FOE several years past the officers of) the MERSEY DOCK AND HARBOUR BOARD have been so much occupied and pressed by their many important duties that they have found it simply impossible to give the attention and care which they could have wished to the Life-boat service of the Board, established for the protection of vessels entering and leaving the Mersey.

This fact has been fully recognised by the Board, and the adverse but not always fair criticism which has of late been passed upon them in the Press and else- where, as a result of occasional failures in connection with the Life-boat service, has led the Board to listen to the suggestion made to them through the Local Committee of the Liverpool and New Brighton Branch of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTI- TUTION, that the Institution should take over their Life-boat Service and manage it for them. At the Annual Meeting of the Branch held in February last it was proposed by Mr. JAMES SAMUELSON that a deputation should be appointed to confer with the Board in the matter.

The suggestion was at once adopted, and the deputation — or sub-committee, as it may be called—which consisted of Admiral GOUGH, C.B., Messrs. HAEOLD D.

BATESON, FRANCIS HENDERSON and C. H. BELOE, Captain BLENNEBHASSET and Mr.EUSTACE STRACY, set to work in earnest to bring about the suggested transfer.

After careful consultation between the Dock Board authorities and the Insti- tution's Liverpool and New Brighton Committee, an agreement was at length arrived at, and the transfer, which dates from the 1st July last, has been made. The success of the negoti- ations is however in no small degree due to the tact and energy of Mr.

HAROLD D. BATESON, a well - known Liverpool solicitor, and the Honorary Secretary of the Liverpool Branch. Mr. BATESON threw himself heart and soul into the matter and, being well backed up by the Committees in Liverpool and London, carried it successfully through. We confidently hope that the oaange will result in increased efficiency in the life-saving service of the Mersey.