TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10150, 24 September 1898, Page 7

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The recent cable mesCheap Dinners sage which stated that

for Sir Thomas Lipton had London Poor, given £700,000 in aid of

a scheme to provide cheap dinners to the London poor was incorrect to the extent of £600,000. Still, the £100,000 cheque which he presented to the Princess of Wales a* the nucleus of a fund for building and equipping working men's dining-rooms was a generous gift, especially as it was backed by the promise of another cheque of the same value if the money was required. The scheme which has thus got a good start is the offspring of the Jubilee dinner to the poor of London, which was promoted by the Princess of Wales, and made possible by Sir Thomas Liptcn's liberality. The knowledge the Princess then gained of the needs ot her guests made her wish that something could be done for them every day in the year, and not only on special occasions- So, between them, the Princess and Sir ISiomas Lipton have organised a great philanthropic scheme called the Alexandra trust, for the purpose of providing all over London restaurants at which working men and women may purchase, wholesome well-cooked food at cost price. The trust has been incorporated by Koyal Charter, in order, it is explained, that the Princess of Wales may associate herself with the affair, for no member of the Royal Family could join in the work of an ordinary trading company. The other governors will be the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Francis Knollys (private secretary to the Prince of Wales), Sir Francis Jeune (president of the Probate and Divorce Court), and Mr James Knowles (editor of tlio "Nineteenth Century"), rather a peculiar collection, considering the purpose for which they are associated. The first restaurant will probably be situated in the Tottenham Court road, it will seat a thousand people simultaneously, and the erection of twentyfour similar buildings, all to be completed within two years, is contemplated. As Sir Tnomas Lipton said to an interviewer: — "We hope to cover all the working-class centres of London, and to have one of our restaurants within the reach ot everybody. The people will come to the counters and buy what they want, and either sit down and eat it there, or take it away with them. I nope to give them a small plate of meat and bread for twopence, and for fonrpence soup, bread, meat, and two vegetables. Other things will be cheap in proportion. I shall be able to direct the supplies, to purchase them at the best advantage, and of the best quality."

From one point of view the A above scheme is admirable. Possible It is practical philanthropy, Drawback, with nothing of charity

about it, for it-is confidently expected that it will be self-supporting. Restaurants on similar lines in Vienna, from which Sir Thomas Lipton appears to have obtained his idea, are not merely self supporting, but return a profit. Unfortunately it is extremely hard to be philanthropic in this world without doing some harm to somebody, and the Alexandra Trust certainly is not welcomed by large numbers of small shopkeepers and cheap caterers. They have some reason to fear, indeed, that it will ruin them. One gentleman in particular, Mr John Pearce, is taking a deep interest in the scheme. Mi Pearce is a most successful caterer for London's working class population, and the shops of "Pearce and Plenty" are known all over London. He used to be a porter in Covent Garden, and being dismissed from his situation one day, he set up in business as an early morning coffee-stall-keeper, with a capital of exactly twenty shillings. That was thirty-two years ago, and now his business has grown into a company, with sixty-four shops and over 1000 employees. Naturally Mr Pearce regards with suspicion so great a competitor as the Alexandra Trust restaurants are likely to prove. "If they are going to run the thing on commercial lines, and make a small profit, I don't mind," he said. "If they are going to pay a small dividend on the £100,000 by cheap catering for the working class, well and good, though of course I don't like it." He admitted that he was not so dependent upon his business as he once was, but he had a sort of parental interest in its success, and he felt a little anxious, for competition was quite keen enough already. Of course the Alexandra Trust will not pay a small dividend, it is not intended to be a profit-making concern. The customers will get the benefits of whatever surplus there may be in the shape either of reduced rates or more food for their money. Mr Pearce will therefore before long probably have a better idea of what competition is than he has experienced in his career as caterer. It will not hurt him much personally, but it will be a serious matter for less successful people in the same business, who can hardly hope to escape ruin if the Lipton scheme proves as successful as is anticipated.

Victokia is to have its A National Park, and one on National a very fine scale. Settle-

Park ment has progressed so For Victoria, rapidly in the colony that

many varieties of the native animal and vegetable life are in danger of being entirely destroyed. Axe, firestick and plough ma2e for the material prosperity of a country, but they interfere sadly with tho wild creatures. So before all these, and the indigenous trees and plants disappear, it has been determined to set apart one corner of the colony for them alone. Wilson's Promontory in Gippsland was selected as the spot, and there 91,000 acres have been proclaimed a national reserve, in which, undisturbed by the railway and the settler, the native fauna and flora will be rigidly protected. A perpetual close season for all the fish in the reserve, including the shores, has already been gazetted. The Customs authorities, in whose hands the matter lies, have also power to make and enforce regulations for the preservation of all the trees and shrubs. AU beasts, birds, frogs, reptiles, shell fish, insects, worms, Crustacea, "&c," are to be taken under the kindly wing of the law, from which it will be seen that the tourist will not be able to throw a stone in the National Park, without risk of hurting something, and so becoming liable to fine or imprisonment, or both. Only the snakes are friendless, still fair game for anyone who cores to tackle them. With the snakes all killed, the Park would become an improved Garden of Eden. At present the Customs authorities are manfully tackling the task of classifying the various living thihga. They have only two acts to work with, and their difficulty is to decide under which of these some of the creatures are to bo placed. Spiders, frogs, worms, and all the inferior orders of the animal kingdom lumped together under that "&c."—how can they be protected? They can hardly be called game, though some people certainly do hunt spiders and butterflies and beetles. On the other hand they ore certainly not fish. It is stated that a special Act of Parliament will have to be passed to afford protection to everything that needs it, but considering that an English railway guard has pronounced a tortoise to be an insect, according to the railway by-laws—"dogs is dogs and cats ia dogs, but a tortoise is a hinsec'"'

—and English judges have pronounced in favour of the lion being regarded as a domestic animal, this should hardly be necessary.

Fcrther particular* of Rougemont's M. de Rougemont's moving Wanderings, adventures by» flood and

field continue to come to hand, just at the time, unfortunately, when all the news we are getting of him spoils their effect. One day we hear that the editor of the "Daily Chronicle" is convinced by the "unreasonableness" of 31. de Rougement's story; tfoe next day we come upon a description of his wanderings in Australia which, if truth really is stranger than fiction, should be unimpeachably true. Rougemont struck the mainland, he says, between Cambridge Sound and Queen's Channel, about the border line between the Northern Territory and West Australia, and spent thirty years—it was twenty-five at first— among the cannibil blacks in that part of the world before he again reached civilisation. He does not seem to have thought much of civilisation after he did get back to it, at any rate his latest .interviewer makeout that he compared London very unfavourably "with the plenty, peace, silence, and manifold beauties of the wilds," and believes that he will soon "wish himself back again and at peace in the beautiful forests and silvery streams of North-west Australia, which he describes with such evident affection." There is a remarkable difference between the accounts brought back by those New Zealanders who joined in the rush to the Kimberley diggings and M. de Rougemont's description of the region he spent so much time in. To some extent the country was the same ; yet, according to the returned gold-seekers, all that wasn't red-hot sand was red-hot rock, whereas the modern Ulysses found it an earthly paradise. The blacks, ove;- whom the explorer gained sucli an ascendancy by means of his prowess and deeds of vrloui and activity, were apparently a much finer race than any hitherto known to scientists to exist on the Australian Continent. In spite of his present affection for the desert life, M. de Rougement seems to have done his best to get out of it, for after having successfully led the tribe to battle, after becoming an adept with shield and spear, taking a native wife, and adapting himself in the matter of clothing entirely to the standard of his companions— Ids wardrobe consisted of a plume from the tail of the lyre bird ("absit omen") —his yearnings for civilisation so preyed upon his dusky wife's nerves that, pointing to the East, she said she had heard white men were to be found in that direction. So off started Monsieur and Madame de Rougemont, "and marched and marched by star, by sun, by a thousand signs of Nature, until they came to tlhe ocean once more. It was the Gulf of Carpentaria, though Rougemont thought it was the Coral Sea of the South Pacific, and to reach it he had travelled right across the Northern Territory, and must have passed under the overland telegraph line. How they missed observing such a notable sight in the wilderness is a mystery. Perhaps they passed it in the nightThe hard luck that Up and Down dogged this unfortunate Australia. De Rougemont was really something quite out of the common. On the shores of the Gulf he made a "dug-out," and in this he and his native wife coasted and cruised about in search of a white man's settlement. Now, the Gulf country, though not exactly populous, is not quite uninhabited, there are some settlements on its shores, and small coasting craft occasionally visit it). Yet De Rougemontfs search for a white man was unavailing,' and after wandering about for eighteen months, he and Madame found Ihemsalveflt back at home again. Where "home" was is not very clear, but presumably somewhere in the neighbourhood of Cambridge Gulf, where they started from. To get back they must again have passed the telegraph _ine without seeing it, unless they sailed round, an improbable feat in a dug-out canoe. After he had rescued two white girls from the chief of another tribe, a ship hove in sight. De Rougemont, his wife, and the white women set off to her in a canoe, accompanied by a fleet of other canoes. The jship, however, passed on, those on board thanking Providence, no doubt, for rescuing them from such a host of bloodthirsty savages, and De Rougemont's canoe being upset, the two white women were drowned. Then De Rougemont settled down to live as a wild man. "Nevertheless, for ten years," his interviewer tells us, "he wandered with his faithful companion over that vast wilderness, still hoping faintly. His great and final effort was a long journey from 15 deg. N. latitude to 25 deg., marching pretty near due south. At this point he encountered Giles's exploring expedition, which, mistaking him for a savage, not unnaturally greeted him with a volley of lead. After that he gave, up the attempt as really hopeless, returned to the north, and for twenty years remained on the lovely heights in the Northern Territory of South Australia, about 22 deg. south ot ■; uue. Then his wife died, and on her death-bed advised him to steer south-west if he ever wished to see Christians again. He did, and came out at Coolgardie." In London, "the dialects of the cannibal tribes with whom ho lived tripped easiest from his tongue," but he spoke English much better than French, explaining this by saying that he conversed with his native wife in English, "as that language was universal in Australia." And yet the cannibal tribes who had learned to speak English could not direct him to an English settlement. And yet the editor of the "Chronicle" thinks his story unreasonable! Unreasonable editor!