make them. He found that there was a great difference in the price of labour here and at Bridport. A person here would not earn more than 3/6 a weeks at net braiding. But if education was connected with it and contributions raised for its support, he thought it might succeed, and he would do what he could to promote the object. Mr. Ross said he entirely fell in with Mr. Hume’s plan. Mr. Witham, from Bridport, said he had served Hastings for years, and he would as soon sell twine as nets. In towns the labour was too expensive for net braiding. Even at Bridport they wwere obliged to get it done ten or twelve miles in the country by the rural population. He rather liked the idea of a school in connection, but they would want capital. Mr. G. Scrivens said there was a time when all the net braiding was done at Hastings, and the twine also made at home. Why it was discontinued was because the nets could be purchased cheaper elsewhere. Theirs were the best fishermen round the coast. There were none to equal, much less to surpass them in expertness of their business, and if it paid them to do it more could make better nets. A committee was then formed, and at a later meeting recommended that by way of experiment, £150 be raised by subscription to purchase twine and pay for the braiding of nets; that application be made to the managers of the Fishermen’s Club for the use of their room at Mercer's Bank, and to the managers of the several schools in Hastings and St. Leonards for their co-operation in the introduction of teaching and braiding. The Rev. W. W. Hume proposed the adoption of the report and the Rev. W. N. Tilson-Marsh promised his assistance.
The Launch of the Lifeboat
In years gone by the principal holidays at Hastings, in addition to those of Christmas, were Easter Monday, Whit-Monday, Rock Fair days in July and the Race-days in September. As time went on the Easter holiday gave place in importance to the Whitsuntide festivities, at which time the gay procession of the several Benefit Societies, their annual dinners and their al fresco amusements on the East Hill made Whit Monday the most generally observed holiday of the year. The Easter Monday of 1858, however, was a record one in consequence of a new lifeboat having arrived at Hastings, there to be exhibited and launched for the first time. After having been brought by rail to the West Marina Station, the boat was mounted on its carriage of novel construction and drawn by six horses through the two towns. A band of -
