AUSTRALIAN MUTUAL PROVIDENT SOCIETY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 709, 3 June 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN MUTUAL PROVIDENT SOCIETY.

■» To be able to combine amusement with business ; to make the one subservient to the other, and both answer their purpose admirably, does not belong to every man ; bnt this is what Mr. Isitt succeeded in accomplishing last night at the Masonic Hall. The gentleman is agent for the Australian Mutual Provident Society, and wished to explain to people the advantages to be derived for life assurances. To wait upon one resident after another — taking them as it were in detail — would involve too much time, and excess of lung power, and so a public meeting was convened. His Worship the Mayor occupied the chair, and briefly iutroduced Mr. Isitt, who, for an hour, kept a large audience in a state of pleasurable excitement. He possesses a well-cultivated style of delivery, and enters thoroughly into the sentiment of the piece under delivery, whether it be humorous or gave, joyous or sad, mirthful or pathetic ; and he treated his audience to some of the choice pieces of Byron, Shakespeare, Macaulay, Douglas Jerrold, and other eminent writers, eliciting frequent bursts of well-merited applause. Having got his audience into a good humor, and established himself on a friendly footing, Mr. Isitt begged their indulgence for twenty minutes, that he might briefly touch upon the benefits of life "assurance. The lecturer then proceeded to point out that every man should insure his life, though the privilege was not confined for men only, as ladies could also do so. A life policy should be obtained in some good society. Without speaking disparagingly of other companies, he felt positive that the Australian Mutual Provident Society offered the greatest advantages of security at thelowesfcrate of premium, the scale without participation in the profits, being lower than that of any other Society in the Australian Colonies, though it was cheaper and more advantageous in the end to insure under one of the tables which allowed participation in the bomises. As to security, the Australian Mutual Provident held a reserve fund of over £2,000,000 sterling, while its annual income amounted to over £600,000 ; and there was the fact that this society had got over the .time which is usually the critical period in the existence of Life Insurance Societies. Further, the stability of the A.M. P. Society was guaranteed by a constantly-increasing extension of its business operations. This Society ranks as third among all the Life Insurance Societies in the British Empire ; and, though a purely Colonial institution, its new business exceeded any other English Society, and is worked efficiently and economically. Nearly £1,000,000 had been paid in satisfaction of matured claims. Every married man should make provisions for his family by assuring his life. Many agreed that they could invest their money, and make as much as the Society could pay ; but this was presupposing that the assured was to live for twenty or thirty years, whereas, with a life assurance, the moment the first premium was paid, the Society was responsible for the full amount of the sum insured. It was advisable to assure young, for the reason that the premiums are then less, every year adding to the amount if _ the matter is allowed to stand over. Single men were in the habit of declining to assure their lives on the ground that they had no one dependent on them, but there were the "Endowment Tables, " under which a sum of money could be made payable to themselves on attaining the age pf 50, or 55, or 60 years. It was a noticeable fact that

while many property life insurance societies had failed, bringing disaster on those who had invested in them, no society established on the Mutual principle had done so. Life assurance was a matter which, the ladies should take an interest in. If they could only be persuaded not to marry a man who had not insured his life the matter would be easily fixed. The various workings of several of the tables were illustrated, and the lecturer concluded amidst loud applause.