THE numerous enthusiastic bands of workers on behalf of the Life-boat Satur- day Fund have, throughout the United Kingdom, had exceptional obstacles and difficulties to deal with this year, as the result of the multitudinous appeals, in every shape and form, which have been made north, south, east and west in connection with the war in South Africa.

The whole nation has been stirred by the war, and the supreme interest which it has excited has relegated all other causes and subjects to a "back-seat" for the time- The Life-boat Saturday Committees have therefore most wisely, in the interests of the Saturday Fund, decided everywhere to accept the inevitable, and for the moment not to press for Life-boat Saturday demonstrations and collections where the local populations are altogether taken up with carnivals and other measures relating to war matters. It is gratifying to find, however, that since the Life-boat Saturday season opened, in May last, one or two very successful Life-boat Saturday demonstrations have already taken place in towns which had not hitherto co-operated in the movement, and the Central Committee of the Fund ate sanguine that later on this autumn numerous other collections will be made which at present cannot be undertaken, but which are merely postponed. Satur-day, the 13th May, was selected as the most suitable day for appealing for the Fund in the Metropolis, and the collec- tions made in the streets and by some of the District Committees and Ladies' Auxiliaries were excellent, having legatd to the circumstances.

We would offer a word of encourage- ment to our Life-boat Saturday friends, and feel sure that during the remaining months of the year their generous efforts will be crowned with much success. A country, grateful for the triumph of her army in the great cause of liberty and of civilization, cannot better show thankful- ness than by aiding and encouraging those who are endeavouring to assist a great national work like that of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT Institution. The sole object of which is to save life from ship- wreck on the coasts of " the land of the free.''.