MRS. BOUTWOOD, honorary secretary of the Stanmore branch, has been holding gramophone evenings for young people, contributions for the entertainment being given to the Life- boat Service.

An unusual dance for those in their teens and twenties was held by the new Chiltcrns branch, which has been formed under the chairmanship of Lady Howe. The dance was held in the Amersham home of the Tyrwhitt- Drakes, which was lent by its present occupant, Mrs. McTaggart.

* * * Mr. H. Watson, honorary secretary of the Cemaes Bay branch, ferried people out in his private motor boat to inspect the Holyhead life-boat when she visited Cemaes Bay during the annual regatta.Mr. Howard Biggs, honorary secre- tary of the Broadstairs branch, has placed a notice board beside the pillar collecting box at Broadstairs recording the services of the life-boats at the former Broadstairs station and up-to- date records of services by Kent life- boats. As a result the takings from the pillar collecting box increased ten-fold in one year.

* * si-- Mr. David Sutcliffe, of Deepcar, Hale, Cheshire, has been collecting money by placing a collecting box near large or unusual catches of fish, which have been exhibited 011 the sea- wall.

* * * At an exhibition held at Peterhead in aid of the Life-boat Service among the more unusual exhibits were a matchstick model of a life-boat and a working model of a modern breeches buoy, demonstrated by Mr. James Taylor, a coastguard.

Miss Philippa Champion, of Foxley, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, has, with five other girls, been editing a magazine. Their parents and friends have been invited to borrow it at 2d.

a time, and they have thereby collected 5s. for the Institution.

Mr. G. A. Horsham, a butcher of 166, Mayplace Road, East Barnchurst, Kent, has a collecting box in his shop and asks customers to put in contri- butions when he gives them bones.

Mrs. Davie, the headmistress of a school in Bessacarr, Yorkshire, has devised a variation of the system of forming a mile of pennies. Two strips of strong paper were painted to repre- sent the sea and led to a painting of a vessel foundering on the rocks. On each of the strips was a model life-boat, and every penny contributed moved the boat nearer the wreck. There was considerable competition between the two boats to reach the wreck first.

* * * David Jones, an eleven-year-old boy of Boston, Lincolnshire, while on holiday at Runswick Bay, collected sea urchins and then cleaned and sold them. In this way he raised 12*. lid.

for the Institution.

Notice All contributions for the Institution should be sent either to the honorary secretary of the local branch or guild, or to Colonel A. D. Burnett Brown, O.B.E., M.C., T.D., M.A., the Secretary, Royal National Life-boat Institution, 4,'Z Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W.I.

All enquiries about the work of the Institution or about this journal should be addressed to the Secretary.

The next number of THE LIFE-BOAT will be published in MARCH, 1956..