The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Friday, September 19, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 905, 26 September 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Friday, September 19, 1879.

Almost weekly are instances brought under the notice or" the Colonial Press of men dying suddenly, or through some fatal casualty,, leaving their wives and families quite unprovided for, when, by the expenditure of not more than a few shillings a month, these men dying so untimely might have left their families independent of ' the cold charity of the world. We hdpe in the new Parliament which opened yesterday afternoon, that some kind of pressure in the way of legislation may be brought to bear, so that thoughtless, reckless, or selfish heads of families shall be compelled to provide«for those by a life assurance who may be their survivors. That the reckless, the dissipated, aud the improvident should hold Life Assurance in little esteem is not surprising; but that in the great, varied crowd of the uninsured there should be found bq ' many.- amiable,- considerate, and prudent men, whose position, renders Life Assurance of imperative importance, indeed; strange: - Tender and considerate husbands, judicious, loving fathers, sagacious men of business, consistent members of Churches, teachers and ministers .of religion, are found equally with the selfish, the inconsiderate, and thejdissolute, in neglecting to provide for those dependent upon them, in the event oLdeath. ., Men... of the most. un« selfish. Character, who labour' with unceasing zeal for their familes, and who never .tire of ministering to their happiness, are yet found sufficiently dilatory or thoughtless to neglect a provision amply within their means, and ever ready to hand. The sword of Damocles, which produced suoh wholeTntuflaual, The fate of many a whole family hangs upon an equally uncertain thread. Between comfort and affluence and helpless distress there is too commonly but" a slight interval, and the passing from one state to ■ the other is dependent upon an infinity of chances. The uninsured may by fairly divided into three groups : —

Those who think they have no occasion to assure. Those who can otherwise make a 'partial provision for their familes. Those whose death would leave their famile&r destitute. With' respect to the first class, we would simply say that before the conclusion is come to, that there is no occasion to assure at all, a prudent man should consider carefully two things — Whether ifc is quite clear that his position is such, that when his affairs are finally wound up, there will exist the surplus he anticipates : and whether, if he does not now require the protection of Assurance, he may not soon need it ; in which case he should consider whether it would not be a wise step to secure it when" health prevails, and while the premium is lower than it ever will be in time to cqme. . .

Those who can make a partial provision for their familes are "a very numerous class in our land, where the Bpirit of saving so largely prevails, and the facilities for small investments are so great. Such men are frequently less disposed than any to canvass the question of Life Assurance. They have the consciousness that absolute beggary could not be the lot of their children ; they reckon upon a continuance of life, and hope, by carrying out their plans, to accumulate a moderate competence, either for themselves in advanced years, or for those who follow them. But the aggregation of property in such a way is a very slow process ; while what they have in possession, and can dispose of, would prove, as Sir Walter Scott said of the profits of literature, " a very good walking stick, but a very poor crutch. " But the most numerous class of the uninsured are those whose death will leave their families destitute. There is really no plan by which such men can secure these families again&t penuriyy misery, and destitution, unless by life assurance. The few pounds which can be taken irom a narrow income will buy the assured a sufficiently large sum secured at his death for the provision of those who are dependent on him during his life. The uninsured man, who has made no provision for his wife and family, can but rarely realise to what he is exposed, or he would shrink instinctively from the prospect. : If he has any natural love and affection, it must be a subject of intense pain to him to think

that a sudden blow may make his wife and children beggars, and change the comfortable home into a place of grievous want. Still more painful is the position of the man — and how many there are in it — who finds his life ebbing away prematurely under some insidious disease, who finds it too late to insure, and who has before him the terrible prospect of privation for his wife and little ones, without the shadow <>f a hope of being able to avert the calamity. He may commit them in his distress to the «are of Providence ; but even this consolation will not take away the sting of the thought that a small sacrifice, made in reliance on Providence, would have assured their comfort and welfare.

In picturing a wife, and love of hi* young days, pinched, barely-clad, illhoused and slaving for bread, his young children barely sustained by her efforts, and subject to all the evil effects of poverty, the strong and healthy mau may imagine he is indnlging in gloomy ; sentimental foreboding. Perhaps he may ascribe it to a fit of " the blues." Before however, h e dismisses the subject, let the uninsured consider how many thousands of such widows and children there are. The forebodings may be baseless, and the uninsured man is happy if they prove so. They are none the less, however, faithful pictures of what is daily occurring, and are dictated by an instinctive prudence of mind.