LECTURE ON LIFE ASSURANCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1063, 16 September 1879, Page 2

LECTURE ON LIFE ASSURANCE.

Mr. J. K. Brown. travelling agent f»t the Now Zealand Government, lectured •last ovenins; :it the Nov, - Toes-street Hall. His Worship the Mayor occupied tin; chair, ami the Hull was fairly filled. The Chairman stated he presided with much pleasure, more especially as he was himself insured in the Government, and would advise others to d:> likewise. He called upon Mr. Brown, who lie was certain would deliver an interesting a'.ul entertaining lecture. Mr. Brown commenced by oonlnudiii:; the present mooting, small as it was, with a still smaller one he recently attended at Ohristchurch. He would endeavour to get over the ground as rapidly as possible, and lie trusted he would not exhaust their patience. Life insurance, he said, m-s! to the one thing needful, was the inos! important subject they could deal with, and for the great majority of mankind was as important as the very air ilioy breathe. As a science it was comparatively modern, although tracof the principle were plainly di.--coverable in the histories of Greece iinii Rome, as well as other ancient nations. It was based on two tilings, viz;., tables rt interest and tables of mortality, and w accurate .and reliable were such tables th.i: results could be relied upon with th'.' utmost certainty. He instanced sow-. 1 calculations showing how interest ;ud compound interest accumulated, wimli]:-! up this portion of his subject with an extraordinary calculation, which, he said, would be incredible did it not rest up"" the testimony of several well-known experts. A single penny invested at compound interest at the birth of our Saviour would now amount in value to a < equal to three million globes of goid M large as the earth ! At ordinary interest, the amount would be 7s 7d. For purpose of popular explanation, however, he Inferred to base life insurance upon toother facts of human existence, naiuelv, the uncertainty of human life and th'-' ml " certainty of all human concerns. Ihe-ie two truths he earnestly enforced, ainl feelingly referred to the recent sad illsaster in which so many human binn'.'S perished amidst the flames. Life insurmco met two such conditions of human society. For life's uncertainty it substituted instantaneous provision ; a legacy "'J doubtful accumulation ; an endowment absolutely secure for the brittle thread. Mr. Brown, adverting again to the history of life insurance, said it was of all studies , the most dismal and disheartening. I" * 5 comparatively brief period some hundred ? had come to grief, and the loss, the rum j inflicted upon the people by inst iiiuioj ostensibly founded for the prevention ' ?""h misery was something terrible. | Combated the argument of political economists that Government life insurance ii' l3 an improper interference with private en terpriso, and 110 part of the function.!'j' Government. Political economy, he s llll > was the science of national wealth an national happiness, and while the pr"|® c , tion of life and property was the cli' c function of Government, praeuc.i y Government was called upon to n -' ntC j many important services which nothing whatever to do with life " r P 1 perty. What of the post-oflice or railways '! Having reference to the trous history of life insurance conip' l ' he contended that, while some wcie questionably both sound and sohei*i nevertheless many others were not »-i but were pronounced by authorities to be in a state of ' 1 '-'l' e t ' ne insolvency, and it was the duty n Government in such a matter to P 1 the people. So far from life j being a function which Government > no right to perform, he held that it just one of those services v/liicH C " a -r. I te> best rendered by the State. In" z' 5 moreover, had a special interest 1,1 matter. It became in their hands anu guarantee for good order and goo

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