance-
sheet submitted to our examination, with our certificate
thereto attached, we cannot refrain from expressing the
pleasure and satisfaction we have felt in proceeding with
that responsible investigation, from the fact of the great
contrast afforded by the regular and correct state of
the company's books and transactions— under its present
board of management—as compared with the former. And
we feel that this great improvement demands not only our
notice but our congratulations to the company on the
advantages derivable therefrom.—We are, gentlemen,
your very obedient servants, THos. WILLIAMS, HENRY
EVE, Auditors.—May 13."

The CHAIRMAN then called upon the Secretary to read
the report.

" The directors have great pleasure in meeting the
shareholders at this general meeting as they are
very desirous of placing before them a full statement
of all the affairs of the rcompany, being confident
that the proprietors will feel that they have every
reason to be well satisfied with its present condition,
and its future prospects. The Equitable issued
its first policy on the Bth August, 1850, and up to the
end of last year the policies issueditad reached the extra-
ordinary number of 9,652, showing an amount of busi-
ness which is believed to be without parallel in the ex-
perience of any similar institution. The Equitable, al-
though in all respects perfectly distinct from the Na-
tional Loan Fund Life Assurance Society, was brought
out under the powerful auspices of that company ; and
immediately upon coming into existence found itself in
possession of first-rate agencies, not only in Great Britain
and Ireland, but also in the British North American Pro-
vinces, the United States, and also of agencies in France
and Belgium. The expenditure in the establishment
of the business was very great, but this your present
directors have no desire to dwell upon, as they have the
more pleasing task to perform of placing before you
features of subsequent prosperity more acceptable to
their own feelings and yours. The directors are sorry to
be obliged to refer to the unworthy efforts that have
been made by rivals to injure this company both at home
and abroad—in the first instance, by making a most un-
fair use of the balance sheet up to the end of 1851, and
then by exaggerating the amount of our loss at Montreal
by the July fires, and using this at the very time the
company was paying every farthing of its losses, as a
weapon by which to injure and, if possible, to destroy it.
However, as is almost invariably the case these efforts
to injure us have only recoiled upon those who have
been ungenerous enough to make them. In referring
to these attacks the directors feel it to be only due to
the general agent, the agents, and lodal directors in the
British North American provinces, together with the
agents generally, to record their high admiration of the
faithful way in which they have done their duty in the
noble stand they have made for the interests of the com-
pany, and to congratulate them upon their triumph and
success. The directors are also desirous of expressing to
the shareholders their perfect satisfaction with the man-
ner in which the business of the company is conducted
in these distant agencies, and their confidence that
every precaution is used to secure a safe and profitable
business by the most careful personal attention on the
part of the local directors in examining and deciding
upon the quality of risks, the amount of rates, and ge-
nerally to every part of the business. Your directors
in the midst of all the anxiety inseparable from the
charge of your interests, and the interests of the in-
sured, have felt quite sustained by the assurance, that
so long as you remained firmly united as one corporate
body, and they continued to possess your confidence,
there could be no fear whatever of the ultimate success
of the company. Since the month of July, 1852, there
has been a complete re-organisation of the board of
directors, Archibald Campbell Barclay, Charles Bennett,
Frederick Morris, Edmond Sheppard Symes, M.D.,
Thomas West, and Francis Valentine Woodhouse, being
duly qualified, have since the last annual general
meeting been severally elected directors by resolutions
of special courts, according to the provisions of the deed
of settlement, in the room of T. L. Murray, W. Richard.
son, M. C. Maher, E. S. Symes, M.D. A. Vigne, and
Stephen Mills, and Archibald Campbell, Barclay, has
been duly elected chairman of the board of directors and j
of the company. There has also been a complete r( -
organisation of the agencies, and generally of the
whole business of the company. The agencies at-
Paris and Belgium, being found too burdensome to be
continued, have been brought to a close, and the agency
at Edinburgh has been reorganised and placed upon a
more economical and efficient footing. The secretary
hasibeen employed in introducing a better system into
his department, especially with reference to the
home agencies, and has prepared a book of
instructions for the guidance of the agenti, with I
tables of rates of premium ; while the accountant has
brought up the books iu his department, and succeeded
in disentangling the neglected accounts of the company,
so as to bring them to a perfect balance, and to present
to the directors a clear and full and detailed view of
the business of the company at all its agencies. Besides
the important result of restoring a healthful tone to the
whole business of the company, there has been a very
large reduction made in its current expenditure by the
work of reorganisation, and the changes above alluded
to. It has been the anxious desire of the directors to
keep the proprietors fully informed with respect to all
they have been doing, and to claim from them that
hearty co-operation which a corporate body has a right
to expect from all its various members.- The directors
are especially anxious to press upon the attention of
the shareholders, that it is their duty as well as their
interest to strive to advance the general prosperity
of the country by every means in their power. The
10,000 shares issued up to the end of the last finan-
cial year, distributed as they are amongst a most re-
spectable and wealthy proprietory, proved sufficient for
all the purposes of the society, but the magnitude of the
business already attained, and which is still so rapidly
extending, makes it desirable to increase the amount of
capital in hand. Your directors have, therefore, deter-
mined to . issue 10,000 additional shares, at par ; they
have already received applications for a considerable
number, and have every reason to believe that the whole
will be awarded within a very short period. The present
shareholders will, of course, have the preference, and it is
not intended to make any further issue except at such
premium as may hereafter be determined upon. It is only
necessary to state further that during the four months
terminating on the 30th of April, the number of poli-
cies issued has been 1,545, making a total of 11,197.
The premiums received during these four months have
reached the large amount of 9,8650, while the claims
paid have only amounted to 2,4501 The directors have
pleasure in declaring a dividend for the half-year at the
rate of five per cent. per annum, which will be payable
to shareholders on and after the Ist of August next.—
ARCI.ID. CAMPBELL BARCLAY, Chairman."

The CHAIRMAN—I will only make one or two remarks
in addition to the report, chiefly with respect to the re-
duction of expenditure alluded to, that has been general
in its character, and to what extent you can best judge,
by my telling you that in one item alone—salaries—a
saving of 1,3001. a-year has been effected, and that
during the four months of the present year we have
added to the invested capital a sum of 5,0001. These are
the only additional facts I think it is necessary to trouble
you with, but if there are any others upon which the