"Fire Insurance, an index to prosperity", by T.L. Morrisey

 

Upper and lower photographs are of T.L. Morrisey's office at 260 St. James Street;
Notman photograph, McCord Museum, 1894

This essay by T.L. Morrisey is taken from:

Canada's Future, What She Offers After the War

A Symposium of Official Opinions

Edited By E. A. Victor

Copyright Canada, 1916

Published by:

The MacMillan Co. of Canada, Ltd

Toronto, MacMillan and Co., Limited

Thomas Louis Morrisey, around 1917

By T. L. Morrisey

Author's biography: Thomas Louis Morrisey: born I860; president, All Canada
Fire Insurance Federation: past-president, Montreal Insurance Institute; past-president, Canadian Fire Underwriters Association. One of the leaders in the insurance world. He is the father of T.S. Morrisey and the Beaver Hall artist, Darrell Morrisey.

                                            -o-

It would, indeed, be difficult to find a truer index to the material growth of Canada than the steady increase in the volume of fire insurance reported to the Department of Finance at Ottawa.

Insurance on property presupposes property; therefore, the amount at risk held by the fire insurance companies operating within the territory may be taken as a reasonably safe guide in estimating the wealth of the community.

The Dominion of Canada came into being in the year 1867, and although the Fathers of Confederation overlooked specifically mentioning insurance as coming within the pur¬ view of the legislative powers of Parliament, nevertheless, the legislators of that day, sitting at Ottawa, appear to have had little doubt on the subject, since one of their earliest acts— Act 31, Vic., Cap. 48—related to insurance.

The first return to Parliament, under this Act, was presented at the second session of the first Parliament, covering the year 1868.

A perusal of this report now, in the light of later developments, proves very interesting reading.

The total amount of fire insurance in force on December 31st, 1868, was $203,653,894, a sum, no doubt, considered by our sturdy forebears not to be despised. Possibly when we picture to ourselves what Canada was then—four provinces not yet connected up; the conditions of life, simple, as com¬ pared with the complex social existence of to-day, the then chief sources of wealth being the four basic industries, agriculture, fishing, mining, and lumbering, the latter including the cognate industry, wooden shipbuilding—the great indus¬ trial development that has since taken place being still hidden m the womb of the future—we, too, can perceive why the modest figures of 1868, taken as an earnest of what was to come, amply justified the satisfaction of our forefathers.

The gradual expansion, and industrial development, of the country is reflected in the returns for succeeding years.

For the purpose of comparison, the amount at risk as at 31st December, 1868, and the corresponding figures for 1874, and at each quinquennium thereafter, are here given. These figures speak more eloquently than words:—

1868.$203,653,894

1874.$321,132,413

1879. $407,357,985

1884.$605,507,789

1889.$694,538,378

1894. $836,067,202

1904. $1,215,013,931

1909.$1,863,276,504

l914.$3,456,019,009

The population of Canada in 1868 was probably around 3,250,000 (census, 1871, 3,485,761). To-day it is, roughly, 8,000,000 (census, 1911, 7,206,643). Thus, while the popula¬tion has increased less than two and a half times, the fire insurance on property, as reported to the department at Ottawa, increased seventeen times.

It must be borne in mind that the figures quoted, being merely for the purpose of comparison, are, of necessity, limited to the amount carried by companies licensed by the Dominion Government, since no others are available for the earlier period. The control of insurance, unlike banking, has never been assumed solely by the Dominion. The provinces have also granted charters and licensed companies to carry on the business of insurance within their respective borders, and the volume of business so written by such companies, as com¬ piled from latest available reports (Ontario, 1913) reaches the very respectable total of $753,078,617.

This is not all. Under the Insurance Act of Canada, paradosical as it may seem, insurance with unlicensed com¬ panies—having no legal status in the country—is permitted; persons placing insurance with such companies are merely required to make a return of same to the superintendent of insurance.

The insurance placed with unlicensed companies, as re¬ ported for 1914, amounted to $219,743,335, which, while a sensible reduction from that reported for the preceding year, is still considerably in excess of the amount at risk of all companies in 1868.

Taking the amounts for the three classes of companies, we find:—

Dominion companies. $3,456,019,009

Provincial companies .  $753,078,617

Unlicensed companies.  $219,843,335

Grand total .  $4,428,840,961

Here we have a rough-and-ready method of arriving at the value of all our buildings, and movable property; dwellings and their contents; churches, schools, colleges; warehouses and stocks of merchandise; factories and machinery; farm buildings, implements, and live stock; grain and lumber; steamboats plying on inland waters; railway property, other than right-of-way; in short, property in every conceivable form liable to destruction by fire.

Having regard to the uninsured property, and property, though insured, under-insured, a fair estimate would be to place the insurance carried at 50 per cent, of the actual value, which would yield a sum of $8,857,681,922, or well over $1,000, for every man, woman, and child in the country.

The people of Canada are, likewise, forehanded; they have money in the bank, the amount standing to their credit in savings account as at 31st July, 1915, being no less than $683,761,432. They carry life insurance to the extent of $1,216,955,432, upon which they paid premiums (1914) of $41,129,724.

Our wealth does not stop here. We have thirty thousand miles of railway; highways and bridges; municipal improvements, such as pavements, water, sewerage, and lighting systems, all contributing to the comforts of modern life. Our interest in these may be only an equity, as the bondholders, and m the position of mortagagees, but the benefits accrue to us.

 Our wealth does not stop here. We have thirty thousand miles of railway; highways and bridges; municipal improvements, such as pavements, water, sewerage, and lighting systems, all contributing to the comforts of modern life. Our interest in these may be only an equity, as the bondholders stand in the position of mortagagees, but the benefits accrue to us.

 Then, to cap all, we have a very nice little parcel of real estate, its "metes and bounds" being as follows: on the north, the Arctic ; on the east, the Atlantic ; on the south, the 49th parallel of latitude ; and on the west, the Pacific, comprising, in all, three and three-quarter million square miles, more or less, some of which has sold as high as $128 per square foot.

 Upon this estate is to be found a great diversity of natural resources: coal in abundance, east and west; minerals, base and precious ; orchard and argicultural lands suitable for all kinds of farming and producing the finest wheat in the world; the largest forest reserves; fur-bearing animals; shores teeming with fish; rivers and lakes navigable to the heart of the continent ; rivers not navigable, but possessing value as water-power, or hydro-electric, estimated at 20,000,000 horsepower, of which not 10 per cent, has been developed.

 Climate is sometimes urged against us, but even this has its compensations; for, if it is cold in winter, may we not reckon amongst our most valued assets the longest hours of sunshine in summer? Old Sol, with an utter disregard of labour union maxims, does not hesitate to work overtime in the ripening of our crops.

 To the climate may we not also attribute, in no small degree, the most valued asset of all the strong, hardy, self-reliant, virile race engaged in the world task of building a nation on this northern half of the North American continent ?

The sons of Canada have proved their mettle upon every occasion that has arisen. The same spirit that prevailed in 1885, when the Rebellion in the North-West threatened their country, and again in 1899-1900, when they answered the call of Empire half way around the world to South Africa, is the spirit that asserted itself immediately the long-talked of German peril crystallized itself into German attack upon their national life. The response of Canada was quick, and befitting the proud position she occupies amongst the free and self-governing communities forming that glorious Empire which stands for everything that makes for the uplift of mankind.

In the never-to-be-forgotten April days of the eventful year, 1915, when the torture of suspense spread like a pall over the country to its remotest corner, to be followed by the thrill of pride and exultation, as the story of the glorious deeds of the Canadians at Ypres and St. Julien gradually unfolded, a nation was born! There, upon the classic battle-ground of Europe, that witnessed the military operations of the mighty Caesar and his legions, and, down through the centuries, the struggles of various peoples for mastery ! There, against the onslaughts of the greatest military organization the world has ever known, employing methods entirely novel in warfare, and, be it said to the everlasting disgrace of Germany, as despicable as novel, these new-found warriors of the twentieth century held fast, and, in the words of their illustrious commander-in-chief, "saved the situation".

 May it not well be asked, where is there another eight million people as highly favoured as this eight million, another community possessed of the same per capita wealth, potential as well as in being? Should we not justly be proud of our heritage our "place in the sun" and forever be prepared to defend it to our last dollar, and our last man ? 

On 03 December 2010, walking in NDG

Corner Montclair Avenue and Fielding Avenue

Caserne 46, Fire Station 46, on Somerled Avenue

St. Monica's Roman Catholic Church on Terrebonne

St. Thomas Anglican Church on Somerled

 

“A Wood-path” by Bliss Carman

 

Veeto in 2015

At evening and at morning
By an enchanted way
I walk the world in wonder,
And have no word to say.


It is the path we traversed
One twilight, thou and I;
Thy beauty all a rapture,
My spirit all a cry.


The red leaves fall upon it,
The moon and mist and rain,
But not the magic footfall
That made its meaning plain.

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course, October 2024

 On 11 October 2024. 

Mount Royal Cemetery, 27 November 2012

 

My father's grave before a monument was installed

I placed the cinder block and stones there, "Between Chaston and Green"

The garden, 19 November 2024

It’s the same garden but it changes, it’s a living entity subject to the changing seasons, weather, and time of day. It was Clause Monet who showed us how the sunlight at the different times of the day changed our perception and our emotional response to the same environment, the paintings in the Série des Cathédrales de Rouen is a good example of this. And so with each changing season it’s the same garden but it's like a different garden, that’s how it appears, but it’s still the same garden, changing, growing, this place of peace and quiet in the city. 

"Come to me here from Crete" by Sappho

 

Come to me here from Crete,

To this holy temple, where

Your lovely apple grove stands,

And your altars that flicker

With incense.

And below the apple branches, cold

Clear water sounds, everything shadowed

By roses, and sleep that falls from

Bright shaking leaves.

And a pasture for horses blossoms

With the flowers of spring, and breezes

Are flowing here like honey:

Come to me here,

Here, Cyprian, delicately taking

Nectar in golden cups

Mixed with a festive joy,

And pour.

Louis Dudek's Continuation and The Beatles "Revolution 9"

 

Morgan's Department Store, downtown Montreal, 1955 

Continuation is an assemblage of random and seemingly unrelated statements, mundane or philosophical, epigrammatic and often unrelated to other statements in the same poem. I doubt many readers (or Dudek’s friends) understood, or even liked, what Dudek was doing in Continuation; similarly, The Beatles song, "Revolution 9", left most listeners bewildered, the song is repetitive, disturbing, and makes no rational sense and yet, ironically, even paradoxically, it makes perfect sense as does Dudek’s Continuation. Most of The Beatles’ songs are popular music, none are as idiosyncratic and experimental as “Revolution 9”; indeed, this is a piece of music, of voices and sounds, that suggests the overwhelming banality of everyday life.                  

Both “Revolution 9"  and Continuation seem anomalies in their creators’ bodies of work; neither bring the audience much immediate pleasure until some sense or meaning is found in the work; both are more cerebral, more intellectual, than is found in most music or poetry. “Revolution 9” has  a vision of the meaningless of life, life is overwhelmingly banal, purposeless, and filled with small talk and trivialities. Remember the existentially bleak lyrics to “Eleanor Rigby”, existence has failed, there is nothing to believe in, and life is without purpose or meaning; this is a long distance from typical Beatles music. But it is also the human condition found in another Beatles' song, “A Day in the Life”: 

Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, I noticed I was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream

Meanwhile, Continuation is a departure, a deepening, and an extension of the form and content of Dudek's previous books, for instance Atlantis (1967); form and content are extensions of each other.  Atlantis, and Dudek's other travel-centered books, are connected to place, to geography, to consecutive thinking, while Continuation is connected to mundane existence, it is a stream of consciousness that exists in the realm of thought, it is bits and pieces of existence strung together, more Mallarme than Pound, maybe some Joyce and Woolf, but Pound is still present. Both “Revolution 9” and Continuation have moved away from the narrative function and into observation and statement, to isolated thinking, to non sequitur statement rather than aesthetic artifice; there seems to be little distinction in the importance of one thought over another; they are cut-ups, experiments in process, collages of ideas. Both are the thought processes of consciousness in the darkness of a sound proof isolation chamber, speaking to itself; it is close to being theatre of the absurd.

Note: Listen to the "Ideas" programmes on CBC radio for a discussion on Number Nine, https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-23-ideas/clip/16012646-nine-a-number-synchronicity

On Walking

I am a walker, always walking alone, usually taking one of two or three possible routes depending on how I feel, weather conditions, and how much time I have for a walk. Sometimes I take photographs on my walk, my solitary walk; it’s all I do for exercise, but it’s also time for thinking. I am told that to be healthy one needs to lift weights, go to the gym, do yoga, tai chi, do jig saw puzzles to prevent dementia, don’t eat salt, avoid sugar, don’t smoke, don’t drink, eat a Mediterranean diet, and more, and I’d like to do these things, but all I do is walk.