SANTOS-DUMONT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 182, 3 August 1932, Page 6

SANTOS-DUMONT.

The recent death of Senor Alberto SantosDumont recalls the fact that he was the world pioneer of aviation, taking precedence even of the Wright brothers. He was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and- was a member of a very wealthy family of French extraction, the owners of what was at one time reckoned the largest coffee plantation in the world. The Fazenda. Dumont, as it was called, was one of the sights of Brazil; it contained villages of workers who attended to the coffee plants, and also a private railway line. A good many years ago it was converted into a joint stock company, with a capital (if the writer remembers rightly) of £7,000,000.

Jn the short biographical notice of SantosDuniont supplied to the Press there is a slight error. It is stated that the amount won by the aviator for making his famous trip round the Eiffel tower during the early days of aviation was 10,000 francs; this should be* 100,000 francs (about £4000 at. the rate of exchange then current). Santos-Dumont was at finst disqualified for the prize, the Aeronautical Association, to whom M. Dautsch had submitted the matter, declaring, on technical grounds, that he was not entitled to claim it. The aviator was very indignant, insisting that he had fulfilled all the conditions. M. Dautsch eventually paid him the amount of the prize, in sfpite of the hostile verdict of the association. Santos-Dumont, to show that he was not actuated by financial motives in claiming the prize, distributed half the amount to local charities; the other half he divided among his employees and assistants.

Siintos-Dumont was always proud of the fact that, he was a Paulista; that is, a native of .Sao Paulo, the richest and most progressive State in Brazil. The Panlisias. not without reason, have always considered themselves superior to the rest of "the Brazilians. The city of Sao Paulo, the birthplace of Santos-Dumont is itself a standing proof of this claim. Tt is one of the most progressive cities in the world. A few decades ago it was a place of little importance; in 1929 the population was estimated at 5"9.788. It is much more up to date than Rio dc Janeiro, the Brazilian capital, though the latter is double the size and is certainly a very fine city. But Sao Paulo is a city of skyscrapers (some of them thirty storeys or more in height) ami palatini residences. Neither H : o nor Buenos Ayres can match it in this respect. In fact Sao Paulo, the centre of the world'.; coffee trade, has more the appearance of a North American than a Brazilian f'ty; i:i th" rapidity of its growth it rivals, the American citv of Los Angeles. —J. D. LEGKIE.