NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Mataura Ensign, 28 January 1911, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE WEALTHIEST COMPOSER. Dr. Richard Strauss, the composer (the success of whose new comic, opei a is reported in to-day's cables), is on a faiv way to becoming the richest man in Lis profession who ever lived. Kvery note he writes is well paid for and the copyright carefully guarded. His leading works, "Feuersriot," the "Sinfonia Domestica," "Salome" and "Mektra, are sources of large income. For "Salome"' he gets a substantial royalty 011 every performance. Tn the first years of "Salome's" struggle for a place mi the stage Strauss only got about £I3OO

a year from it. Now that it forms a regular feature on nearly every operatic f stage of importance the royalties from i it alone amount to nearly £4OOO a year, i and this income is certain to increase, s From "Elektra" the composer's income < probably will be greater still. He sold the score of "Salome" for £2500, but lie got foj* the copyright of the ''Elektra" score £5500 and is said to have a royal- 1 ty of 3s on every copy sold. "Elektra" [has been snapped up by every big stage on the Continentj and it is estimated that his royalties on that opera will amount in three years to not less than £6OOO per annum. Oscar Hammerstein, of New York, has paid £IOOO as a preliminary guarantee for thirty performances, and pledges £3600 in royalties for those thirty performances. Equally secure are Strauss' sources of income from his songs, not one of which is sold without the composer receiving his share. Then there is the maestro's work as general music director in the Royal Opera House in Berlin, for which he receives £IOOO for three months. From all sources Strauss' income is probably now £12,000, and he hopes in five years to double that figure. He lives in a very plain flat in Berlin and sees very , little general society. In manner he is somewhat g?'uf£, a rough diamond, but is greatly respected and admired by all who are admitted to close friendship with him. THE WORLD'S CREATEST PORT. Few people, perhaps least of all the Londoners themselves, have any conception of the enormous volume of London's shipping, trade (to which attention is draivn in to-day's cables). When the new Port of London authority held its first meeting recently tho chairman, Sir Hudson Kearley, gave some details of the world's greatest port. One-third of the imports and one-fourth of the exports of the United Kingdom pass through its gates. The £400,000,000 worth of goods which come and go every year are carried in a fleet so vast that 34,000,000 tons of shipping enter and clear annually. Nearly a thousand vessels pass Gravesend every day, and 10,000 barges are constantly employed to distribute their cargoes to the wharves and warehouses of the port. Private enterprise lias done much to build up this huge trade, but of late years the Port of London has been getting somewhat out of date in regard to the equipment of its docks. It has failed to keep pace with the increasing size of the ocean liners. In 1902 the largest ship then afloat, the Oceanic, with a length of 686 ft., could enter Tilbury Dock, but Tilbury Dock cannot accommodate the leviathan of the moment, the Mauretania, which is 760 ft. long. Tims in a brief' seven years the docking facilities of the port have become inadequate to meet the needs of the day, whereas other ports in England and o'i the Continent by a wise expenditure of capital have contrived to keep abreast of the times. The history of London has shown what an immense factor the River Thames has been in its amazing growth. This was recognised long ago, for when King James I. once threaten- j ed to remove his Court from London to Oxford in consequence of a dispute with the City Corporation, the Lord jV'nyor of the clay replied: "So be it, your Majesty, provided you leave us the Thames!" The Port of London has been in full swing, so to speak, for at least six hundred years under the protection of a Royal Charter, but for a thousand sears and more before it war, first given a constitution history records that London was a port much frequented by merchants and trading vessels. London, unlike most ports, is not dependent upon any single industry. | Besides taking in food supplies for its ' immense population it is the market of the world for such various and valuable' products as wool, tea, ivory ; furs, and j even gold and precious stones. j - I