OF the 157 life-boats in the Institu- tion's active fleet to-day, and the 23 in the reserve fleet, only six have been built out of the general funds of the Institution. The great majority have been provided by private legacies, but there are a large number which are corporate gifts from cities, towns, public bodies, or big business firms.

Seven of the boats in the active fleet and two in the reserve fleet are the gifts of cities and towns, of Manchester and Salford, which have three between them, Bradford, which has two, Not- tingham, Oldham, St. Albans and the Tyneside towns. Another is a gift of a county, Westmorland. Two are the gifts of the people of Southern Africa.

Then there are the gifts of the ship- ping companies, the Cunard, the Penin- sular and Oriental Group, the Royal Mail and Union Castle Lines, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, and the Canadian Pacific. Lloyd's has also given a life-boat, which bears its name.

The Girl Guides of the Empire, the Freemasons of England, the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society, the Ancient Order of Foresters, the Thomas Corbett Charity, the Prudential Assurance Com- pany, and King George's Fund for Sailors, have all given boats. King George's Fund also makes an annual gift to the Institution which maintains its life-boat and provides for its replace- ment by another boat when it comes to the end of its service.

The chief of those corporate donors still remains to be mentioned, the Civil Service. Its life-boat fund was started 83 years ago and in the active fleet to-day there are no fewer than eight life-boats which are its gifts. The Civil Service has not only given them, but maintains them all, and provides a fund for replacing them when they come to the end of their service.

It is an impressive list, and when to this list of big gifts is added the figure of over seven million people who each year give their small gifts on life-boat flag days, one has the measure of the public support on which the work of the Life-boat Service is established..