500 Days raise £40,000.

OVER 500 Life-boat Days have been held during the past year.

This sentence falls from the pen easily enough, but to those who know the anxieties and difficulties which confront the organiser of even a small street col- lection nowadays, the statement is re- markable proof of the irresistible appeal which the Life-boat Service makes to all classes. When it is remembered that the holding of a Day means a sequence of appeals for permission to hold the Day, for organisers, for superintendents, for helpers, for advertising space, and, finally, for the contributions of the public—one realises the immense endea- vour behind the carrying out of over 500.

Each Day has been individual, in that its organisation and development have been local. Each has been carried out without any attempt to startle and excite the public. Each, in fact, has been a normal annual appeal for help, based simply on the public claims of the Life-boat Service, and offering nothing in return by way of sudden wealth to two or three of the thousands contributing.

Days have been held in places varying in size and wealth, from the villages of Loxton, in Somerset, and Boothby Graffoe, in Lincolnshire, each with a population of some 130, to the cities of Manchester and Glasgow, with their million or so citizens. A notable feature is that no less than sixty places held a Life-boat Day for the first time, and, although, owing to local conditions, several Branches did not carry out their usual " Day," the total number is easily a record. The growth of this method of appeal in the last ten years is seen from a comparison with 1913, in which year the total number of street collections was just over 100.

In these 500 Days, thousands of honorary organisers and workers, of both sexes and of all classes, creeds and occu- pations, have taken part, and their quiet and unostentatious endeavours since January last have, between them, raised nearly £40,000. Ours is a national Service, and it is surely of national significance, not only that there are so many public-spirited people ready, often at considerable inconvenience and by dint of much hard work, to extol a deserving cause, but that the public,who, we are now so often told, will not give unless there is a chance of winning some- thing in return, have responded so generously to the call of the Life-boats.

It is a striking result: 500 Days ; £40,000. And this in face of the many difficulties encountered by local orga- nisers, and in spite of the fact that con- ditions obtaining this year were not far removed from those in previous years, in that, for the fourth year in succession, our appeals have been made in the face of grave industrial depression, and that the weather has been very unsettled.

Moreover, local Committees have loyally carried out the views of the Committee of Management as to not inviting the co-operation of girls under 18, in spite of the fact that this has handicapped our organisers as compared with some of the less scrupulous efforts on behalf of other societies.

In many large towns unemployment and consequent distress have been so acute that nothing could be attempted, and in many places in various parts of the country, with organisation com- plete and every prospect of a record collection, a continuous downpour has robbed our workers of the full reward of their labours. Industrial conditions may improve, and the Institution's financial position would improve in proportion, but the spectre of a wet day will always remain as a possible spoiler of the most elaborately arranged effort, and must, therefore, be regarded as a sort of normal handicap when reviewing a year's work.

None the less, it is a serious handicap, for a succession of wet Saturdays would mean a loss of income of many thousands of pounds. Imagine the loss if Life-boat Days in London, Manchester, Brad- ford, Liverpool, and Birmingham were all spoiled by rain in one year. It is possible; and for this reason, Branch Committees are earnestly asked to bearin mind some of the many other efforts, which are not dependent on the weather, and by which, in addition to Life-boat Days, they may hope to increase its proceeds, or, if the summer is bad, to insure against loss. In this way we may be assured of that permanent and steady annual income which is essential to an Institution like ours.

On the other hand, the work has had the stimulus of the personal interest, and, in one or two cases, the presence of the Prince of Wales, our President.

The permission which he gave for all Days to be known as " Prince of Wales' j Day for the Life-boats," did much to increase the interest and numbers, both of workers and contributors ; and his presence in London on Life-boat Day, when he visited three depots, his personal interest at Swansea, where he stopped his car and allowed one of the Lady Collectors to pin a flag in his coat.

and at Wolverhampton, where he Lifeaccepted a cheque for the proceeds of the Day, gave great encouragement to our helpers.

It is often asserted that the popularity of Flag Days is on the wane, but our' experience in 1923 is conclusive proof that Life-boat Day is increasing its hold upon the public imagination and senti-' ment. It is essential that it should be so, for we are dependent upon this source for a considerable part of our revenue. It may be well specially to emphasise this in view of the fact that, in one or two cases this year, the " Day " has been dropped and efforts made in, Manother directions. Valuable as are these Sanother methods, the fact remains that, as a cumulative appeal, there is no substi-; Tuntute for Life-boat Day, which enables us, with a minimum of expense, to reach the many thousands who other- wise would have no opportunity of contributing, and constitute a very £40,000.

The Institution was the pioneer of this form of reaching the masses, and, although in some towns we are feeling the competition of those who have copied our methods, we must not be driven from whose small sums large part of the the field. Once we retire from a place, we lose that continuity of the annual appeal which means so much. The timeof small flag days for every conceivable object must disappear, for their difficulties in this matter are infinitely greater than ours. We have the inestimable advantage that the Life-boat is its own appeal. It appeals directly to the imagination. There are many instances where collections made in small rural or agricultural towns, the inhabitants of which have never seen a Life-boat, have been as generous as those at seaside towns, which have frequently seen the boat launched in a whole N.E. gale.

These facts should greatly comfort those of our workers who have met with difficulties in running the Day this year, and should encourage them to continue their efforts, whatever the success, in the knowledge that with at least 499 other places they are helping to make up a total of £40,000 from local contributions, which are as indispensable to the Life-boat Service as the Lifeaccepted boat Service is indispensable to the Nation.

In dealing with such a large number , of Days it is impossible to mention all, even where the work done and the j amount collected were particularly good, but the following branches have achieved notable successes : Alnwick, Batley, Blackburn, Bournemouth, Bradford, Brighton and Hove, Bromley, Burnham (Somerset), Carlisle, Colwyn Bay, Cowes, Cullercoats, Deal and Sandwich, Dundee, Durham, Eastbourne, Falkirk, Fareham, Folkestone, Hampstead, Helensburgh, Kensington, Lambeth, Largs, Manother Chester, Montrose, Oxford, Perth, Sanother down, J.W., Siregness, Stepney, St.

Albans, Ventnor, I.W., Torquay, Tuntute bridge Wells, Wilton, A series of Days like ours affords an excellent barometer to the general state of prosperity or depression, and it is interesting to note that this year there has almost everywhere been a heavy preponderance of copper coins. There were two particularly bright exceptions in London, where, at Westminster, the various depots raised £977, of which only 25 per cent, was in copper, and in Piccadilly, where a collector brought in a box containing £12 5*.—all in silver, I It is impossible to conclude an article I on Life-boat Days without again ex-pressing our admiration of the splendid work of the women all over the country, who are primarily responsible for the success achieved. It has been a great tribute to the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, and shows that this organisation, which unites and consolidates the work, is full of good augury for the future. Many of the women, like our crews, have had to do their best work in the worst weather; and they have really shown the true Life-boat spirit throughout, realising that the object is the same— the saving of life from shipwreck. The Centenary Year, 1924, should see 1,000 Life-boat Day efforts..