BY the time this article reaches the readers of the Life-boat Journal, the " Life- boat Saturday " season for the year 1896 will be practically over, so that we are in a position to gauge pretty accurately the advancement which has been made by this popular movement during the current year, a movement •which, notwithstanding all obstacles, misunderstandings and dif- ficulties, goes on and prospers. The result of the indefatigable energy and zealous labours of the Local Committees, the District Committees, and the Central Committee of the Fund must be eminently gratifying to the members of these Com- mittees, and not only to them but to the hundreds of willing workers, old and young, rich and poor, who have appointed them, worked with and under them, and have earnestly supported them. The Central Committee in London of the "Life-boat Saturday" Fund, although nominally holding the guiding reins since the 1st January last, piaetically only got to work in the early spring, and at the end of their first season's labours they may well view with satisfaction the admirable results which have been obtained—results which we believe would not have been obtained if the manage- ment had been different or in other hands. When the Central Committeenominally took over the management of the movement at the beginning of 1896 at the request of the LIFE-BOAT INSTITU- TION and with the fall concurrence of the " Life-boat Saturday " Local Committees, they found that the total number of cities and towns which had assisted the movement in 1895 was 74, this number being 28 in excess of the co-operating towns in 1894. Large as this number was the Central Committee determined to improve upon it, and we have the pleasure to give a list of no less than 53 cities and towns, some of them very important ones, in- cluding London, which have for the first time made, or will make, "Life-boat Saturday " collections this year, bringing up the total number of such collections made in 1896 to 103, a large increase of 29 as compared with the previous year, and of 57 as compared with the year 1894. It must be borne in mind also that a considerable number of towns which made Saturday collections in 1895, decided for local reasons to collect bien- nially, so that, as arranged, there will be no returns from them this year, otherwise the total of collecting towns for 1896 would be even larger than it is.

The following is a list of the fifty-three cities and towns which have this year for the first time organised " Life-boat Satur- day " collections:— Atherton.

Barnsley.

Barrow.

Blyth.

Boston.

Burslem.

Hereford.

Kinross.

Kirkintilloch.

Leek.

Leigh.

Lerwick.

London.

Castleford.

Colne.

Coventiy.

Crewe.

Darlaston.

Darlington.

Gainsborough.

Grangemouth.

Hanley.

Hastings (with Leonards).

Loughborough.

Lowestoft.

Macclesfleld.

Maidstone.

Mansfield.

Morley.

Nelson (with Brief- field and Barrow- ford).

St.

Newcastle, Staff.

Northampton.

Norwich.

Pontefraot.

Ramsey.

Reading.

Retford.

Rhyl.

Ripley.

Scarborough.

Southport.

Stafford.

Stoke-on-Trent.

Sunderland.

Swansea.

Tyldesley.

Walsall.

Wednesbury.

West Bromwich.

West Hartlepool.

Widnes.

Yarmouth, Norfolk.

The excellent work which has been done by the Central Committee of the " Life-boat Saturday " Fund during their first season of office augurs well for the future, and we have no doubt that the re- sults accruing are a sample of what will be effected in the time to come.

Attention has been drawn in some quarters to the alleged large percentage of local expenses in connection with the organisation of " Life-boat Saturday" demonstrations and collections, but it must be borne in mind that the Local Committees in many towns have considered it absolutely necessary for them to incur a somewhat heavy expenditure in arranging special entertainments and fetes intended to secure substantial profit in aid of the Fund.

Experience will, however, doubtless enable them to reduce their working expenditure —experience which, as the saying is, may have been " bought" in the past. In their efforts to bring about this end they will receive full support from the Central Committee of the " Life-boat Saturday " Fund, which is doing its utmost to keep down expenses, and to make cheaper, but equally efficient, arrangements than those made before they took over the manage- ment of the movement. The approaching winter months will provide a good oppor- tunity for the " Life-boat Saturday " Com- mittees up and down the country to consider and make the arrangements for next year's campaign, and it would seem to be most desirable to thus " take Time by the forelock " rather than to defer the matter until a week or two, or perhaps a few days, before the collection is made..