86 
Post- Office Insurance for Labourers. 
I will, in its place, describe the endowment insurance. 
I. Sickness-Pai/ and Burial-Monei/. — The following rates are 
sufficiently high to secure solvency in an institution insuring 
sickness-pay and burial-money to persons employed in " heavy 
and light labour." They compare favourablv with the contribu- 
tions paid by such persons into unsound and pauperising Benefit 
Societies. 
Table of Contributions. 
For Males 25 years and under, for Sickucss-Pay till 70, and Burial-Money ; 
and for Males between the ages of 25 and 35. " 
Class. 
Payment per Moxth. 
_ . - 
Age 16 to 25. | Age 25 to 35. 
Sickness-Pay 
Per Week. 
Buriiil-Moncy. 
8. d. 
». d. 
S. 
£. 
1 
0 8 
0 U) 
4 
3 
2 
1 0 
1 4 
6 
5 
3 
1 4 
1 9 
8 
6 
4 
1 8 
2 2 
10 
8 
5 
2 0 
2 7 
12 
10 
6 
2 3 
3 0 
14 
10 
Example: A. B., aged 25 years, insures for the 5th Class; 
viz. 125. per week in sickness and 10/. at death. For this he 
will pay 25. a month, or IZ. 45. a year. 
C. D., aged 26, will pay for the same 25. Id. a month, or 
1/. II5. a year. 
Much inkshed has taken place over the necessity for a 
graduated scale, and to little or no purpose so far as this 
proposal is concerned. For labourers insure at a very early age, 
usually, it is said, before they are 20 years old ; and provided 
that they could join an institution which would not break down 
and set them adrift and in search of a new society before they 
were many years older, we should not have heard much of the 
graduated scale for sickness insurance. An institution under- 
taken by Government would be as safe as the country could 
provide. We should desire but 2 rates of monthly contribu- 
tions, as shown above, the one being for persons below 26 
years of age, and the other for persons 26 and below 36. The 
advantage of joining before the insurer is 26 years may be seen 
on reference to the above example ; A. B. would save 7*. a year, 
as compared with C. D. 
And the age, 'lb, taken for this inducement is not a bad tirne 
when it may be applied, though it might be well to take an earlier 
age. I have, however, been somewhat led by the desire not 
to exceed a decennial period for the higher grade, and it would 
