creases in dividend are permissible, as and when the interest yielded by the funds increases.
"After applying the above principles we find that the total surpluses of the twenty-one companies in our table amounted to £6,469,747 before charging taxes. Taxes, net, required in the aggregate £1,535,404, so that there remained £4,934,343 as the final surplus from all sources on about £100 millions of premium income (excluding life premiums). The dividends provided for 1924 cost £6,159,661, towards the payment of which the interest receipts on the funds yielded £5,638,288, leaving only £521,373 to be drawn from the surplus. We see, therefore, that the aggregate surplus of £4,943,343 was disposed of as follows: £4,412, 970 undivided and set aside to strengthen reserves, and £521,373 expended in the payment of dividends."
It is an amazing exhibition of successful business and financial strength, and those who acquire proprietorship in it by a purchase of insurance shares do so usually at prices which make them pay high for a partnership in these assets and this wonderful organization. Many insurance shares stand at prices which yield to the buyer a rate of dividend which is considerably below the yield from Government securities—some of them less than 3 per cent.—and so
