LUCK CHANGED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19732, 29 December 1926, Page 11

LUCK CHANGED

ON LEAD FROM KING FORTUNES MADE THROUGH ROYALTY A steeplejack who has just returned from South Africa, confesses that he i'wps his prosperity to the Prince of ’ Wales. He was down on his luck two years ago when it was announced that ■ the Prince intended to visit the country. . Whereupon he had the happy idea of setting cut on a tour of the provinces to offer his services as a steeplejack | n repairing towers and flagstaffs and putting bunting in order. Being first J in the first in this enterprise he found . himself welcomed, and as la result finished his job just vhen the Prince arrived and was able to return to Durban with a small fortune and a good connection. So now he is making a leisurely holiday tour of the world and proudly 1 admits that he owes his flourishing Sou’h African business to the Prince ! of Wales. In the romance of modem business there are many similar instances of good fortune coming throughour Royal Family. They may not be identified with trade but they can. and do. exert a very beneficent influence upon it. The . re ent death of Mr Thcm&s Burberry, at thp grand old age of ninety-one. serves to remind us of the fact that the wonderful growth of his business was i largely due to King Edward. It was after a chat with a doctor on the subI ject of wet. weather tind health that Mr Burberry invented his special type of , raincoat, but he had called it the “Gar- : berdinee. • ’ and this somewhat checked ■ its rise to favour. People used to com- | plain that it was a “i. .mthful.But King E - war 1 was an early patron and ho used . say. 1 1 Give me my Bur- • berry. ’ ’ ■ course, the name became familiar at Court, and speedily passed intn common use. Only a few weeks ago we were provided with a wonderful illustration of the valuable influence of Roytal ty on trade. Immediately after King George made his forcible protest against the use of foreign typewriters one Leicester firm received orders for no fewer than ton thousand British machines. Two other manufacturers reported that they had hud to take on more mech- : anies and salesmen to cope, with the in-

creased business obtained through the Royal intervention. One dealer declared that the King’s testimonial was worth half a million of money to Iho British industry. Changing the Luck. The usp which mhy be made of Royal patronage is now strictly limited, but it has often proved all sufficient for the tact itself to be known. Some time ago ■the Prince .with the Duke of York and the little Duchess, paid a private visit to a theatre where the play was doing indifferently in the first fow nights of its existence. The news of this mark of Royal favour speedily leaked out. It completely changed the luck. When the piece was eventually withdrawn it was stated to have made a fortune of nearly twenty thousand pounds. Hence it is not surprising that the happy directors have installed U trio of three Royal photographs in a place of honour. Fortunes have been made through Royalty from ceremonies of State, and although churlish critics may cavil, •iisincss people welcome Courts and Royal display. Many people get rich onic.k as a result of the Coronation festivities. One firm alone netted nearly tea thousand pounds on seating contacts. It has been authoritatively stated that a brilliant Court season .•m i difference of as much as twelve thousand pounds to business providing employment for thousands of hands in the dressmaking and kindred • rades, and a valuable increase for the jewellery and other businesses. A woman inventor of useful domestic and other appliances, who was showing at u tr s Fair, stated that after a struggle to obtain a vlng by her notions she had sold fius ds «:f one little article alone s.ccc the Queen had graciously bought -»c and exi the opinion that it wrs “very nice.” Loss >. \ car ago there died the owner of a Liny store in a shabby London ba k street, tmd it came as a sur- >’ at he had left an estate of over n nif u: and pounds. It was a little fortune made entirely out of Rcyaitv. I r years the man had seized every public, ceremony and Royal birthdtay or other occasion to produce souvenirs. TL> wrote his own commemorative poems and printed them in his back also made gay rosettes with the Royal names, or silvered wed•:g a’ A or mourning tokens as rcqtdred. Street hawkers gladly crowd- < d his doors for sncli marketable wares. It was indeed one of the minor rora- < of the many fortunes which their makers have directlv owed to Rovalty.