A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 104, 27 January 1938, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

David Lloyd George

The Kt. Hon. and Mrs. David Lloyd George are celebrating their golden wedding. Mr. Lloyd George is a Welshman who was born in Manchester. His father dying when the boy was only a year old, the family was looked after by an uncle. Richard Lloyd, a shoemaker and preacher to a sect called the Disciples of Christ. in Llanystumdwy, Carnarvonshire, Wales. Educated at the village school, he was articled in 1879 to a firm of solicitors. Admitted as a solicitor in 1884, he practised at Criccieth. He served on local bodies, and in 1890 was elected Liberal member for Carnarvon Boroughs, a former Conservative stronghold, and he has never ceased to represent that constituency, establishing a record for continuous service.

He made his first Parliamentary attack on Joseph Chamberlain in his maiden speech. It was mainly through him that Welsh Disestablishment became an accomplished fact. He opposed the Boer War and was regarded as the head of the "Little Englanders." His first Cabinet.office was that of President of the Board of Trade, but it was as Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he introduced his “Socialist Budgets” and national insurance scheme, that he came into real prominence. In July, 1911, he issued a warning to Germany over the Agadir, and thereafter he was a patriot sans reproche. The Great War added to his fame. He was the driving force of British Cabinets, occupying posts that enabled him to exercise the greatest influence on recruiting and the manufacture of munitions. In December, 1916, he succeeded Mr. Asquith as Prime Minister, and by the coupon election of 1918 effectually smashed the Libera] Party, and placed his Coalition Government in an unassailable position. He was the principal delegate at the Peace Conference, but his actions there, and afterward in European affairs, had the effect of diminishing his prestige until his Government collapsed on a challenge led by Mr. Stanley (now Earl) Baldwin. He has written his war memoirs, in which he criticised military leaders right and left, and he now criticises the National Government in Parliament.

Tasman. And New Zealand It has been proposed to erect a stone commemorating the first part of New Zealand that Abel Tasman saw in 1642.

New Zealand got its name because the Dutch explorer, Abel Janszoor Tasman, was the first European who touched its shores. When Tasman came in 1642 the Dutch were at the height-of their power. He was a sea captain in the service of the Dutch East India Company (then in deadly rivalry with the English East Indii| Company) and had been sent down from Java to see whether New Holland, as Australia was then called, extended away to the south as a great Antarctic continent. He had .discovered Tasmania, which now bears his name, though he called it Van Diemen’s Land. Sailing east, he picked up the coast of Westland, which he skirted till he rounded what we now call Farewell Spit, and anchored in Golden Bay. His name for that place, however, was Murderers' Bay, because fierce Maoris in their double canoes attacked a boat’s crew and clubbed four of the men. Tasman sailed away along the coast of the North Island till he rounded the North Cape, and named the Three Kings Islands; but sailed off again, once and for all, when another band of threatening Maoris .terrified his crew.

His first name for the new country was Staaten Land, because he thought it might extend across the Pacific Ocean to what is now known as Staaten Island, south of Terra del Fuego.

Another explorer soon afterward proved Staaten Land to be an island. The Dutch authorities then changed the name of the new land Tasman had discovered, giving it the name it still bears, New Zealand. Even after Tas-_ man’s map was published it remained a shadowy land until Captain Cook in his three voyages made a thorough survey of the coastline. Imperial Airways

Britain’s largest passenger airliner and one of the largest in the world built at Hamble for Imperial Airways, has had its first test flight.

On August 25, 1937, was completed 18 years of regular British daily airtransport. In August, 1919, Britain established the world’s first daily “air express” for passengers and freight between London and Paris, the aircraft employed carrying a pilot and two passengers and flying only at 80 miles an hour. To-day the giant machines are designed to be driven by engines developing 3200 horse-power and carrying 40 passengers in luxurious saloons, in addition to a crew of five. One can book air tickets to-day from London to more than 200 towns and cities on the Continent, That first 250-mile London-Paris route has now expanded into a network of 60,000 miles in Europe.

This year, too, the North Atlantic service will be a regular feature, and will be of vital importance as one of the main links in a world-enOireling air-chain, imperial Airways, too, have inter-booking arrangements with nearly 20 steamship companies throughout the world. The intention is that passengers will be able to fly from Eng-' land eastward across the Empire to Egypt. India. Malaya, China, Australia or New Zealand. Then will come trans-Pacific stages to either the American or Canadian seaboard. After this overland airways will bear passengers across Canada or the United States to the Atlantic coast: and then as a final stage will come a flying-boat trip back to England in one of the giant airboats of the North Atlantic service. Helsingfors A big explosion in a fortress at Helsingfors. during an inspection, has resulted in a heavy death roll. Helsingfors is a seaport and the capital of Finland. It is the centre of the administrative, scientific, educational. and industrial life of the country. The fine harbour is divided into two parts by a promontory and is protected at the entranee by a group of small islands, upon one of which stands the fortress of .Sveaborg. A third harbour is situated on the west side of the promontory, and all three have granite quays. The city, which in 1810 had only 4000 inhabitants, now has considerably more than 200,000. It is the centre of an active shipping trade with the Baltic ports and with England, and of a railway system connecting it with all parts. It possesses wide streets, parks, gardens, and monuments. The principal square contains the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, the Senate .louse, and the university, all im posing buildings.