A LORRY decorated by the chairman and secretary of the Luton branch, Lieut-Commander Bernard McDonald, R.N.V.R., and Commander W. R. S.

Smith, R.N.V.R., with equipment supplied by the Institution's depot won the first prize of £10 in the Luton Easter Bonnet Parade. A feature of the decorated lorry was an enormous sou'wester with the caption "The hat that is alwavs fashionable." Mr. A. W. Hartup, the proprietor of the Castle Studio in Rhyl, asks his customers to make contributions to his life-boat collecting box in return for the service he gives in putting films into their cameras.

Mr. Duffield of Messrs. H. Duffield and Sons of Fulford, Yorkshire, has for some time been asking customers to make contributions in his collecting-box when he supplies them with air for their tyres.

When the Edinburgh Troop Enter- tainments Service was wound up it was found that it had a credit balance. The sum left has been given to the Institu- tion as a contribution to the work of the Life-boat Service during the war.

Mr. T. E. Roderick has made a con- tribution as the outcome of an exper- ience he had when serving as a cadet in the training vessel M.S. Chanlala, owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company. The Chantala was lying at her berth in Melbourne one Sunday afternoon when a racing skiff approached her and was clearly in difficulties. Mr. Roderick and some others lowered one of the ship's boats and picked up the crew of the skiff.

The rescued men insisted on making a payment of five Australian pounds, and Mr. Roderick has now given this amount to the Institution.

It was stated in the September 1954 number of the Life-boat in this column that Messrs. Micromodels were pro- ducing a booklet of instructions on how to make a model life-boat. These booklets are now available and can be supplied to branches at 2s. each. The sale price to the public is now 3s..