ABILITY to aid the shipwrecked is a fairly accurate standard by which to measure a country's civilization. In the South Sea Islands, or Somali Laud, the un- fortunate castaway may struggle through the breakers, only to be clubbed on landing. On other coasts there may or may not be interested and sympathetic onlookers, but in either case the wrecked one will be left to work out his own salvation; while, if in danger on the shores of Great Britain or the United States, countries in the first rank of civilization, efficient life-saving services will do all that is possible, by pluck and ingenuity, to save him.

It seems usual for life-saving services to advance by spasmodic jerks. A terrible wreck shocks the public mind, and earnest, but too short-lived, efforts are made to prevent such loss of life on a future occasion. It does not closely concern the vast majority who never go * Extracted from an article by Capt. R. W. CRESWELL, B.N., in the Australian Review of Reviews, June 20th, 1896.

afloat, and the sensation does not last long enough to demand completeness, till a second disaster stirs public sentiment once more, and another advance is made.

This has been our casein South Australia, and has resulted in something like a regular "service." After the terrible wreck of the Admdla, some forty years ago, a life-saving plant of boats and rocket apparatus was provided, and placed along our coast. Although in the south-east corner of the province there followed other disasters and some success- ful rescues, it was not till the Star of Greece wreck that public attention was again awakened, and demanded some- thing more than the mere provision of plant. The unfortunate ship was stranded so close to shore that all who remained on the portion intact at day- light might easily have been saved with the rocket apparatus, but there was neither a trained crew to use it nor transport arrangements to bring it from its station twenty miles away, and it only arrived many hours after the last of the unfortunates had either been drowned in the breakers or straggled through them to the beach. There was an almost parallel case on the Victorian coast, when, after waiting a long weary time, the apparatus arrived, but in snch an in- complete condition that it could not be used. A splendid young fellow among the spectators, a young selector, swam out with a line, and established the com- munication that saved all but himself.

The young hero had been so battered by the sea in swimming off that he could not return, and was left to die on board.

Such a life was a heavy penalty to pay for lack of a proper system. After the Star of Greece disaster, "life-saving" at wrecks Was made the care of the Naval Department, and my predecessor, Captain WALCOT,R.N.,established the system which it has since been my object to perfect We have in South Australia, to an exaggerated degree, all the difficulties of the Australian Continent—uninhabited stretches of coast, and the added difficulty here, where the coast is unapproachable from inland to rescue parties. The attached map shows the life - saving stations on the South Australian coast, the sites selected being at the approaches to ports where the traffic converges, and along dangerous prominences impinging oh the traffic routes. It goes without saying that the existence of a resident coast population is a governing factor.

The next step was the thorough refit of all the life-saving plant. At each Life- boat station a volunteer crew was en- rolled, and placed under the charge of a suitable resident government officer— usually the harbour master — who is responsible for the efficiency of the boat, gear and crew. Where the harbour master is, from any cause, unable to take the active leadership, a coxswain is elected by the drew, as in the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION'S stations. There are regular quarterly practices, for which the crew receive 10s. per practice of one day. The harbour master furnishes quarterly reports to the Naval Depart- ment of the condition of his stores, boat and crew. Excepting under very favour- able conditions of weather, a Life-boat's sphere of action is necessarily limited, for the struggle of many hours to get to a distant wreck must take more than their best out of a crew before even getting to work at the wreck.

Modern steam traffic has enhanced the importance of time, for errors of navi- gation are a more fruitful cause of mishap than any other. In the old sailing days there was usually longer warning of disaster, and in the case of a ship, help- less and crippled, drifting to a lee shore, there were often hours to prepare for the end. Then, again, the proportion of sea- men to passengers or helpless landsfolk was in old days far greater than to-day, when the steamer carries its hundreds, where the sailing vessel carried its scores.

Too often in a steamer the midnight crash on a reef is the first warning, and the seamen * available to leaven the panic- stricken crowd is scarcely more than sufficient to allow of one or two for each boat carried. With steam, it is true, casualties are fewer, but the losses in each case have been deplorably greater. The immutable law of averages tells us plainly that, just as so many murders or suicides may be predicted for any given period with fair accuracy, it may be foretold that so many men will make mistakes in navigation, either from neglect, over- confidence, or lack of it. Add to this occasional unseaworthiness, accidents to propelling power, stress of weather, and the accidents to the more susceptible sailing craft, and we have the continual incentive to live up to the motto," Beady, aye, ready." Years of immunity from a sweeping wreck is the most insidious foe to the efficient maintenance of a service of this kind. It encourages a sleepiness in all concerned, to which there is certain to come the inevitable awakening.

To provide against the inevitable along the coast has been a question of excep- tional difficulty. Economy of fuel causes it to be skirted closely by all steam traffic, and I am confident that at night many pass it with a narrower margin of safety than they intend.

The Life-boat stations at Beachport and Fort Macdonne are 60 miles apart, and at Robe, 30 miles north, the surf gig would only be of service to the smallest craft. This distance is too great to be covered by rowing or sailing Life- boats under adverse weather conditions, and even were the wreck so close to shore as to offer favourable hope of rescue from the shore with the rocket apparatus, it is a specially difficult road. Great lakes,20 and 30 miles in length, extend along the coast, and are only separated from the sea by a narrow margin of high loose sand dunes. From inland, these lakes would have to be turned by rescue parties, and, in any case, the progress would be disastrously slow. All the westward bound shipping of Australasia, and a large proportion of the European traffic, pass along this stretch, and its care is a responsibility forced upon South Australia by her geographical position, To add to it, by some curious fatality, vessels sailing the southern route from the Cape and Europe hare been drawn in here far out of their coarse, and wrecked.

The generous patriotism of a private citizen has gone far indeed to solve the knotty problem of meeting our responsi- bility in this region. Having learned of its need, Mr. E. BARE SMITH, of Torrens Park, ordered a steam Life-boat from England at his own expense, a cost of 3,5002., and made a noble present of it to the colony, asking only, as a condition of the gift, that it should be maintained ready for service, to which, it is needless to say, the Government readily agreed.

Steam Life-boats are the latest application of steam - propelling science to Life - boat architecture. Water propulsion by powerful centrifugal pumps takes the place of screw or paddle-wheel, and re- moves all danger of its being fouled by wreckage, and no tangle of canvas or cordage can affect the boat's progress.

In manoeuvring power and sea-going qualities, she is everything that a Life- boat should be, and her size, about 30 tons displacement, allows of her carrying from sixty to eighty people, in addition to her crew of seven. She carries coal for about 180 miles' steaming, and has a maximum speed of 8 knots. She .thus commands an easy sphere of action p/ 50 miles on either side of her station at Beachport, whence, with steam ready at twenty minutes' notice, she can easily cover the distance to any point along the " prominence." The officer commanding her will also have the whole charge and superintendence of the stations on the " prominence.".