FROM LONDON

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 134, 9 June 1919, Page 8

FROM LONDON

VOTE FOR EDUCATION

HUGE INCREASE

CFROU OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, Bth April.

On education, science, and art the Government propose to spend £41,000,000 during the financial year just begun,

against £25.000,000 for 1918,19—an increase of £16,000,000. The Board oE Education accounts for £12,000,000 of 'this increase, while public education in Scotland is to cost £4,500,000 more than' la3t year. The Imperial War. Museum is down for - £27,200," against £19,000 for last year Scientific and industrial research is to cost just under £250,000. HIGH PRICES FOR CLOTHING. Various reasons are given for the continued high prices of clothing, and it is maintained that the question of profiteering does not come into the matter at all. The cost of material and labour have sent up prices. The pay of 6;kl to 7£d a;i hour before the ,war has gone up to 9jd to lOid. ...That does not seem much,] but it works out at 3s on a vest or pair of trousers, 7s 6d on.a lounge suit, and 9s on a, morning coat, and that is but one of the many items increased. No hopes of cheaper clothes this year are held out, and the trader regrets that, because more popular prices brings more trade. The War Office, it is stated, has been commandeering standard clothes and standard cloths to meet the demand for "civvy" clothes for demobilised-men. At the Army Clothing Store about. 8000 suits a week are being turned out, but these are far. below the required numbers. Tailors cannot make suite because of raw material and labour difficulties—a jobbing tailor even in the suburbs- will not work for less than £1 per. day. A great deal of the outdoor work for tailors was done by foreigners and, by women before the war; the former are not now available^ because they were enemies, and the latter have gone to work for higher pay." Restrictions oh wool are relaxed, but this is only a .small step in the direction of improvement: The demand is too heavy to be satisfied at present, and it has been found, necessary to give soldiers ,the option of keeping their uniforms, after removal of buttons and badges, and of having them dyed either blue or brown.; • : WORK THAT GOES ABROAD. ■ Diamond-cutters are again discussing iheMquestion of developing the industry in England. Although 95 per cent, of the diamonds of.the world.are produced within the British Empire, only a very small proportion are cut in England. "Rough." diamonds are brought to London) sent to Holland to be cut, and then reshipped to London. .A Birmingham firm, states that. English cutters would be.quite prepared to establish "olishing plant on a large scale if they w-*e given some protection against firmly established Dutch concern. In Birmingham there should be scope for ten or twelve cutting and polishing shops/ and if developed nationally there should be employment for 10,000 discharged men. . ..".'. SUGGESTED CHANGE IN THE ; : LANDSCAPE. -It is said that the age of the motortractor in the fields will see the aboli; '.tion of the hedgerows. Fields -^hich were suitable in size to the methods of '200 years agOj when the sickle was used 5 for reaping and the pack-horse for carryi'.:;: away the crops, are now considered quito unsuitable and uneconomic. Also redundant hedgerows throughout the : country occupy a very large space, esti- < mated at more than 500,000 acres. Mr. E. N. • Wale, principal of the ScaleHavce College, Devonshire, says that n former who estimated the hedges on his land at four or five fpet, "could ; s-jsrcely believe his eyes when he saw thorn actually measured at eleven to thirteen feet." In Devon alone, Mr Wale- \ writes, "if the redundant fences only— that, is, those forming enclosures to less than '\ ten acres —were thrown down, 24,000 acres would at once be added to the cropping capacity of the coun--1 try." 'He'estimates that if half the ■acreage now occupied by redundant 1 hedgerows in England and Wales were sown with wheat, there woiild be a yield "sufficient to provide bread for over one million people, for a whole year." , PROFIT-SHARING WITH EX- . SOLDIERS. Lord Angus Kennedy, .late' 8.A.F., son of the Marquis of Ailsa, has open- '■ ed a welding business in London. He is 'employing none but discharged soldiers, i who are sharing in the profits. He and ah c'S-sergeant in the- R.A.F. (Mr. A. J. Tilett) are joint inventors of a patent back-pressure valve, claimed to be "foolproof." This ■ valve, they say, will be a. great asset in the oxyacetylene principle of welding. It is hoped to extend the benefits of welding to small farmers, many of whom either braze their broken machinery or get new parts. He also intends ,to send welding plant out, so that machinery may be repaired on the spot. Lord Angus is a practical .engineer, having served an apprenticeship in ' well-known yards as a shipbuilder. < FOR THE FLEET. ; Mr. F. Faithful Begg has received from the Admiralty a letter of thanks for the valuable work done by the ."Newspapers for the Fleet Committee" in providing the'men of the Navy with ■newspapers and other literature during the war. Nearly 20,000,000 newspapers, books, and periodicals have been sent* out since the committee started its work in August, 1914. Also about 300 gramaphones and 16,000 records. The number I' of- packages and cases has exceeded 500,000, and the cost of the work has - been over £26,000, which has been rais- '■■ ed by subscriptions from the public who 'wished to show their appreciation of the work of the- Navy. Many newspapers and. periodicals, too, were supplied gratuitously by proprietors of the publications. /

NO MONEY FOR PARACHUTES.^

It is stated that the equipment of the -Royal Air Force aeroplanes' with para--1 chutes has been stopped, and it is understood that service pilots will have no apparatus in their machines with " which .to save themselves in case of 'mishap in flight. Early in the war ." strong pressure was brought on the Gov- ; eminent to fit parachutes which were then very, reliable. ,No action, however, was taken until last summer, when the Germans were found to be saving the lives of many airmen with a crude apparatus strapped on the airman's 'shoulders. A parachute offered to tho Government three years before, was then adopted, and 500 were ordered to be fitted to machines in France, but only n few had been fitted when hostilities .ended. Many officers demonstrated the dependability of the apparatus at anything over 300 ft high. "Over 3000 'airman were killed in France," said an airman, "and had parachutes been fitted to machines at least 1500 might have been saved. I have many times jumped from an aeroplane flying over 100 miles an hour without feeling any shock or running any risk. I shall undertake no civilian flying without parachute equipLEGISLATION FOR BOOTS. 'A number of boot manufacture!*! are talking steps "to put an end for ever to shodefy boots." To these it is pointed out that there is precedent for the reNation °* footwear" by tho Legusla. furo, when a minority from somq cttuap

or another fails to adopt the higher standard of the majority. The Times tells of legislation passed in South Australia in 1911, and in New Zealand in 1913, requiring that if the soles of boots or, shoes were not of solid leather they should have stamped upon them a,statement of the material or materials composing the sole. , SURPLUS LINEN/ Forty million surplus yards of linen, in the possession of the Ministry of Munitions, formed the subject of an inquiry in the House of Commons. Lieu-tenant-Colonel Malone asked for the names of the contractoi-s, and the price per yard. He was, told there were 137 I contractors, the price at the time of the armistice ranged from Is 8d to -3s OJd per yard. A considerable quantity of it was, being disposed of by. auction. About 40,000,000 yards had been overordered, and the price which has been offered by the contractor i 3 about Is per yard. THE CHANNEL-TUNNEL. Sir Arthur Fell, M.P. (late of New Zealand), has always been a staunch advocate oE the Channel tunnel scheme, and at an address on the subject, delivered by Sir Francis Fox, to members of Parliament, Sir Arthur said that a plebiscite of members on this subject had been taken. Excluding the Sinn\ Finn representatives, they had sent postcards to 550 members of the House of Commons. Replies had arrived from 322, of whom 310 supported the project, four were neutral, and eight only were opposed to it.; He could not conceive of anything more satisfactory.^ The scheme was being discussed as if it were .an English question only, whereas the whole conception was that it should be. the joint effort of England and France. Sir F. Fox condemned the proposed Channel, bridge as unduly costly, unsafe, a.nd calculated seriously to interfere "with navigation. , AIR RAID SECRETS. Official reports of the London Fire Brigade show that in the 25 air raids'., on London 51 places of worship were damaged by bombs or anti-aircraft shells. Besides St. Paul's, Southwark, and St. George's Cathedrals, and the Chapel Royal,- Savoy, the buildings included the City Temple, Westminster Abbey Choir House, the Great Aesembly Hall, Mile \End-road, a synagogue in Commercialrood, and St. .Mary's Church, Whitechapel. Among city churches hit were St. James's. Garlick Hill; All Hallows, London Wall; St. Edmund the King and' Martyr, Lombard-street; St. Stephen's, Coleman-street; and the Smithfield Martyrs' Church. .■'.'"'