OLD COUNTRY GOSSIP.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16773, 4 July 1925, Page 3

OLD COUNTRY GOSSIP.

LONDON HOTELS ARE GUTTING OUT TIPS. ADD 10 PER CENT. TO GUEST’S BILL AND DISTRIBUTE MONEY. LONDON, May 2!).—Free hand tips have been abolished in some ol the larger London hotels, as an experiment, and 10 per cent, of the customer’s gross bill added to the amount he is to pay, the 10 per cent, being distributed among the servants generally. The 10 per cent, addition system has been in effect in Germany tor some time and appears to work to the satisfaction of the waiters, maids and Others concerned, because, in many instances, when a particularly generous person comes along they receive not only the 10 per cent, but a liberal foe in addition from the individual himself. The idea of adding a fixed 10 per cent, to the bill is something new for London, although it was tried out some years ago in the provinces and eventually given up. The plan has become general also in Italy, Poland, and some other Continental countries. In Poland, Italy and Germany as well as in the hotels here which have adopted the plan, the servants took the initiative and forced the situation, and in most instances they say they do equally as well, and often better, than formerly. Waiters in London who cater to the. American trade say they most certainly favor the Id per cent, additions to the bill because most Americans pay thill tax and give a liberal tip beside. FAMOUS OLD ESTATE SOLD:, TAX TOO HIGH. LONDON, May 27.—Another of England’s old estates soon will go under the hammer, the young'Duke of Rutland, who succeeded to his father’s title recently, having decided to sell Longslmw Lodge, his Derbyshire shooting box, together with nearly 14,000 acres of land. “The crushing burden of taxation,” is the reason the, Duke gives for the decision. The Duke received the estate as a gift from his .father in .1921 When famous old Iluddon Hall and about 1000 acres, besides other land, came into his possession. After the war, the late Duke sold many of his vast estates, in all about 60,000 acres, the present Duke falling heir to a mere 18,000 acres and the historic Bel voir Castle, near Grantham. The Lougsllaw Lodge estate is noted chiefly for its grouse moors, where King George, the Prince of Wales and nobility often have held hunting meetings. During the last seven years the late Duke lias realised more than £2,000,000 sterling from sales of his Derbyshire and Lnnccstershire lands. FAMOUS PRIVATE BANKS DISAPPEARING. LONDON, May 23—Five great London banks, already the must powerful financial depositories in the world, urb rapidly obtaining control of British banking. From their head offices in tile grimy, picturesque “city” financial centre of London, the live banks —Barclay’s, Lloyd’s, Midland, Westminster and National Provincial —stretch their long arms, not only to every corner of England. Scotland and Wales, but to every corner of the world.Between them the five banks have over .800 branches in London and its Suburbs, and 0450 more in the rest of Great Britain. The banks go out after the small depositor. . In blisses, subways and railway trains, as well as in the newspapers, he sees their advertisements inviting him 'to open an account with £1 or more, and to take out his money again when he likes. One by one, the famous old private banks in London are disappearing, absorbed by these grCat institutions. The latest to go was the historic Cox’s, which during the war acted as paymaster for the officers of the British army. / Expansion at the present rate will not have to continue long before every business corner in London not the site of a “pub” will be used ns a branch of one of the live great banks, to which the Bank of England, with its 553,819,825 dollars of deposits and ten branches is a comparative pigmy. WAVE OF STUDENT ECONOMY SWAMPS COLLEGE TAILORS. OXFORD. May 2.l.—Notwithstanding the rage among Oxford students for “elephant leg” trousers, the boys here arc buying fewer clothes than formerly. Three long established tailor firms, one of which had been in business here nearly a half of a century, have gone out of business lately

because, it was claimed, they could uot. make a living. The Hoys haven’t got the, money they had in other days to spend for clothes, aver the tailors. The students wear knickerbockers a great, deal, one or two suits for the season, and can not afford to have a different suit for every occasion as a great many of them did before the war. A REMARKABLE FAMILY. Mrs. Baldwin, mother of the British Premier, has just passed away in England at an advanced age. She was a member of a family upon which fortune smiled with unusual brilliance. A Methodist clergyman named Macdonald had four daughters and one son. The son followed his father into the church and attained considerable eminence. If he is still living, he is very old. The four daughters married, three of them choosing men of small means but of artistic "talents. The fourth became the wife of Alfred Baldwin, a wealthy iron founder. Two of the husbands became, famous. One was Sir Edmund BurneJones, the great pre-Raphaclite painter, the disciple of Buskin and the friend of William Morris and of Hosscf.fi.' The other was Sir John Boynton, a noted painter himself, ail authority on Italian art and president of the Boyal Academy. Thjo other two sisters achieved fame through their sons. One became the mother of Bmlyard Kipling, the other of Stanley Baldwin, twieo Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Mrs Baldwin is the last of (he four sisters. LORD DEBBY SKLLS ESTATES IN • LANCASHIRE FOB VAST SUM. LONDON, May 30.-—Lord Derby lias sold practically his whole Bury and Pilkinlon estates in Lancashire in one of: tho biggest, transactions of its kind in this country. The purchase price, it is stated, is in the neighborhood of a million pounds. The estates comprise about 5000 acres, one-fifth of which arc developed urban lands and the rest agricultural. The main block consists of some fifty farms, 500 houses and shops and tipward of 2000 leaseholders. Lord Derby is practically the “landlord” of Bury, with its population of 70,000 and owns nearly all of it. The purchasers are Messrs. Green of Chesterfield. The executors of the late Lord Leverhulme have decided to dispose of Crosvonor House famous London manshift, once the town house of the Duke of Westminster. Lord Levcrhulme bought the lease of it for a, long period last. October at a price staled to be half a 'million pounds. The house was originally named the Gloucester House. It was built by (he Duke of Gloucester, the younger brother of George 111. EFFICIENCY EXPERTS PREPARE TO FEED 8000 FREE MASONS. LONDON, May 30.—An office fashioned after a battleship’s conning tower is to be used for the direction of a banquet, on August 8, when 8000 Free Masons in their regalia will be entertained by tho United Grand Lodge of England, with the Duke of Connaught presiding. It is claimed that this is the greatest number of persons who will have ever been taken care of at one time, at an elaborate function which is to lie a banquet in every sense of the word. There arc to bo seven kitchens, several hundred chefs and assistants, and 1500 girls as waitresses. More than 50,000 plates and dishes will bo required, 24,000 glasses and 100,00 pieces of cutlery, The largest * number ever solved in London previously was in 1922, When 7000 persons sat down at a luncheon. AERIAL DEFENCE PLAN. » LONDON, .Tune L—Thirty big air slations are 1o act as centres'for the defence scheme upon which Iho Air Ministry is now working. London is 1o be Iho pivot of the whole plan. First there will bo an “inner circle” of ’dromes, provided with every*device to facilitate nightflying. I*! Here will bo stationed the fast steelbuilt fighters whose task it will be to deal with any enemy raiders which have succeeded in penetrating the outer defences. Those outer rings of ’dromes will continue to tho Coast, where there will be wonderfully-equipped stations, not only for air defence, but also for locating and reporting the approach of enemy raiders at a distance. The thirty airdromes arc not all of them to be new ones. Some will be stations which were used in the late war, but which were abandoned after the Armistice, when drastic cuts were made in the air force. The full development of the present plan, initiated about two years ago, is expected to occupy approximately six years, find new airdromes will be equipped gradually, according to the requirements of the scheme. When this present policy lias been carried out, we shall have six hundred airplanes. WHITE GLOVES FOB TRAFFIC POLICEMEN. i LONDON TIMES EXPERIMENT AND CROWDS ARE ATTRACTED. LONDON, May I<>.—London traffic policemen having adopted long while sleeve gloves so as to make their hand and arm signals more visible to pedestrians and drivers of vehicles, have been dubbed “white wings.” iAs an experiment the ‘white wings’ have been placed at congested street: crossings near the Houses of Parliament and other busy corners and for the first week or two attracted much attention. . In several instances such crowds assembled to watch the policemen wave their “wings” that extra policcment had to bo called to shoo the spectators on their way so that traffic could again flow through its normal channels. n hi ■■■■!■! mniii umiuiii—w