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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 284, 1 December 1871, Page 4

The Emigrant's Guide to lowa and Nebraska, United States. — Those who are thinking of emigration will do well to read the pamphlet bearing the above title. The following extract conveys an idea of the character of the district : — " The climate is mild and healtby, and not subject to any epidemics. Summers warm, but never without refreshing, healthy breezes ; nights cool and invigorating. "Winters clear, sunny days with bright clear nights, three months being all that can be termed the winter season. The atmosphere is dry and pure. On the whole the seasons are much the same as in •England. Nebraska was formerly known to the world as the Great American Desert, but that idea of the first French voyageurs so persistently harped upon by some people, is exploded and laughed at by all the one hundred and fifty thousand dwellers found there at the census of 1870. The man who does not admit what Nebraska is, either does not wish to know the truth, or is interested in denying it. Thejf eal fact is, there is no better climate ancffsbil than that of Nebraska. The southern part of the State is gently rolling prairie of the greatest beauty and fertility, stretching west as far as Colorado, over three hundred miles, almost all of which is susceptible of the highest cultivation. la Western Nebraska, between the Platte and Republican Rivers, ascending the imperceptible acclivity of the Rocky Mountains, there are lands of the finest "description and extensive enough to fatten the flocks and herds of l.he whole world. The Buffalo still roams there. We have the country, the soil, the climate ; the next most natural inquiry is, what are the facilities for transportation ? Below we have the Missouri for 2000 milee, to the Gulf of Mexico, and 2600 miles above Plattsmouth, — her broad bosom is covered with hundreds of steamers, carrying the produce of the soil to the best markets. Again, the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, with its connections, joins New York on the "Atlantic, with San Francisco on the Pacific. No man need be at a loss for a market in any part of the State. The farmer can get a free homeajtead of 80 acres within the railroad limits, , buy the adjoining land ior the low price of from 3 dole, to 10 dols. per acre, taking ten years' credit at six per cent, interest, paying only the interest for the first two years, afterwards one-ninth of the principal with interest due. The land pays for itself by its produce, and is daily increasingjin value, so that the r settler bequeaths a legacy to his family ralore secure, and with greater psultß'than can: be guaranteed by, the best Life Insoranot gompany in the

Life Assurance. — Our paternal Government having established a system 'of Life Assurance throughout the colony, and opened an agency in this towD, a few remarks on the system may ba acceptable. It has now, in some form or other, been practised a little more than a century. The oldest office we know of is the Equitable, established in 1762; but the terms now paid for Assurance are far les3 than formerly, owing to the greater certainty of operation?, which are now hased on carefully-prepared life statistics, derived from the census and other returns. The prudence and comfor4 of knowing that provision is made for old age, or for our successor! — as the case may be — is so weli appreciated, that in Great Britain the value of curront policies is estimated at more than £15,000,000, and yet the artizan class scarcely uses Assurance or Annuities as a provision for their families in case of bereavement or ripe old age. The reason of this is, probably, the incertitude of earniuas, and the prudent find the Savings Bank their most convenient safe. In this country both me ens are provided by Government, and when their relative advantages are considered, we thiuk the palm will be given to Assurance as the best investment for small savings of all classes. The working man — so long as he enjoys health — need have no anxiety about being able to pay up his premiums, and — even if overtaken by disaster that would render him unable to maintain his payments — his policy always has a money value proportionate to the amoiiDt paid, and he could either sell ifc or leave it as security with a friend who would keep up the payments ; but the probability is that the mere fact oi being insured would induce such habits of prudence that the insured would always he prepared with his premiums. By the Government being the insurer, all risk of failure is avoided — such as has caused misery to hundreds of families in Great Britain, and another bond of union het.ween Government and people is established. All difficulty about foreign travel is avoided, as, with the exception of certain specified places, no extra charge is demanded. These are pome of the advantages the Government, offer ; but there is the one great one specially applicable to mining and other dangerous occupations — that in. case of fatal accident the amount of the policy which would have taken years to accumulate in the Savings Bank would be at once payable to their sucessors, who perhaps otherwise would have been left helpless and penniless. The advantages offered are so great tha^ they only need to be fully known to be eagerly grasped. Take the following figures for example : — A person at 20 years of age, by payment of about £2 a-year, — in quarterly j half-yearly or yearly payments — can secure £100 on his death to bis successors. If 30 years of age, the premium would be double. Or suppose a father wishes to secure one of his children a sum of money to start with, he can, by a small periodical payment, secure a specified sum to the child at any stipulated age; or should the child not reach that agp, every penny would be repaid; or if the parent died the amount paid iv would be carred forward at compound interest and paid to the child at the appointed time. We would ask miners and others, fathers of families, to consider whether they will do their duty if they neglect to avail themselves of such easy means of securing those dependent on them against want. We have shewn that, in the case of a young man, less than one shilling per week will secure £100 payable on his death. The charge wouM of course be larger if the insurance were made at a later period of life; but, in all cases, for the smallest possible sum, the assurer can secure his successors against indigence by a very small outlay, which would be almost repaid by the satisfaction derived from a sense of duty done. The object of the Government is not to make money, but to encourage provident habits, and if all classes — rich and poor, married and single — assured, little would be heard of poverty and charitable aid, for new and better habits of life would be induced. — Moss JVews. • \