WE publish below a table showing the twenty Branches which made the largest contributions to the Institution during the financial year ending the 30th Sep- tember, 1930. Fourteen are English, four Scottish, and two Irish.

The total sum raised by these twenty Branches was £50,803, which is £8,303 more than in 1929. This is a very notable increase. On the other hand, in 1929. a contribution of £745 was and Salford Branch. It should, how- ever, be repeated that the City of London in the list is the City proper, the "square mile" within the original boundaries, and also the Borough of Finsbury. The whole of Greater Lon- don, which includes a number of Branches, collected £20,737.

The other changes in the list are not great. Nottingham and District de- serves hearty congratulations on appear- Branch. County. Population of Branch area. Collection. Amount per head. Position last year. 1 Glasgow and District .

2 City of London * ....

3 Manchester, Salford & Uist. .

4 Liverpool and District .5 Birmingham and District .

6 Edinburgh, Leith and Granton 7 Isle of Wight f ....

8 Bradford and District 9 Eastbourne f Lanark London Lanes.

Lanes.

Warwick Edinburgh Hants.

Yorks.

Sussex 1,060,000 1,279,000 955,000 1,007,000 512,000 94,150 394,700 66634 £ 13,519 8,987 3,739 3,450 2,503 2,367 1,960 1,760 1 630 fi.

3-06 0-70 0-87 0-60 1-11 1-07 9 1 3 4 5 7 15 6 8 10 Belfast Antrim 415,151 1 909 0-70 9 11 Dundee 12 Leeds and District 13 Dublin Forfar Yorks.

Dublin 196,974 600,000 431,000 1,179 1,130 1 064 1-44 0-45 0-59 12 10 13 14 Bristol Glos. 390,000 1 063 ((•65 11 15 Aberdeen 16 Southampton and District 17 Poole, Bournemouth, etc. •(• 18 Nottingham and District .

19 Oxford Aberdeenshire Hants.

Dorset Notts.

Oxford 188,000 235,600 146,200 350,000 57,100 1,015 1,014 925 850 766 1-30 1-03 0-58 3--'- 18 19 14 20 Margate | Kent 46,500 673 17 Clacton-on-Sea Exeter .

16 20 * Fluctuating population, so that no calculation per head is possible.

t Resident population. This is greatly increased by the influx of visitors all through the season.

needed to get a place among the first twenty, while last year the twentieth place was taken by a Branch which contributed £673. This is the lowest contribution by the twentieth Branch since 1926.

Reference has already been made to the magnificent achievement of Glasgow in beating the City of London Branch by .over £4,000, and taking the first place in the list. This is the second time that the City of London has lost its place at the top. The first occasion was in 1924, the Centenary year of the Institution, when it was displaced by the Manchester ing in the list for the first time, and Oxford makes a welcome reappearance after being out of the list for two years.

These two Branches have displaced Clacton-on-Sea and Exeter, which were sixteenth and twentieth respectively last year.

The Isle of Wight, including a num- ber of sub-Branches, which are fully organised units, has risen from fifteenth to seventh. This is the biggest rise, and is due to the very successful " All Island Fete," which was held in the summer.

Southampton has risen three places.

Bradford, which was second in 1922, and sixth in 1929, is now eighth ; Bristol has gone down three places, and Leeds two.

It will also be noticed that there are a number of cities and big ports which do not appear among the first twenty.

In the City, with its fluctuating population, and in the big seaside resorts, where there is a great influx of summer visitors, any calculation of the amount per head is impossible. Of those Branches in the list where such a calculation can be made, Oxford comes first with nearly 3 d. a head—a very fine achievement. It is worth recalling that in 1928, the last occasion when Oxford was among the first twenty, it had the best contribution per head, with just over 3Jrf. Glasgow comes second with just over 3d. per head, and five others have contributed over Id. per head—Edinburgh, Leith and Granton, Bradford and District, Dundee, Aber- deen, and Southampton and District.

Last year only four of the twenty-five Branches raised over Id. per head. This year the number is seven.

Many Branches which do not appear in the list have a higher per head contri- bution than any of the twenty, for, of course, the smaller the population, the easier it is to get a high collection per head. This fact emphasises the achieve- ment of Glasgow, which, with a popula- tion of over a million, has collected more than 3d. per head.

In order to appreciate the significance of the '' per head " figure, it should be remembered that the Institution needs annually, in order to provide and maintain the Service, £300.000, and that this represents d. per head of the population of Great Britain and Ireland.

11 per Head.

It will be seen, therefore, that every Branch should aim at getting at least Id. per head of the population within its area ; that none should be satisfied with less than Hd., and that those large towns which raise more than this have reason to congratulate themselves on the effectiveness of their methods of appeal, and to be proud of the generosity with which their citizens have responded to the appeal of the Service. But, as stated above, it must be borne in mind that it is much more difficult to achieve this result in great cities, with a huge working-class population, than in small towns and seaside resorts..