LIFE INSURANCE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 321, 15 August 1879, Page 2

LIFE INSURANCE.

(Oamaru Mail.)

Scarcely a week passes over our heads without the occurrence of some sudden or violent death. Some breadwinner, toiling hard to win an independence for himself and his little ones, is struck down by the ruthless hand of that grim tyrant who spares neither young nor old, neither gentle nor simple. Cut off, perchance, at the moment when he was beginning to spy " land at last," he was unable to leave to his family the wherewithal to feed, clothe, and educate them. Had he been spared, in all likelihood the case would have been different, for in a land like ours industry and sobriety rarely fail to surround the man who brings them into play with the solid comforts of this life. The question then arises, how is a man to make that certain provision which .will leave his memory beyond reproach, satisfy the still, small voice of his conscience; and save, perhaps, his boys and girls from the gutter and the gallows? The answeris "&s ready as a borrower's cup " —by insuring his life. This is without doubt the short and certain way. No Scripture ever carried more solid conviction in its terms than that wherein it is said, " It is appointed unto every man once to die." Than the fact that all must die nothing can be more sure, than tlie moment of death nothing less certain. How woefully negligent, then, how wickedly ree&less, are those who, while admitting the benefit of a life policy, yet defer securing one, and let " to-morrow, and tomorrow, and to morrow, creep on its petty pace from day to day." To the right thinking man the existence of such a class would almost appear mythical. Exist, however, it does. One of its most common " outward and visible signs " is the constant circulation of sub-

scription lists in behalf qf the widows and I orphans of men who were able enough to afford the payment of a premium for a policy of reasonable amount, and who were in many cases bringing up their families in comfort and even luxury/ It is then that the conviction of the necessity of life insurance ripens into absolute certainty, comments upon/the folly of neglecting such a plain duty are freely made, and the resolve to lose no more time in effecting a is come to. Alas 1 however, for the stability of good intentions. Unless an agent should at that very moment present himself, the chances are that the good intention will only go to add another square to that pavement which is said to be composed of them. It is this spirit of procrastination that we earnestly desire to combat. We are of opinion that few save the most abandoned will be found to deny the obligation that is laid upon them, to insure. - Yet we see that insurance is by no means so general as it should be. That such a state of things I should exist in New Zealand, where the State providesinsurance on easier termsthan are obtainable in any other country in the world, isa disgrace at once to our hearts and our heads. In the ranks of the great army of the uninsured are to be found not only the reckless and improvident, but the tender husband and loving father, who never'ceases carefully to watch over the welfare of his family, and who allows " neither sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eye-lids", if he can at all further their prospects or better their position in life. In spite of all this he neglects to take that one precaution' which would have crowned his efforts with absolute certainty, but without which he has toiled in vain. He forgets, or can; scarcely bring himself to believe, that their future happiness and wellbeing, hang upon the single thread of one life, and that life his. What can be more brittle than that? What can be easier than .effecting a policy, and thereby transforming reckless risk to certain safety ? After the death of such a man how crushing is reverse of fortune, how deeply the iron pierces the soul of his family. Perchance, hopelessly plunged in immediate want, they cannot but feel in every fibre the rapid transition from ease an.d comfort to poverty, with its consequent fall ,in the social scale. Those who have been reared in adverse circumstances, and forced from earliest youth to contend with o "sea of troubles," are in much better case than those we depict as falling from a high estate. Kinder then would it have been never to have petted them, never to have let them know what luxury or comfort meant, than, having known them, to cast them upon the tender mercies of a hard world, all unprepared for its scoff, and sneers, and bearing about with them the feeling of what might have been their lot had only reasonable care been exercisd, "For a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things." . In this matter the paths of duty and prudence are one, and: nothing can be more to the point, or more plainly inculcate the duty of insurance, than the test which runs thus:—"He that provideth not for his own, and especially those of his own household, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." Not only, do Scripture and human reason combine to impress this solemn duty upon all of us, but besides this the possession of a policy means the possession of a profitable investment, and one which grows daily more and more lucrative as it grows older. A policy is, besides, an excellent collateral security for business advances, and policies are constantly made use of for this purpose. Of these advantages we do_ not here intend to speak. Our object is to impress upon the great. army of the uninsured the necessity of insuring, and that right early. We close with a gem, from the prince of lyrical poets— " To make a happy fireside clime _ For weans an wife, . That's the true pathos and sublime 0' human life."