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Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 65, 16 March 1907, Page 12

Messrs. Chappell and Co. have matt,. public a very interesting account of tne expenses they incurred in their successful attacks on "music pirates''iandan pro- _ rooting the Musical Copyright Act. it M ... to be feared that, beyond those directly , interested—the trade and the composers —few were greatly exercised over the doings of the pirates. They onay gather from Messrs. Chappell's announcement how severely the matter pressed upon the trade. The cost of prosecutions reached £4200, and of Parliamentary expenses ■ £2500. An expenditure of nearly £<00U —that is to say—was considered money well spent. It is not a light sum. Apart from this total itself, there is in tho figures supplied another point which little surprising. From composers only £722 was subscribed towards the expense* incurred. It does not see ma great effort on the part of that body of those injured, by the pirates for whom the greatest mead of public sympathy was certainly felt. The diminished royalties of composers was a louder cry than the diminished receipts in the music shops ana publishing houses. References to ' the psychology of crowds entered quite naturally into Professor John Adam's lecture at -London University College on teaching Jast month. A class of pupils constitutesa crowd. It presents all the peculiar characteristics of a crowd, and it is therefore, according to Professor Adams; more easily understood by the teacher than a single boy. This reasoning may. be at first sight a little hard to follow, it would appear almost obvious that a is easier to understand one person thai. a crowd cf persons; it would seem almost indisputable that in a crowd there, is far more of the protean element than in a single individual. The former a made up of many entirely different .personalities, and should be, therefore,_» far more complex puzzle. If dhriduals composing a crowd Teteme* their separate individualities this wouia be true. But they do not. It as tm most strongly marked characteristic oi a crowd that its units, immediately upon entering it, lose their own personality; and merge into one uniform spirit There is much of the protean element: m the nature of the average indrv-dua_ an*, there is nothing of it in the crowd, ana it is this simple uniformity the class easier to understand t__aj^ i»__vda'-**__.- " " '. .