TOPICS of the DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 233, 1 October 1910, Page 13

TOPICS of the DAY.

a (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, August 19. AMERICAN AZR-KING. Once again has the foreigner " wiped j the eye" of English airmen. For some weeks past we had been hearing of Mr. (Latham's intention to fly from Paris to | London, but whilst he was looking out . for suitable weather conditions, ho was caught napping by a newcomer to the aviation world. This was Mr. John Modssant, an American of French-Canadian extraction who last Tuesday left Paris j in a No. 11 Bleriot machine to fly to j j London. He was accompanied by his ! mechanic, a burly engineer by name Filcux, and the united weight of the couple was close upon 2G stone. .Mr. Moissant has not yet reached London, but he has created several new records, and his flight contained many remarkable features. In the first place Moissant only commenced his career as an airman a few short weeks ago and ! prior to ascending at Amiens on Tuesday had only made four flights of an unambitious character. Moreover, he travelled over a country entirely unknown to him, never having previously visited the north of France, crossed the Channel, or seen England. And he made his way over this strange country solely by the aid of compass and maps. He is also the first airman to carry a passenger , from France to England. I Moissant's journey from Paris to ' Amiens on Tuesday night was entirely i uneventful. There he rested the night, land on the morrow resumed bis flight to [Calais arriving there at half past seven | in the morning. Three hours later ho I commenced the flight across the Channel, : and in spite of a strong westerly breeze, I which rendered living very dangerous, he I safely negotiated the sea passage, and did not land till at 11.30 a.m. he had reached Tilmanstone in Kent, about 0 miles inland from Deal. There lack of petrol compelled him to descend, and there it may be said his troubles began. Early next day he resumed hrs journey, anticipating arriving at tile Crystal Palace ere now. His engine, however, did not work as sweetly as he hoped, and at Sittingbourne, about half way to he was compelled to alight in order to adjust a loose valve. That did not take him long, but hardly had he got into the air again than something went wrong with the motor, and he had to plane down near Kainham. In alighting the propeller was broken, and the body of the machine damaged to such an extent that it is doubtful whether Mr. Moissant will be able to carry out his intention of concluding the journey to London ere the week has sped. LITTLE BOEBIT'S LA3JTJ BOOMED. It is not often that a piece of Old London is allowed to become the prey of the housebreaker without protest from some society or other, but the condemnation and demolition of Tabard-street. ' Southwark, has brought forth no outcries, though there is hardly a street in London so famously connected with histor} T , poetry, and every circumstance of greatness. in the old, old days, ere the New Dover Road was made, Tabard- ] street, then called Kent-street, was the I main approach to London for everyone j who arrived from anywhere in Kent, and I one might almost say from Europe. i Down Tabard-street the Canterbury pil- ! grims clattered on their way to Becket's I shrine. Up Tabard-street, nearly GOO i years ago, rode the Black Prince, victor j at Poictiers, bringing with him in triirmpn i the captive French King—a glorious pageI ant, the like of which Tabard-streeL had never seen bcfore j and will not sco again. It was up Tabard-street that the- peasants of Kent, under Wat Tyler, and later on, Jack (Jade, poured into the capital. | Even in these far-off times Tabardstreet was quite unworthy of the honour of welcoming and speeding London's | coming and departing guests. As long j ago as the 13th century it was a haunt of depravity and poverty shunned by all respectable folk. And as time passed ! its character did not improve. Vice and , dirt seemed to be in its very air, and ! when the creation of the Dover-road turned the stream of traffic elsewhere, j it quietly degenerated into a noisome back slura fuli -* v - »«foot urchins in

every stage of raggedness and dirtiness, playing in an atmosphere which can only be described as an indefinable blend of every kind of unpleasant odour, and surrounded' by every conceivable token of poverty and uncleanliness allied. Yet, with all its disgusting features, Tabard-street and its environs have a romance for us to-day. Their last distinction was that of being touched by the genius of Charles Dickens. Here was "Little Dorrit's" land. Not a hundred yards from Tabard-street "Little I Dorrit" was born. At St. George's Church hard 'by she was married, and there, too, is the vestry porch where tbe kindly beadle laid her to sleep with the burial register for pillow. Even the old Marshalsea, the debtors' prison, where Mr. Dorrit was a distinguished resident, where Dickens's own farther was not unknown, and to which Dickens himself paid many a visit as a boy, is still to be traced. One has only to dive into Angel-place—the little court on the left just before one comes to St. George's from London Bridge— to find the grim old walls of the Marshalsea standing as they stood a century ago, and the old Marshalsea belfry stands practically just as it was when it rang out locking-np time for little Dorrit and her father. To-day the housebreakers are at work demolishing Tabardf-street and the squalid little courts connected therewith. "Little Dorrit's" land is doomed, and there are few people living—/-except, maybe, the actual residents—who will not rejoice that Tabard-street is to be wiped off the face of the earth as a disgrace to modern civilisation. Even for Dickens's memories, it is perhaps best that a clean sweep should be made of Tabard-street and its environs. THE FESTIVAL OF EIBEPIKE, That the Festival of Empire, postponed last spring in consequence of the national mourning, was not abandoned, is a fact of which welcome reminder has been given this week by the announcement of the definite arrangements for holding the Festival in ISM. Advantage has been tak«n of the greater length of time allowed for preparation to much enlarge the scope of the pageant. It will, according to present arrangements, be a fitting crown to Coronation Year. The organisers announce as one of the new features an arrangement of courts representing all the overseas dominions. A scheme was drawn up, with the assistance of -Lord Stxathcona, which has received the hearty support of the High Commissioners of the self-govern-ing dominions, and lias been forwarded by them to their respective governments. This scheme, in which certain of the Colonial Governments have already cabled their -willingness to cooperate, allows for the erection in the grounds of the Crystal Palace of a series of buildings, some two-thirds of the actual size of the Parliament buildings or seat of Government of each, of the self-governing dominions. These buildings, which will serve as a remarkable illustration of the vast scope of the British Empire, will each be filled with a series of exhibits, showing in a striking and original manner, by means of living tableaux, working models, pictures, and cinematograph lectures, as well as products, the extent, resources, industries, life, scenery, and development of the various overseas dominions. In order more fully to bring the cohesion of the Empire before the minds of the public a railway will be constructed round the grounds, flanked on either side by scenery representing the country and its industries through which it is" passing, which will suggest, as nearly as possible, the progress of an All-Red route. At various points along the line, which will be about li miles in length, there will be stations for each of the great countries of the Empire, where the traveller may alight to view the buildings of the country and the exhibitions contained in them. The other arrangements made for 1910 will stand, including the great Pageant of London, in which 15,000 amateur performers will take part. The site of the exhibition will, of course, be the Crystal Palace. The Palace building itself will be devoted to an All-British Exhibition of Arts and Industries, with a special section for women's work, and a Country Life Exhibition on novel lines of-particular interest to -small-holders,.

EMPIRE RIFIiE SHOOTING. The Home Defence Trophy Competition. Challenge Shield, valued at £150, presented for a military shooting match, under conditions approved by the Army Council, upon 25-yards ranges throughout the Empire, has been won -By the Miohaelhouse School Cadet Corps, Natal, South Africa, with an average score per cadet of 137.3. The winning team, in addition to the Challenge Shield, to be held for one year, will receive a pleasant surprise in the form of a cheque for £50. Owing to the generosity of an anonymous friend the committee of this competition, of which Earl Roberts is president, has been enabled this year to distribute £ 125 in money prizes. An even larger sum will he distributed next year in fifteen prizes, including two prizes of £50 and one of £30, besides several small amounts. The competition is organised by the Imperial Cadet Association. The following are the-.prize winners for 1910:— 1. Miehaelhouse School Cadet Corps, Natal, South Africa, Challenge Shield, valued at £150, held for one year, and £50. 2. Permanent-Naval Forces, Melbourne, Victoria, £25. 3. Greytown Government School Cadet Corps, Na*al, South Africa, £"10. 4. Naval Militia, Victoria, A-ustralia, £5. 5. Ist -Cadet Battalion King's Royal Rifles, London, £5 and Special Prize of £20. 6. "A" Company Ist Battalion Victorian Rangers, Australia, £5. 7. Senior Nxcval Cadets, Victoria, Australia, £5. The Special Prize of £,20 was granted to the King's Royal Rifles, because every lad in the battalion fired for the prize, thus giving literal effect to the object of the competition, which is to encourage a high average degree of skill in marksmanship rather than a high individual degree of excellence. This is acting on the principle that a good average of marksmanship among a mass of men, not extraordinary skill in a few individuals, is essential for the defence of the Empire. J.P;'S " JUSTICE." We know that England is a truly free country, because Smyth-Piggott is still at large, and carrying on the some old game without let or hindrance from the police authorities. Apparently, in spite of all the vile things he has done, and is doing, under the cloak of religion at the Spaxton " Abode of Love," he has committed no provable offence for which he can be punished. If he would only go into some little country town where unpaid mayis-tr-ates rale the bench, and commit some very trivial offence such as hawking without a license, sleeping or something of that kind, he could get 'himself gaoled in no time for quite c. long period. English newspapers often gird at the harsh 'sentences imposed by " the great unpaid" for offences of the most trivial kind, but it is only now and then that one comes across a J.P. whose notions oi justice are so utterly at fault as those of Dr. Stiles, of Spalding, in Lincolnshire. This worthy had before him the other day a London mat-maker who had drifted to Spalding in searcn of work. The man, it appears, was seen by a policeman mending a mat in the street. The intelligent officer put two and two together, made inquiries of various householders in the vicinity, and discovered that the mat-mender bad been offering his skill at large. Then he tackled his man, discovered that he had no pedlar's license, and hauled him to the lock-up. He was charged next day, and pleaded that he didn't know he needed a license for mending mats. Ignorance, of course is no excuse, aaid Dr. Stiles informed the poor fellow that what he had done was " against the law." Then he thought oi a punishment to fit the crime, and could think of nothing better than elappin" the man into gaol for ten days' board and lodging at the ratepayers' expense! When he comes out of gaol the unfortunate mat-mender will be in a nice quandary. He will be sent to prison if he steals, sent to gaol if he begs, sent to gaol if'he is found without visible means of subsistence, and sent to gaol if a policeman finds •him mendiEsr. mats. ,