WHEN one has, for fifteen years, held an office that any man must be proud and thankful to occupy, it is not easy to say good-bye. Yet the time has come for my retirement from the post of Secretary of the Institution, and I must take leave of the Committee of Management, the honorary workers and subscribers, the men of the life-boat crews, and my colleagues of the staff. In deep sincerity, I thank you all. It is because of your work that I can hand over my post to Colonel Burnett Brown with the knowledge that the Life-boat Service was never so well prepared for what the future may bring, or so near the hearts of the people.

From the Committee of Management, I have received wise direction and unfailing support. Honorary workers, everywhere and always, have given their time and energy ungrudgingly in the administration of life-boat stations, and in the task of raising funds. No life-boat crew, during my sen-ice, has ever failed to do all that men could do to rescue life in peril. The members of the staff, one and all, have done their work, I think happily, and certainly with keenness, understanding, and efficiency.

It is a great service that the readers of this journal work for and support.

Though my life of daily activity is over, I shall hope still to be of some use; for one cannot give up life-boat work.

But the secretary's responsibilities will pass into younger and more vigorous hands, and it is in the hope and confidence that my successor will earn all the friendship and sympathy that I undeservingly have enjoyed that I say farewell.