TOPICS OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 25, 23 June 1909, Page 48

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

(By Our London Correspondent.)

LONDON. May 7. WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM. THE Budget and the Wright Brothers, of flying fame, have divided the honours of publie attention and interest this week, the Budget taking the lion's share. No Chancellor in the last decade or so has raised such a storm of excited newspaper criticism as Mr Lloyd George, and all because he has called upon the rich instead of the poor to find the bulk of the extra £ 14.000.000 required in the coining year. Fourteen millions sterling sounds a lot. But when you find that 250.000 persons and their families in this country are drawing £585.000.000 in annual income; when you find, in other words, that more than one-third of the entire income of the United Kingdom is enjoyed by less than one-thirtieth of its people, it does not seem a very serious hardship for this small but enormously wealthy minority to meet the bulk of the new State expenditure on “ Dreadnoughts" and old age pensions. The money had to be found somewhere, and the people who are called upon to supply it are those who can best afford to do so.

To realise this you have to bear in mind the startling inequalities in the distribution of the national wealth. England is commonly spoken of as the wealthiest country in the world; but the description is very misleading. England is really inhabited by a multitude of poor people, an "upper-crust” of well-to-do people, and a handful of enormously rich people. One-seventieth part of the population owns far more than half the entire accumulated wealth, publie and private, of the tSu*ed Kingdom. Two thousand five hundred people own more than half the area of the whole country! Now take the other side of the picture. The statistics of Booth and Kowntree and other investigators have shown that 30 per cent, of the population live in the grip of perpetual poverty. In a population of 43 millions, 38 millions may be said to be poor—too poor, at any rate, to pay income tax, which is only collected on incomes of £ 160 and over. Income-tax is paid by about one million persons, and 750.000 out of that million are persons with incomes ranging from £l6O to £7OO. The other 250.000 receive, as I have said, no less than £585,000.000 per annum for themselves and their families. If they eannot afford to pay a little more in taxes, who can? Denunciation of the Budget by vested interests and their representatives has been loud and insistent, and the ruin of the country has been predieted every day for the past week. Let Consols and Government securities are rising, the Stock Exchange is brisker than" it has been for some time, and the money market as a whole has obstinatelv declined to grow alarmed. The effect is to make the attacks on the Budget sound rather hollow. A determined attempt is being made to beat up the middle classes to the attack, but the average middle-class man finds it difficult to lie angry with a Budget which adds nothing to bis ineome-tax, and which actually remits a portion of his tax for every child he has under the age of 16. It may suit the newspapers to call this “plundering the middle classes, but the middle-class man himself is hardly likely to think of it in that light. And he can bear the sorrows of the rich with equanimity.

ENTER THE AUSTRALIANS. The Australian cricketers put in their first appearance at London for practice la-t Monday. The players, most of whom only reached London at the end of the week, could not afford to waste much time, only three days remaining in whiefr to shake off the effects of the long sea voyage, and to loosen their joints in readiness for the serious bu-ine-- of the campaign. Matters had been cut veryfine. for it is no light task at any time to face Notts, the champion county ot 11*07; still less so to tackle a team whose

members have been practising assiduously for weeks, within a few days of arrival, iu a country to which one-half the Australians are absolutely new. The practice was watched by a goodly number of people, and the impression created was On the whole very favourable especially as regards the bowling of the new men. Whitty and O’Connor, on whom after Cotter, it is expected the brunt of the bowling will fall. O’Connor comes to us with a reputation for “ mixing” his bowling considerably, and unquestionably did so on Monday, sending down on occasion a pronounced “goog'y.” His action was, however, voted “ rather clumsy.” Whitty greatly pleased several of those carefully taking stock of him. Twice he beat Trumper with rare good balls, one of which came across from leg and the other the reverse way. In delivery he has been likened to Dean, the Lancashire professional. Of the batting it was impossible to take serious notice, for most of the men were ” having a go,” even the cautious McAlister almost entirely abandoning defence in favour of "shoulder opening” work. The members of the team are models

of reticence, and the swarms of interviewers who have tried their hands on the Australians have found in them an oyster-like capacity for silence on those points newspaper men would ehiefly like them to be eommunieative. Here is a sample of Noble on the journalistic rack: Questioned whether he expected to win all his matches, be said "No: we are not so egotistical, and I am not going to say anything of the kind.” • How about your batting strength—is that the greatest feature of the team?” “I have not said so; if the newspapers in England have expressed that opinion, that is due to information that has eome from Australia. I am not going to say what is our real strength.” "What is your opinion about the bowling of the team?” "I will not say anything about it; it is no good talking at the present moment. We want to be judged on our performances. We shall all do our best, anl wa hope to maintain the traditions of pre-

vious Australian teams that have come to this country.” On Tuesday the popular comedian, Geo. Robey, “ assisted ” the Australians in practice, and created any amount ot amusement by clean bowling Victor Trumper. It was hard to say whether the bowler or his victor was the more surprised at the happening, but Robey was undoubtedly highly delighted at his unexpected success.

MILTON WELLINGS A PAUPER, It will eome as a shock to musiclovers in your part of the world to hear that at the age of 60. Milton Wellings. the composer of “Some Day,” "At the Ferry,” “Dreaming.” and scores of other popular songs, finds himself absolutely- penniless—his career completely wrecked by the "music pirates.” Ten years ago Mr. Wellings occupied a large house in Hampstead, paid income tax annually on a sum of over £l,OOO, rode his own horse in Rottenrow, and owned property in the country. To-day he lives alone in a bedsitting room in Fulham, unable to command even the bare necessaries of life. It was at the height of his prosperity that the "music pirate” began his attack, and in a very short space of time Mr. Wellings’ income was swept away. The 2d. pirated copies of hie songs completely ousted the higher priced authorised copies, and the authors royalties vanished like smoke.

From a position of affluence he was quickly reduced to the necessity of earning a living by touring under an. assumed name as pianist or manager with small theatrical companies. Then his health began to fail, his savings disappeared, and things went from bad to worse till he found himself without a roof to shelter him. He slept for several nights on the Thames Embankment, and knew what it was to hunger for hours on end. Now he has a roof over his head, but hie position is parlous. for he does not know where to lay his band on as much as a single sovereign. This is the present condition of a man who has written songs which have given pleasure to tens of thousands in all parts of the world. At 60 he needs a helping hand in order to make “a fresh start in life”! Concerning "Some Day,” which was perhaps his most popular song, Mr. Wellings tells an interesting story. He has found great difficulty in getting a

satisfactory setting for the woO, but one day whilst his wife was holidaymaking in the Isle of Wight he heard that a yacht had been wrecked off the coast of the island. As he knew Mrs. Wellings was very fond of yachting, and had expressed her intention of indulging in that pleasure, the composer was naturally anxious as to her safety. Ha wired, asking whether she was all right, but no reply came. Then every hour he dispatched a telegram, and sent eight or nine altogether. Still there was no news. Whilst he waited in great distress of mind, these words in "Some Day” appeal ed to him with peculiar force—- " Are you dead or do you live?” He worked through the night upon the song, and whilst he wrote he suffered agony. When morning dawned the manuscript was complete. Later on he had a telegram from his wife asking what was the meaning of all the wires he had sent her.

A BOOM IN AVIATIONS The Wright Brothers paid a flying visit to London this week, and though they onlv stayed a couple of days, their visit will give a much-needed stimulus to aeronautics in this country. Orville Wright, asked what England should do to make up lost ground in the art of flying, replied, laconically: "Hustle”! It is good advice, too, for we have a good deal to leeway to make up. England, after leading the way for a century, has been left far behind by other nations in tha development of flying machines. Franco and Germany are years ahead of us. There are signs, however, that England is waking up to the necessities, of the situation. Mr. Haldane, the War Minister, had an interview with the Wrights on their arrival here, and arranged to secure the use of one of their aeroplanes, with which experiments will shortly be undertaken. Mr. Wilbur Wright was quite enthusiastic in praise of Sheppey, near Sheerness, as a flying ground, saying it was the best place for the purposa that he had yet seen —better, even, than Pau, and far ahead of the grounds he practised on in America. Mr. Haldane is forming a school of air pilots, and if necessary officers will be sent to Franc* or elsewhere to learn how to handle an aeroplane. The War Minister has also intimated that the Government would be prepared to take up any practical working aeroplane or .dirigible which is an improvement on existing types. The Admiralty is building dirigibles, so the Premier announces, and others are being built bv the War Office at Aidershot.

Another important step that the Government has taken is to appoint a Special Committee of eminent scientists, with Lord Rayleigh as president, to superintend a new department at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, in which investigation, experimental and otherwise, into the science of aviation will be carried on continually. Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, D-Se., F.R.S., the director of the National Physical Laboratory, ie to be chairman of this Special Committee.

Meanwhile, the Wright Brothers are hurrying to their home ia Dayian, Ohio, to perfect their type of aeroplane and motor, and to secure their improvements by patents in America and all over the world. Their time in Europe in conducting experiments and teaching aviation has, they declare, been profitably spent in a scientific as much as in a practical sense. They have simplified, strengthened, and increased the surety of the if aeroplanes and the control in the aig very much during the last six months. When they return it is hoped that their new machines will be a great advance on those now famous. We are to expect in the coming Wright aeroplane, model 1909-10. one that is far more stable and more easily manipulated in flight; a machine with a turn of speed of between fifty to sixty miles an hour, and an aircooled motor_ that may be driven for hours without over-heating or having to be stopped. If they succeed, aviation will have passed from the tentative stage to that of full power.