The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-22 00:00:00

ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTI-
TUTION.

On Tuesday afternoon (18th inst), the Annual
General Meeting of the friends and supporters of the
Royal National Life-Boat Institution was held at
Willis's Rooms, St. James's, London. His Grace the
Duke of Northumberland, Lord PrivylSeal, President
of the Institution, occupied the chair on the occa-
sion. The meeting was influentially and numerously
attended. There were present, amongst others,
Thomas Chapman, Esq., F.R.S., V.P.:; Admiral of
the Fleet, Sir George Sartorius, K.C. B.; the Right
Hon. the Earl Percy, M.P. • Colonel Fitzroy Clayton;
The Marquis of Hertford ;W. H. Marton Esq.,V.P. ;
the Hon. T. C. Agar Robartes ; the Earl of Courtown;
the Marquis of Headfort •, the Right Hon. Stephen
Cave, M.P. ; Eugene F. Noel, Esq; Admiral Mc
Hardy ; Sir William Clayton Bart., and Lady Clay-
ton; Captain the Hon. F. Maud, R.N. ; Captain De
St. Croix ; J. Griffith, Esq. ; Captain L. T. Cave; the
Right Hon. the Earl Waldegrave ; W. Scarth, Esq. ;
Colonel Moncrieff ; Captain Martin, R.N. ; F. D.
Mocatta, Esq. ; Admiral Ward; Charles H. Cooke,
Esq., F,S.A. ;W. Mannock. Esq.: Rev. E. Hewlett,
M.A. ; and George Palmer, Esq.
The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, said
that he should have very few words to say, for how-
ever eventful the past year had been with regard to
the extraordinary severity of the weather, and in
other respects, yet as far as the: action of the Life-
boats had been concerned, it has not produced any
more than usual startling cases of danger or distress.
It was true that the loss of yessels which has oc-
curred &fling the year had been of the most appal-
ling character, but they had arisen from circum-
staaca-a bad. had .othing
to do. Although the Institution dealt with subjects
of the greatest possible interest, and the work which
it performed was connected with the fiercest fury
of the elements, the course of the Institution was
good will to men (hear, hear). There yi'its no Insti-
tution he believed that had taken so deep a root in,
the feelings of English hearts as the National Life-
boat Institution. The interest which had been shown
at the commencement of the Institution had not in
the slightest degree flagged or diminished. As an
instance of this he might say that he had been in
formed of the gift of a new lifeboat for Cornwall,
contributed by the employees of the Great Western
Railway at Swindon, in memory of Mr. Armstrong,
late Superintendent of the locomotive department
of that company. He (the Chairman) hoped that
this by no means solitary example would be followed
by many more. The services of the Institution had,
'as usual, been most successful (hear, hear). They
had now a noble fleet of life-boats which were ever
ready in the stormiest weather night or day to suc •
cour the shipwrecked sailor (cheers). He felt assufled
that an Institution which had such a hold on the
national feeling would continue to prosper, as long;
as England would remain an essentially naval king-
dom (hear, hear). He had, if he might use the
term, somewhat of a hereditary interest in its wel-
fare, and he was glad to find that the Institution was
so ably managed and that it commanded universal
esteem and confidence (cheers).
Richard Lewis, Esq., Barrister and Secretary of
the Institution, then read the Annual Report.
The Report commenced by stating that since the
last Meeting ten new Lifeboats had been placed on
our coasts, there now being 268 Lifeboats under
the management of the Society. During the year
1878 the Lifeboats of the Institution had saved
four hundred and seventy-one persons from wrecked
or endangered vessels, nearly the whole of them
under perilous circumstances, when ordinary boats
could not have been employed without great risk
of life to those on board them. In addition the
Lifeboats had helped last year to rescue 17 vessels
from destruction. • For those services, and for
saving 145 lives by Fishing-boats and other means,
11 Silver Medals and Votes of Thanks inscribed on
Vellum, and £2,750 had been granted by the Insti-
tution. It was satisfactory to know that the exer-
tions of the Life-boat men on the disastrous oc-
casions of shipwreck continued to be most gallant
and persevering, and that these invaluable services
were performed without the loss of a single life, or
an accident to any of the boats employed, notwith-
standing the fact that on service and quarterly
exercise the Lifeboats were manned in the year by
about 12,000 persons. The number of lives saved
since the establishment of the Institution, either by
its Lifeboats or by special exertion for which it had
granted rewards, was 26,051. For these services it
had voted 92 Gold and 892 Silver Medals, besides
pecuniary rewards to the amount of £57,710. The
Coultuittco Qordially aoknotularigarl thA ttontinu.ed
co-operation of the Local Branch Committees and
their Honorary Secretaries, and the Coast Guard,
boatmen, and fishermen. Many very liberal dona-
tions and legacies received during the past year
were gratefully acknowledged. The total amount
of the donations, subscriptions, and dividends re-
ceivedlduring that period had been £34,493, of
which sum £4,580 were special gifts to defray the
cost of eight Lifeboats. The expenditure had
amounted to .R 37,439. The items of receipt and
expenditure were detailed in the financial statement
annexed to the Report, audited, as usual, by Mr.
Lovelock, public accountant. The Committee, in
conclusion, observed that they were deeply sensible
as years rolled around, of the incraasingimportance
of their duties, and encouraged by the sympathy
and generous support which they had hitherto re-
ceived, were animated afresh in laying the claims
of the Institution before the British public.
The adoption of the report was then moved by
the Right Hon. Stephen Cave, M.P.. who stated
that, as representing a mercantile naval con-
stituency he was deeply sensible of the great ad-
vantage to their naval and seafaring population
of this noble institution. He referred to the fact
of the establishment of the lifeboat in Cornwall as
the indication of a great change which had taken
place in the feeling of the county since the end of
last century, when it was one of the worst places
for wrecking in the whole of the -United Kingdom.
Besides the large fleet of lifeboats which had been
placed upon our shores, lifeboats had been built as
patterns to foreign countries and to the colonies.
These might be very few, but they might serve to
induce those countries to supplement the exertions
of England by having stations of a similar
character. (Hear, hear.) But it was also the case
he believed that foreign and Colonial lifeboats
would be doing much greater benefit to Eng-
land than to the countries to which they belonged,
for anybody who kneW anything of the statistics
of the Blitish Mercantile Marine knew how en-
ormously it out-numbered those of any other
country and, therafore, whenever there was a storm
in any part of the world, the probability was that
English sailors would form the greater number of
those who are saved. (Hear, hear,) Agreat deal
had been said of late years about the difficulty of
managing our charities properly; but no such
consideration could arise in connection with the•
Royal National Lifeboat Institution,.as its charit-
able efforts were not such as could be open to abuse.
He did not think that the interest of the public in
the Lifeboat4vork would ever fade away (cheers).
The Marquis of He tdfort said he had much
pleasure in seconding the resolution. By his
family, as he had been reminded by Mr. Lewis,
he had long been associated with the Institution,
and it was a source of great satisfaction to him to
find that the members of his family continued still
to help furward its great and national work which
had his heartiest sympathy and support.
The Earl Of Courtown then proposed—" That
this Meeting—viewing the continued success which
characterises the organisation and administration
of the National Lifeboat Institution, and particu-
larly regarding the gratifying fact that not a
single life was lost from its Life-boats during the
past year—pledges itself to make renewed efforts
to perp3tuate and increase the operations of an In-
stitution which, from its first establishment, has,
under Providence, contributed to the saving of up-
wards of 26,000 lives from shipwreck."
lie said that, at a time of commercial distress
like the present when as statists told us the country
was poorer by many millions than it had been, it
might seem rash to pass a resolution pledging the
Institution to make renewed efforts to perpetuate
and increase its operations ; but he felt sure that
an Institution like this—whose benevolent work
came home to every heart —would never plead for
support and sympathy in vain. (Hear, hear). He
' spoke from his own personal observation that its
great work was thoroughly appreciated on the
coast, and particularly so in his own county.
(Cheers).
The Rev. Edward Hewlett, M,A.., of Manchester,
seconded the motion. He said that fie noticed
that the number of lives which had been saved
during the past year was twenty less than the
average from the commencement of the Society—
fifty-five years ago. The report partly accounted
for that fact and attributed it to the increased edu-
cation and efficiency of the persons engaged in
maritime pursuits. .' That was a cause which was
creditable to the educational progress of the day.
The diminution might, he had no doubt, be also
partly ascribed to the fact that the weather during
the year had been below the storm average. But
he was also very much afraid that another cause
of the diminution was the great commercial stag-
nation which had prevailed throughout the country,
and the consequently smaller number of ships
which had come in and gone out of our ports (hear
hear). Allusion had been made during the meet-
ilhit to the great preoeut popularity of the Life-