IT is one of the unvarying rules of the Institution that the materiel of the Service shall be as perfect as it can be made. Only the best materials are used for the Life-boats and their gear; and everything is done, by careful andfrequent inspection, to ensure that they are kept in perfect condition. It is never forgotten that men's lives depend on this vigilance. So soon as Life-boats show signs of falling below the high standard of sea-worthiness which the Institution considers it necesair-sary to maintain, they are withdrawn from their Stations. Where it can be done, and the cost is not so high as to make this uneconomical, they are, of course, repaired and returned to service. Otherwise, all the fittings andsary to maintain, they are withdrawn from their Stations. Where it can be done, and the cost is not so high as to make this uneconomical, they are, of course, repaired and returned to service. Otherwise, all the fittings andnecesair- cases are removed and the hulls are sold. The strength of the hulls, the quality of the material used, and the fact that the Institution judges its Boats by such a high standard, naturally find for them ready purchasers among those who want to fit up motor launches or cruisers.Could one know the after-history of old Life-boats there is no doubt that it would be very varied and very interesting. Occasionally the Institu- tion may hear of their later adventures.

For example, the Kingstown Pulling and Sailing Life-boat Dunleary, which was replaced in 1919 by the present Motor Life-boat of the same name, and which had had a career of fourteen years in the Service, passed into the hands of a firm of coal dealers. In a humbler way she may still claim to be engaged in vital national work.

Another old Life-boat, though which one it is we do not know, has gone to pleasanter and more romantic labours as a launch on the Kowie River in South Africa. She was discovered there by the son of the Honorary Secretary of the "Weymouth Branch, to whom we owe the photograph which is produced here. It was taken on Easter Sunday last year as the boat was setting out for a pleasure trip, and it shows very clearly not only the beautiful and peaceful surroundings among which this old Life-boat now sails, but the way in which she has been lengthened for her present work by being fitted with a new stem. But her life-lines are still there to remind whoever sees her of the dangers which it was once her duty to face..