88 On a Suggestion for a 



fidelity to a great principle of acknowledged value. By such 

 aids the whole surface of the earth might rapidly be changed, 

 unproved and beautified ; and the air, the earth, and the water 

 might be made to swarm with everything calculated to be use- 

 ful, interesting and attractive. By aid of this principle of 

 combination, not only my friends the nightingale and the sky- 

 lark could be added to the birds of this colony within a year, 

 but every other British singing bird, at the cost of a penny per 

 head to each member of our present population. 



Art. XII. — On a Suggestion for a new Mode of Life Insurance. 

 By Professor Wilson, M.A., Melbourne University. 



[Eead before the Institute 5th August, 1857.] 



The object of this paper is to bring forward a suggestion for 

 increasing the advantages offered by insurance offices. It does 

 not propose any alteration in the present modes of insurance, 

 but the addition of another to those already existing. 



According to the most usual system of insurance, a person 

 wishing to secure a certain sum of money, to be paid to his 

 representatives at his death, contracts to make to the office 

 annual payments called premiums, the amount of which depends 

 on his age and state of health. 



There are various subsidiary arrangements by which, in some 

 instances, the successive premiums are gradually diminished, in 

 some the amount insured is increased, and in some instances the 

 payment of premiums ceases after a finite term of years. In 

 some instances, to which I shall more particularly refer after- 

 wards, the payment at death is secured by the payment of a 

 single premium. 



It not unfrequently happens that from one cause or another 

 persons who have insured are unable to continue the payment 

 of their premiums, and, to avoid forfeiture, are compelled to sell 

 them, a process which always involves considerable loss. 



The arrangement which I propose is as follows ; and in 

 stating it I will, in the first instance, waive all considerations 

 arising from the necessity of guarding against fraud or unsound 

 health. 



Let a table be formed showing, for every age, the single pay- 



