Presentation of Prizes in Greater London.

THIS year, for the first time, the prize for the best essay in Great Britain and Ireland was won by a pupil of a London school, Alfred Robinson, of Warple Way Mixed School, Wandsworth.

The special prize for the best essay and the challenge shield for Greater London were presented to Alfred Robinson by Lord Snell, C.B.E., chair- man of the London County Council, at the Caxton Hall, Westminster, on July 4th. Lord Snell also presented the thirty-four other prizes won by Greater London schools and a number of the prizes won by schools in the South-Eastern District.

The Mayor of Westminster (Mr. F. G.

Rudler, J.P.) presided, supported by Sir Henry Jackson, M.P. for Central Wandsworth, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Institution, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Oliver, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., M.V.O., and Mr. C. G.

Ammon, members of the committee of management, and Lieut.-Col. C. R.

Satterthwaite, O.B.E., secretary of the Institution.

In his opening speech the Mayor recalled that many distinguished men had presented the prizes on previous occasions, among them Major-General Lord Mottistone, coxswain of the Brooke, Isle of Wight, life-boat, Lord Eustace Percy, president of the Board of Education, Mr. C. G. Ammon, Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, and Sir Malcolm Campbell.

Lord Snell's Address.

After presenting the prizes Lord Snell gave an address in which he said : For the first time a London boy has won this prize of great distinction for the best essay in Great Britain and Ireland, in addition to winning the shield for the London district. The London County Council is highly gratified that that distinction, won by one of its scholars, should come to the boys and girls of London. (Applause.) I have written many essays myself, and I have never won a prize. I have sent a great many of them to editors, and they have found their way into the waste-paper basket, so I can under- stand that success so early in life is a very great comfort and distinction. I have read the essay carefully, and it seems to me to be clear, balanced and compact. In its structure it shows great promise, a promise which I hope Alfred Robinson and those who have the right to advise him will try to develop as the years go by. (Hear, hear.) The London County Council is in the way of being probably the greatest education authority in the world. We have a responsibility for the proper education and the upbringing to a state of conscious citizenship of no fewer than about 780,000 children.

It is a very heavy responsibility to do the very best we can for the children, to fit them for their purpose in life ; and when some of them succeed in an open competition in getting distinction, such as we have seen to-day, the London County Council, through its chairman, cannot do other than rejoice and congratulate the scholars, the winners of the prizes, their teachers, the schools, and the fathers and mothers of London.

(Applause.) A LESSON IN CITIZENSHIP.

The object of this competition is to interest the boys and girls in a great service, a service that we hear of only in times of trouble, but which every day throughout the year is vigilant, always" watching for a call to service ; and it is in order that we may pay homage to that great life-boat service, devoted to rendering help in the hour of greatest need, that we are here to-day. The service is a great lesson in duty, in the highest type of citizen- ship, and it is a great example to every boy and girl and every man and woman throughout the whole country.

A storm at sea looks fine when you are on shore and looking at it from behind a window in a nice warm room, but a storm when you are out at sea, when you are buffeted about by the waves, when between you and death there are only a few frail timbers that we call a boat or a ship, is quite a different matter. Last year I went across the Atlantic, and we ran into a several days' storm which made us three days late in arriving at New York.

The old boat did everything except sink; she stood on her head; she kicked up her heels; and she once or twice thought she was the cow that had to jump over the moon. When we got inside the harbour at New York I can tell you, as the Americans say, " it looked good to me " to see the shore again.

It is the service which is waiting to help us in such perils that we are here to-night to encourage. These men face very great dangers ; they go out; they do not ask who it is that is in distress; people may be strangers to them; they may be people of another race, speaking another language, having another religion; but behind all those things that divide men there is the common bond of humanity.

EVERYONE'S DUTY.

We cannot all be life-boatmen, though we never know when we, too, may be called upon to render helpful service of that kind, but we can to-day give the life-boatmen encouragement in their work by our sympathy.

Money cannot pay for such service; but they are paid by a sense of duty which they feel when they have done all that they can to save human life.

They do not ask whether the task is possible or not. They try to do it.

When duty says : " Thou must," the life-boatman replies: " I can." In that spirit life-boatmen go out to service, and in that spirit let us think of them, supporting the Institution which nourishes them in their service throughout the year, and let the boys and girls talk about it to their fellow- scholars, and let all the boys and girls of London, when next year comes round, try to be the first in this com- petition. (Applause.) A vote of thanks to Lord Snell and the Mayor of Westminster was pro- posed by Sir Godfrey Baring and seconded by Sir Henry Jackson.

Mr. Frederick Woodhouse sang five sea songs: "Trade Winds," "Three Poor Mariners," "The Mermaid," " The Lass that Loves a Sailor " and " The Crocodile." As they went out each boy and girl was given a life-boat souvenir..