A NEW type of collecting box has been designed by Group-Captain John Potter of Crowborough. It takes coins of all sizes, and every time a coin is dropped into the box a model life- boat is launched. A number of these boxes were displayed at the annual dance at the Savoy Hotel on the 16th of December, 1953, organised by the Central London Women's Committee, when H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent, the President of the Institution, put the first coin in the box. Production of these boxes in considerable numbers has now begun and it is hoped that they will be available shortly for special functions and for clubs, shops and bars throughout the country.

The Lago Community Council in Aruba, Netherlands West Indies, has sent a contribution of £79 12s. 7d. to the Institution. The money was sub- scribed by Lago Colony residents, who are mainly expatriate employees of the Lago Oil and Transport Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Com- pany, New Jersey. The majority of them are United States citizens.

Donations are made by the Council to certain specified charities.

service of this kind was conducted last autumn in the Edgcumbe Hotel, Bere Alston, Devon, by the Rev. R. G.

Crookshank.

Mr. O. H. Marriott, a watch-maker and jeweller in Ramsey, Huntingdon- shire, has raised nearly £25 for the Institution by a collecting box on his counter. The money has been given by customers who have not been charged by Mr. Marriott for minor repairs to watches, clocks and jewel- lery.

* * * By contributing threepence each at the end of every meal taken at home Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Rayner of Dudley, Worcestershire, have been raising money for various charities for some years. They recently sent a cheque to the Institution for a sum collected in this way.

Six hundred copies of Gales on the East Coast, a booklet written by Mrs.

C. C. Norman of Caister, Norfolk, have been sold for the benefit of the Insti- tution. The booklet gives accounts of some of the famous rescues by Norfolk life-boats.

The Institution recently received a cheque for £17 as a consequence of the survival of an old West Country custom. This was the holding of a harvest festival service in an inn. A Among successful raffles conducted by Irish branches was one at Coleraine, when a Vernon Ward print was raffled.