and girls 152. The prize for the best essay has now been won nine times by girls and seven times by boys (a boy and a girl tying for it in 1933).

The Awards.

Alice Chambers will receive a copy of Britain's Life-boats, by Major A. J.

Dawson, inscribed by the Prince of Wales, and a certificate. Each of the other eight winners of challenge shields will receive a copy of Launch, by Major-General Lord Mottistone (Major- General Seely), coxswain of the Brooke, Isle of Wight, life-boat, inscribed by the author. The schools will hold the shields for a year and each school will also receive, as a permanent record of its success, a copy of the certificate awarded to the pupil. The other prize- winners will each receive a certificate and a copy of Launch. In a few cases, where winners of prizes last year have again won them, they will receive, instead of Launch, copies of Modern Motor Life-boats, by Mr. J. R. Bar- nett, O.B.E., M.I.N.A., the Institution's consulting naval architect.

The 1,097 schools which did not enter for the inter-school competition, and the 1,099 schools which did not win a prize in it, will each receive a certifi- cate for presentation to the writer of the best essav in the school.

Thanks to Education Authorities, Teachers and Judges.

The Institution again owes its warmest thanks to the Education Authorities for their kindness in giving permission for the competition to be held, and, in a number of cases, in sending out the particulars of it themselves, or in drawing attention to the competition in their circulars to teachers. It would also like most cordially to thank the teachers for their kindness in voluntarily undertaking the consider- able extra work which the competition lays on them. The passages quoted from the judges' reports show how much trouble they must have taken to instruct their classes in the work of the life-boat service, and the Institution gratefully recognizes that it is chiefly due to the teachers that, in the words of one .of the judges, " the competition has done a great service in arousing the interest of thousands of children in the Institution." To the judges, also, the Institution's warmest thanks are due. Some of them have now for many years been giving the Institution their generous help.

Below will be found the names of the nine winners of challenge shields and the best essay. The full list; of winners is printed as a separate leaflet and will be sent, with a copy of this journal, to each of the schools which entered for the inter-school com- petition.

Winners of the Challenge Shields.

LONDON.—Edward Franks, The Hither Green Senior Boys' School, Beacon Road, Lewisham.

NORTH-EAST of ENGLAND. — Mary Barraclough. Kimberworth Central School, Rotherham.

NORTH-WEST OF ENGLAND.—Phyllis Quirk, Clothworkers' School, Peel, Isle of Man.

MIDLANDS.—Herbert Thompson, Hill Top Senior Boys' Council School, Blackheath, Worcestershire.

SOUTH-EAST or ENGLAND.—Olive Mae Jakes, The Croydon British Girls' School, Tamworth Road, West Croydon.

SOUTH-WEST OF ENGLAND.—George Baker, Grove Road Senior Boys' School, Gosport.

SCOTLAND.—William Forrest, St. Cuth- bert's Roman Catholic School, Burnbank, Lanarkshire.

IRELAND.—Alice Chambers, Rockvale Public Elementary School, Newry, Co. Down.

WALES.—Frederick John Channel!, Wood Memorial Boys' School, Saltney, Flintshire. Why Does our Country Need a Life-boat Service ? OUR country needs a Life-boat Service because we are a nation of the sea and live by it. Right down the ages one characteristic of our race was prominent, and that was their love for the oceans. They ranged the ocean, wrestled with the fury of its waves, rejoiced in its strength, and often found their graves beneath its surface. The British people were, and are, and shall be Oceanlovers as long as its waters shall lap our shores.

The love of the sea is in our blood. It is a national inheritance from a long line of ancestors who, as dauntless invaders, came across the wild waters in their frail ships.

It is the courage of these men, and their passionate love for the sea, that has given to our race the acknowledged supremacy of its sailors and navigators.

We need a Life-boat Service because we are the greatest maritime nation in the world, and have to feed, clothe and supply the raw materials for the industries that provide work for the millions of our people. Most of the commodities for these purposes are sea-borne, and their provision necessitates the arrival and departure of many ships to and from our ports, and all of these, with their crews, are at the mercy of the gales and fogs which are so common around the British Isles.

The sea encircles us on all sides. Our shores extend for 5,000 miles and round their vast extent are rocks and sand-banks, both of which present a dreadful menace to all ships approaching to or departing from them. A Life-boat Service is necessary to provide for the rescuing of those souls who may suffer shipwreck near our coasts, and each year many ships are driven unto the cruel rocks that surround our land.

Britain needs a Life-boat Service because her weather conditions are so uncertain that fogs and gales may arise suddenly and jeopardize her shipping, which is the greatest in the world. She enjoys the happy position of being in the centre of the World's Land Hemisphere, and this unique position combined with the nautical skill and bravery of her mariners has given to her the foremost place in the World's Commerce. For these reasons she needs Life-boats to ensure the safety of her sailors, her ships and their cargoes.

Our country needs a Life-boat Servicebecause our brave fishermen are constantly netting the harvests of the deep. These brave " toilers of the sea " venture in small crafts over the wildest of waters and pursue their work at all times and in all weathers.

At present there are over fourteen thousand fishing boats around the shores of the British Islands manned by hardy fishermen who brave the ever-changing elements. It is a National duty to provide the best possible means of safeguarding these splendid seafarers from the sudden gales that raise the storm-tossed billows, which threaten to engulf them.

Our country requires Life-boats to provide succour for her ever-increasing squadrons of sea and air planes. Even with the enormous progress of our modern civilization, and the marvellous inventions of our generation, we are still at the mercy of the elements both on the sea and in the air.

There is no wealth but life and anything that robs our country of its citizens robs it of its life-blood. Cruel Neptune is continually taking toll of some of Britain's bravest and best sons, consequently we need an adequate and well-equipped Life-boat Service.

Our country needs Life-boats because we lead the world in the efficiency and bravery of our Life-boatmen and desire to maintain this pre-eminent position. We are proud of the fact that ours was the first country in the whole world to have a Life-boat Service, and are gratified to know that now fifteen other countries have followed our lead and possess similar Life-saving Services.

We need a Life-boat Service because of the inherent desire in our race to suffer privation, and if need be to sacrifice their lives to relieve the suffering, and to save the lives of those in peril on the sea, because storms like those our Saviour calmed on the Sea of Galilee are still prevalent around our shores.

Sir William Hillary, the founder of our magnificent Life-boat Service which has stood the test of one hundred and eleven years of loyal service to the most sacred cause of humanity, says that, " So long as men shall continue to navigate the ocean and the tempests shall hold their course over its surface, disasters by sea, shipwreck and peril to human life must inevitably take place." So long, also, shall we need a Life-boat Service.

Great is the fame of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, but greater still is the need of its guarding care by those " who go down to the sea in ships.".