At the present time the non-life side of the insurance industry is faced with many difficult problems. The poor results often shown by motor insurance accounts are bringing many insurance men to the conclusion that it is virtually impossible to conduct the business on a sound basis and that they must regard it as an onerous public service. Fire insurance business, for so long the backbone of many general insurance accounts, has caused increasing concern in recent years as the national level of fire wastage and the proportion of large fires have continued to increase. It seems worth while therefore, to ask whether the statistician can help to solve some of the problems of transacting non-life insurance in these circumstances. In this paper the author draws on three years' experience of research into the statistical aspects of general insurance to paint a broad picture of a scene unfamiliar to most actuaries. It is hoped that attention is thereby drawn to the potential value in this context of the techniques of probability and mathematical statistics.