CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14916, 11 February 1909, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

Lord Rosebery’s heir is a fortunato young man. The Primrose estates aro not appallingly large, hut they

THE r;nosvF..vo:i ESTATES.

are substantial. They include 18,000 acres in Midlothian, 7000 acres in Linlithgowshire and eight or nine thousand acres in England, besides numerous residences. Lord Dalineny will succeed to all these when his distinguished father dies, and now, according to a cable message, ho.is taking to wife a daughter of tho wealthiest- and most exclusive family in Great Britain. Tho wealth of tho Grosvenor estates is simply oppressive. Most of it is controlled by the Duko of Westminster himself, who is one of the greatest landed proprietors of England. The Duke of Bedford is sometimes described as the richest-of the Dukes. Ho owns, as ho once admitted, “ a few lodg-ing-houses in Bloomsbury.’.’ These “ few lodging-houses ” arc really tho greater part of Bloomsbury, and the Duke owns Covont Garden, lock, stock and barrel, as well. The Russell holdings aro said to aggregate 80,000 acres, but it is probable that the Grosvenor family controls an even more valuable extent of Old England, although in mere acreage its estates may bo exceeded by those of the Russells. The Duke of "Westminster owns, for example, a large portion of the West End of London. His income is so big that ho can only' make an approximate estimate of it. People who treasure marble clocks worth a few pounds may be interested to know that his Grace possesses a clock of which tho pendulum alono is valued at £48,000. It is set with forty-eight brilliants, each said to bo worth £IOOO. There was a story in “ Tit-Bits ” recently to the effect that the present Duko dines on. mutton cutlets and milk puddings, or some diet equally simple, and not long ago ho was described as being a- “ poor man,” for all his colossal wealth. But so long as he can afford to keep a clock worth nearly £50,000, ho need have no fear that the wolf will get inside his front door. Tho Grosvenor set is the most exclusive in England. It lives in a little world of its own, and mere money cannot buy an entrance into its houses. Tho “ Grosvenor girls,” we aro told, have always married well, and tho family contracts no alliances that cannot be sealed in the bluest blood.

Tho recent labour troubles in the British engineering trade, with the consequent lose in businoss and prestige,

AN ENGINEERING COMBINE.

seem likely to result in a combination of manufacturers. Negotiations are at present in progress between the big firms, which recognise that their very existence is threatened by the constant suspension of work at a poriod when international competition is particularly keen. Sir Christopher Furness, M.P., referred to the position of affaiis in some detail at the end of December. “Tho past year,” ho said, “has been one of the most disastrous in the annals of the north-east coast, involving, as it did, tho practical stoppage of the engineering industry for no less than seven months by the engineering strike, in addition to partial stoppage owing to sectional strikes in the shipyards. We have lost an entire year, arid the immense efforts we have made have been ruthlessly upset by one of the most ill-advised and calamitous, indeed wicked, strikes on record. British industries rto being jeopardised and British capital destroyed to an extent unparalleled in British industrial history.” Sir Christopher Furness quoted as an illustration the fact that forgings once made at a good profit in Britain are now imported, because they can be made more cheaply abroad. “If commercial success is to lie achieved by any scheme of amalgamation it is obvious that it can only result from increasing the excellence of our manufactures and decreasing tho cost of production,” ho added, in outlining tho benefits which would result from the formation of an engineering “combine.” The points to he kept in view were that there must be no strikes, that greater individual interest must bo taken in the day’s work, that contract dates must be kept, that the confidence of buyers must be restored, and that tho cost of production must be decreased. Ho was convinced that if British industries were to he advanced the men concerned must recognise facts and “modernise” their methods. Tho industrial world was advancing at a pace unparalleled in its history. “If we had been told, ten years ago, or even five years ago, that Japan would now bo building her Dreadnoughts, her fast torpedo destroyers and her 23knot passenger liners, we would have regarded it as a dream, concluded Sn Christopher Furness. “ Yet it is now an accomplished fact. Continental competition is increasing by leaps and bounds, but in spite of all, I am convinced that wo can more than hold our own if we will but shake off the incubus of our stereotyped industrial methods.” British sentiment is against “combines,” but there can he no doubt about their industrial efficiency, and under proper conditions they could be made as advantageous to Labour as they often aro to Capital.

AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS.

Tho Old Country, as the cablo messages informed us, enjoyed quite an old-fashioned Christmas, with snow lying

everywhere. It was followed by a veritable blizzard, which seems to have been particularly violent in Perthshire. For twelvo hours snow fell incessantly, and was driven before a tempestuous galo of wind. Aberdeen for a whole day was isolated from tho outside world. No mails could reach the city, and business was practically at a standstill. Railways were snowed up, telegraph wires broken down, even tho trams had to stop running. Montrose, a littlo further south, was also completely isolated. A pilot engino which tried to get through to Montrose was snowed up in a cutting, and tho fireman and driver had to be rescued with a ladder and rope. A train which left Aberdeen at 9 p.m. lor tho south, ■was held up on the line for three long

hours, exposed to the full fury of the raging storm. The people on that train are not likely to forget their Christmas holiday of 1908. After moving along a few yards at a time, the. train stuck in a snow reef, pulling up with a shock which sent everyone off their seats, and scattered two tons of fish all over tho guard’s van. It was so cold that the passengers could hardly hold tho cards with which they tried to beguile tho weary hours until a track ahead was cleared. Tho Arctic weather was even worse than the snowstorm of 1506, which began on December 25 and culminated on December 28 in a terrible railway catastrophe at Elliott Junction, on the anniversary of tho Tay Bridge disaster. During that gale the storm-swept city of Aberdeen was cut off from the rest of 'tho world for a couple of days, and it was an Aberdeen express that was wrecked at Elliott Junction, killing twenty people and injuring many more. The last storm was more severe, but the fury of the wind kept the snow from piling up to the same extent, and few towns were cut off from the world. In many places it only wanted a sledge to complete an Arctic sceno, and at St Andrews it was by sledge that- his Majesty’s mails reached the snowbound inhabitants.