Story: Insurance

Formed in 1869 to offer low-cost life insurance to gold miners and other people with uncertain incomes, Government Life soon became the biggest life insurer in the country. This handsome policy from 1888 shows that Thomas Roe, a labourer from Maraekakaho in Hawke’s Bay, undertook to pay £3 13s. 4d. each year, with £200 payable to his family on his death.