Australian Tales - Setis

most likely coolly lock their doors, and not allow the contents of their
dwellings to be disturbed, unless ordered to do otherwise by some person
in authority. Thus they would be spared a vast amount of worry — to say
nothing of the comfort which they would at all times naturally feel in
knowing that they were not exposed to the risk of being ruined in a few
hours by the carelessness or wilfulness of neighbours, which it was
impossible for them to guard against or control.
All classes of the community can insure; and I should be glad if I could
convince even a few poor persons that it is their duty, and their interest
too, to avail themselves of the privilege. There are not many tenements, I
imagine, in Sydney, on which the insurance offices would refuse to take
a risk. The rates of premiums for risks in the city are very low too; for
instance — a friend of mine, residing in one of the suburbs of Sydney,
has his household furniture insured for £300, at an annual cost of ten
shillings. The rate would be somewhat more for houses of a lower class
than the one which the friend referred to occupies; still, I think, the
average of mechanics, labourers, &c., could insure to the value of their
household effects for ten shillings a year. What careful housewife could
not manage to save twopence halfpenny per week (or rather less than
that) for such a purpose? — perhaps to save herself and children from
becoming homeless outcasts.
Fires are less frequent in Sydney than might reasonably be expected,
considering the crowded state of some parts of the city, the combustible
nature of the materials with which many of the houses are built and
roofed, and the heat of the climate; still such mishaps do occur, alas! too
often, as many persons know to their sorrow. A catastrophe — entailing
the ruin of a striving family — is sometimes recorded in a dozen lines,
and attracts but little attention from the community on account of its
apparent insignificance. The conflagration of a poor man's little cottage
would not entice a large concourse of persons from their beds, though it
will make the late unfortunate owner toss restlessly upon his bed for
many nights; calling to mind that, in a fatal half-hour, all he possessed in
the world was reduced to ashes.
Such sad disasters are too frequent; and, as I read the sentence
appended to the usual brief report of them in the newspapers — “the
tenant was” uninsured — my sympathy with the poor houseless sufferers
has to struggle against a feeling of vexation with them, for foolishly
omitting a precaution which common-sense ought to have insisted upon,
and which is within the reach of the humblest householder.
Reader! I have not the slightest personal interest in any insurance
society in the world, beyond being a policy holder for a small sum. The
foregoing remarks are written in a disinterested spirit; and if you will
take my deliberate advice, you will insure your property at once.