To the Public.

The author's object in presenting this pamphlet to the public is obvious, feeling assured that the subject is an interesting one to thousands of persons who have been and are daily becoming victims to the so-called benevolence of Life Insurance Companies; and if he has failed to do justice to the cause he has taken up he hopes the indulgent reader will remember that the question is a very important one, and not to be considered lightly. As an instance of its magnitude, it may be stated that one institution alone—the Australian Mutual Provident Society—has amassed so large a sum as £3,500,000, most of which has been subscribed by the industrial classes.

The trading spirit of the age is so great that these vast lottery companies have become an institution in the land, having grown up amongst an unsuspecting people under the garb of benevolence. Where the benevolence comes in the author leaves to a discriminating public to carefully consider in the following pages.

J. Hughes.