1924 will be remembered as one of the wettest years on record. But it was not a year of storms, although it ended with great gales all round the coast.

It was, in fact, a year much calmer than the average. It is such years, perhaps, even more than the years when there are violent storms, which throw into relief the dangers of our coasts and the need of an ever vigilant Life-boat Service.

In spite of the absence of severe weather there were no fewer than 227 launches of the Life-boats on service, leading to the rescue of 349 lives. The Institution also gave rewards for the rescue of 105 lives by shore-boats and in other ways. That makes a total of 454 lives rescued from shipwreck round our coasts, in this year of calm weather, an average of nine lives every week! The total from the foundation of the Institution up to the end of 1924 is 59,998, including a number of cases of rescues by shore-boats, and in other ways, for which the rewards were not actually made until 1925. The 60,000 figure was actually passed on the first day of the year, when the Tenby Motor Life-boat rescued ten men from the steam-trawler Arctic Prince of Shields, No Loss of Life.

If we take into account, besides these I 227 launches on service, the practice launches which took place, it means that 12,000 Life-boatmen were out in the Boats of the Institution during the year. But not a life was lost. It is a Life great tribute to the quality of the Boats of the Institution, and to the skill and discipline of Coxswains and Crews.

In this connexion I would draw special attention to the Chief Inspector's article in this issue on " Super-Construction,"with its account of the very fine service of the Newhaven Life-boat, successfully carried out, without loss of life, although the Boat herself was very badly damaged. That incident is another signal tribute to the design, material and construction of the Institution's fleet, to the meticulous care which is given to every detail, and a justification, if any were needed, of the Institution's rule that in everything concerned with the Boats themselves Only the best will do." The Christmas Gales.

The year went out in a fury. Of the 227 launches during the year, twentynine took place during the last eleven days of the year, and no fewer than ten these on 27th December. These launches were all round the coast from Swanage to Stornoway. Twenty-nine lives were rescued during these eleven days.

The The End of the Centenary.

Centenary celebrations, which opened in London with the Centenary Meeting at the Mansion House on 4th March, the Institution's birthday, concluded the Thanksgiving Service London on 14th December, which is described elsewhere in this issue. There still remained, however, two important Centenary functions to be held. The first was a four days' Fair at Birmingham, which was opened on the first day, February 3rd, by H.R.H. Prince Henry, the object of it being to raise £10,000 for " City of Birmingham " Motor Lifeboat boat. The second is the London Centenary Bazaar, which will be held at the Hyde Park Hotel, on the 3rd and 4th March. It will be opened on the first day by the Duchess of Norfolk, one of the Vice-Patrons of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, and on the second day by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Doveton Sturdee, Bt.

A Gift from Prison.

At the end of last year Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., the Chairman of the Com- mittee of Management, lectured on the Life-boat Service to an audience of about 200 convicts in Camp Hill Prison, in the Isle of Wight. They were all among the worst criminals in the country. Not one of them had had less than six previous convictions for some serious crime. Sir Godfrey Baring has now received from'; Lifethem, through the Governor, a cheque for nine shillings for the Life-boat Service. In sending it the Governor, wrote : " By good behaviour they are able to earn the small sum of Is. 6d. per week, which they can spend on a very few luxuries, but they have gladly forgone some of these to subscribe to the Life- trawboat Association which does such splen- t * t 1 ~rf -11 I ' l l ill did work. If you will kindly accept the subscription {and it is, perhaps, unique in prison history) the men will feel when a gale is raging that they have an added interest by helping, in even such a small way, the glorious work of the Life-boats that may be going on at that moment.

The amount is small, but I know you will understand the spirit in which it is given." In reply to the Governor's letter I wrote:—" I find it rather difficult to express in adequate language my sense of the value of this gift to the Institu- tion. I understand that the men at Camp Hill are only able to earn the small sum of Is. 6rf. per week by very good behaviour and hard work, and that they naturally like to spend this money on the few luxuries which are open to them. This being so, it is proof of a very fine generosity of character that they should have col- lected 9s. among them as a free gift to the Life-boat cause. It does equal credit to the Life-boat Service (and to the manner in which Sir Godfrey placed that Service before them) and to the good instincts which these men have, and which I believe it is part of the aim of Camp Hill to maintain and develop.

You have in your letter to the Chairman put it very happily that the men at Camp Hill will feel now that, when a gale is raging, they have an added interest in and a very human link with the work of the Life-boatmen in the grand adventure of saving human life on our storm-beaten shores. If you think well you would perhaps find the means to acquaint the men with the terms of this letter." Gifts from Crews.

There are two names to be added to the growing list of Life-boat Crews which have made gifts to the Institution.

On 20th May, 1924, the Cambois Life-boat helped to save the s.s. Solhaug of Haugesund, when she stranded on the Crablaw Rocks, at the same time rescuing her crew of twenty-eight. Oat of the sum received from the owners for helping to salve the vessel the Life-boat Crew have given £20 to the Institution, On 12th June, 1924, the Fraserburgh Motor Life-boat helped the steam trawboat ier Pdaqos of Granton, and out of the  salvage which they received the Crew have sent the Institution £5 12s.

On 27th December, 1924, the Swanage Life-boat was launched to the help of the s.s. Daltington, which was reported to be in distress, but when nearing her the Life-boat found that she no longer needed help. The weather was very severe, and it was an arduous service.

In recognition of this the Committee increased the monetary reward given to the crew. This increase they have returned, as a donation to the funds of the Branch, as they " were actuated only by a sense Of duty and not in anticipation of a pecuniary reward." A Tribute from an American.

As recorded in the last issue, one of the fortnightly dinners of the Authors' Club, at the beginning of 1924, was held in honour of the Institution, when I had the privilege of presiding, and the principal guest was Sir Godfrey Baring, 3t., the Chairman of the Committee of Management. In December the Honorary Secretary of the Club received the following letter from a friend in New York City :— "I am going to ask a kindness of you : Chairto cash the enclosed draft for six pounds, and to send the proceeds to the Royal National Life-boat Institution England. I was deeply impressed with the account of the splendid and self-sacrifice of tie men of lish Life-boat Service, as published in one of your London newspapers on the occasion of an Authors' Club Monday night dinner. I am enclosing the clipping, although somewhat tattered worn, to -refresh your memory.

modest gift has been long delayed, but it may not be inopportune to send it at this Christmastide of the year." Armistice Memorial Service at Redcar.

An original and very beautiful tribute was paid at Redcar, on 12th November, to the sailors and fishermen who their lives in the War. All the of the town ceased, and several thousands conducted by the Vicar of Redcar, at which a wreath was dedicated to the dead. The Life-boat was then launched, and and same moment a flare was lighted in the the wreath was taken out to placed on the water. At Boat and rockets were fired in from the shore.

Miss Marie Corelli as a. Life-boat Speaker.

In its obituary notice of Miss Marie Corelli, the novelist, who died on 21st April, 1924, the Yorkshire Herald recalls that she was a popular speaker as well as writer, and that one of her successful speeches was on behalf the Life-boat Service ia Leeds years ago. " The crowd overflowed the Town Hall, and the enthusiasm was euch that people pressed forward to shake her hand, and some women went so far as to press the edges of her dress against their lips—a thing which occurred when Dickens paid a visit to York.

The Lord Mayor of Leeds, refused to support the Life-boat meeting because it was held on a Sunday.

was Miss Corelli's comment, ' if Mayor had been wrecked on a Sunday, he would not have thought it irreligious for the life-boat men to risk their lives in coming to his rescue !' " "Life Buoys" Members of the Ladies' Guild will be very much 1 to hear that their example has been of with.

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rever, ,eting Yet,' E the ly, he us for ves in -boat •ested November you, Sallskapet Skeppsbrutne of constituted the later, " followingfollowed in Sweden. Mr. Isakson, Chairman of the Life-boat Committee of the Swedish League, who was one of the representatives of the Swedish Government at the International Conn f erence in London in July, wrote last November : "I am also pleased to tell you, that, in addition to the ' Svenska Sallskapet for Raddning af Skeppsbrutne ' and to the Life-boat Committee of the Swedish Shipping League, a Lady Society, called the Stockholm ' Life Buoy ' (Stockholm Lifboj) has just been constituted over here, the ' Chairwoman ' being Mrs. Elin Ericson, wife of Commodore Hans Ericson, previously our Minister of Marine and now Managing Director of the ' Svea ' S.S. Co. (owning nearly 100 steamers), the ' Vice-Chairwoman ' being my wife, and one of the most active members in the propaganda being Countess Willaraovitz-Moellendorf, who is addressing the great public in lectures on life-saving." I have since heard from Mr. Isakson that on 24th January the ten ladies of the Council of the " Life Buoy " held a dance, cabaret and theatrical performance at the Grand Hotel, Stockholm, at which the Crown Prince and Crown Princess were present. The Council had hoped to have a copy of one of the Institution's films to show on this evening, but it could not be got ready in time. Instead of this copies of the Centenary Number of The Lifeboat and of the November, 1924, number, with the account of our Centenary celebrations, were sent, at Mr. Isakson's request, to be presented to the Grown Prince and Princess and the officers of the " Life Buoy." The film will be sent later, to be used by the Council of the " Life Buoy " at its lectures.

Norway, like Sweden, has been following our example in the same way. Two years ago the Secretary of its Life-boat Service, Captain Ottar Vogt, was over here inspecting not only our Life-boats but our arrangements for Life-boat Days, and was supplied with specimens of our collecting-boxes and badges.

It has always been the policy of the Institution to place its inventions and experience in life-saving at the disposal of other countries, and it will be remembered that, at the InternationalLife-boat Conference, Admiral Le Bris, of the French Life-boat Society, paid a tribute to the "liberal spirit" in which this had been done. It is an equal pleasure to us to be able to give other Life-boat Services the benefit of our experience in that other and most important side of the Institution's organization—the raising of funds.

Tbe Latvian Life-boat Service.

In the article, in the last issue of The Lifeboat, on the " International Con- ference on the World's Life-boat Ser- vice," it was stated that the Latvian Life-boat Society, which was founded at the end of 1923, to take over the stations on the Latvian coast formerly maintained by the Imperial Russian Society, was a voluntary organization.

This is not entirely correct. " Funds," so I am informed, " were supplied by membership fees, donations, Government support, and taxes specially leaned on ships entering Latvian ports." "Life-boat Stores Unlimited." Two years ago a paragraph appeared in The Lifeboat under this heading, and the paragraph itself contained a letter from a native of the Gold Coast, Mr.

V. J. Santo, asking for one of the Institu- tion's catalogues, and stating that he required for his stores samples of such things as " clothes, beads, buttons, silk, thread, whistles for scout-boys and bottles of lovender." In spite of the Institution's denial, the idea seems to persist in West Africa that we are a wholesale firm for the supply of general stores, for a Mr. A. A. Cudjol wiote, some months ago, from the Roman Catholic Mission School at Obmassie, asking for our " general illustrated catalongue of together with price list onenations sample ect." We are still wondering what " onenations " are.

The replies to these mistaken inquirers are, however, having their effect in West Africa, for in December of last year, another letter came from the Gold Coast, this time from Mr. J. A. Quanoah, saying that in a newspaper he had come across the Institution's name and address as " the best dealers in Life-boat Service in the City of London," and asking us to send him by return " complete cost for subscription to enable me to subscribe to same." " Nobody," so the letter went on, " has ever subscribed same before, neither has come across your name and address in any newspaper than myself." Mr. Quanoah has been sent the " com- plete cost for subscription." He is evidently very proud to be first in the field—and rightly so—and we look forward to welcoming him, shortly, as our first Gold Coast subscriber.

This idea prevailing in West Africa that the Institution is in business seems to have some currency even nearer home.

If not, why, when we rang up a large London shop some time ago, and gave the name of the Institution, were we put through immediately, and without further inquiry, to the 'wholesale fish department ?.