Topics of the Day.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 5 January 1910, Page 48

Topics of the Day.

By Our London Correspondent.

KING MANUEL’S VISIT. LONDON, November 19. RIVE years ago King Carlos of Portugal travelled from Windsor to Paddington and drove thenee through London to the historic Guildhall to receive the welcome of the City. Last Wednesday history was repeated. A King of Portugal drove again through cheering crowds with a sovereign escort of Life Guards —• the most splendid body guard in the •world—to the great Banqueting Hall, and its scene of splendour. In all its details of pageantry the scene was the same, and the majority of the people present at the Guildhall five yeans ago were there on Wednesday. But the central figure was not the same. In the place of the big, burly, jovial-looking Don Carlos was a pale faced, sad eyed, Blender youth of 20, for whom one could feel only pity. The hideous tragedy that placed the crown of Portugal on Doni Manuel’s head has transformed the chubby, merry youth of five years ago into a preternaturally grave young man, whose face

ia repose bears -witness that he has an abiding sorrow, and whose general demeanour is one of apprehension. As he was driven swiftly through the great traffic arteries to and from Paddington it was noticeable that his eyes travelled swiftly over the cheering (crowds as though in search of someone, and many observers went so far as to observe that he looked “scared,” and that the Prince of W-ales who shared his carriage seemed very ill at ease. Perhaps they had good reason to be somewhat afraid, for it is said that the authorities at Scotland Yard would have been immensely relieved had something happened to prevent Dom Manuel paying his visit to the City. London is probably the safest eity in the world for foreign royalties, in spite of the fact that it is the Mecca of all Anarchists who have made the Continent too hot for themselves. On the occasion of such visits as Dom Manuel’s (Scotland Yard does not only thoroughly police the royal route, but very carefully '"shepherds” every Anarchist known to favour militant methods. The Yard’s method of “shepherding” varies, of course, but on occasion, it is said the suspected personlfinds himself under lock and key as t!>4 result of a quarrel forced upon him, a ..charge of pocketpicking, or some nifnor misdemeanour. (hi Wednesday, so the story goes, the authorities at Scotland Yard were feeling the reverse of comfortable, for they had failed to kexn track of two or three Anarchists whom they had labelled dangerous, one being a recent arrival from the ( antinent who was suspected of being intimately eoneerned in the plot which resulted in the outrage that cleared Dom Manuel’s way to the throne. The police were still hunting for these turn on Wednesday morning, and took the precaution of visiting many’ of the big business establiihments on the line of route, in order to ask the proprietors to keep a sharp look out for strangers among those they admitted to their premises to view the procession. Happily nothing untoward occurred,

and London’s reputation as a safe eity remains unblemished. To conclude in lighter vein. A couple of labourers were admiring the decorations in Holborn just before the procession came along. “ ’Ere Bril,” Baid one, “wots the meanin’ of ’Salve’ on that ’ere flag?” “I dunno me boy,” replied his mate, “I fink it means 'Beware o’ the dawg.’ ” IN SEARCH OF A QUEEN. The visit of King Manuel to England has caused the gossips’ tongues to wag merrily. They declare that the youthful monarch has come to the Old Country in search of a wife, and some avow that Princess Patricia of Connaught will be his choice. The same eharming young lady was, however, confidently assigned by the gossips to Alphonso of Spain, but, as we know, they were very wide of the mark. Other “authorities” declare that Dom Manuel will find a bride in the elder daughter and heiress of the Duke of Fife. Princess Alexandra, who is now in her nineteenth year, and therefore, from the age point of view, a more suitable

match for young Dom Manuel than the Princess Patricia, who is in her 24th year. It is said that King Manuel’s Ministers are particularly anxious for his alliance With a British Princess, and that the people of Portugal would welcome such a marriage. In England there is a widespread feeling against marriages which involve a change of religion on the part of members of our royal family, and a very strong feeling indeed that it is highly undesirable for a British Princess to contract an alliance which calls upon her to share the dangers surrounding the throne of Portugal. TAXING UNEARNED INCREMENT Our poor dukes and others who snarl angrily at all attempts to tax unearned increments ma be thankful that t 1 are not living ... Berlin. The Exec officials of the Berlin Municipal Coune.i have just submitted a scheme of unearned increment taxation which would make our growlers weep with rage and indignation. The Berlin scheme is based on the difference between the amount paid for any piece of property and the amount actually realised for it when it changed hands. Three per cent, is to be added to the purchase price to cover expenses of purchase, and a further 3 per cent, for the time during which the property may make no return to the owner. All costs incurred by the ow’ner for permanent improvements to the property are to be deducted from the price realised by resale. The new impost is to be Calculated on the following basis: —On increment values up to £lOO, I per eent.; on increment values of from £lOO to £2OO, 1J per cent.; and so on up to 5 per cent, on more than £2OOO. Where the increment value amounts to 10 per cent, or upwards of the purchase price, additional charges are imposed. ranging from 10 to (H) per cent, on the increment value. And where

Birch value exceeds 100 per cent. of the purchase price, a further 100 per eent. will be charged. These additional percentages are, of course, based upon the amount of the tax payable under the first scale of charges. For instance, on an increment value of £2OOO, which represents over 100 per cent, of the purchase price, the duty payable would be 5 per cent, under the first scale, plus 100 per cent of that amount under the second—lo per cent, in all of the original purchase price, or £2OO. Compared with this Berlin scheme, the most drastic proposals made by our social reformers are “mild as mothers’ milk.” DECADENT “MEDICALS.” The ill-starred quack, “Dr.” Bodie, the self-styled “bloodless surgeon and .medical electrician,” was the cause of riotous scenes in London last Monday evening. The “doctor” had been engaged to appear at the Canterbury Musie Hall, and the medical students at several of the leading London hospitals decided to give him a warm welcome. At the eleventh hour it was announced that Bodie would not appear owing to illness, but the students fancied that perhaps the announcement was a mere “blind,” and mustered in full force at the hall. As soon as the doors were opened, they rushed into the building and practically took possession of the stalls. What would have happened had Bodie put in an appearance heaven alone

knows. As * was. pandemoahim pc* vailed in the theatre for over an hour. The students sang, shouted, pelted th« performers with eggs, apples, and other missiles, soft, hard, savoury, and ths reverse, and when at last the fireproof curtain was lowered, chairs and other articles were flung at it. Then, finding nothing more to occupy their attention in the theatre, they sallied forth into Blaekfriars-road, and, headed by a “standard bearer,” carrying aloft a large herring in a deft stick, made a rush for one of “Dr.” Bodie’s depots in the locality. But the police had taken the precaution to guard the Bodie shop, and though the rioters contrived to break a few windows, that was the extent of the damage they effected ere they were dispersed by fresh arrivals of police. Baulked in this direction, the students, to the number of over 300, and accompanied by crowds of sympathetic hooligans, made their way over the bridges into, the Strand, and thence to Leicester Square. Shouting and singing, they continued their march to Piccadilly Circus; but here they encountered a solid wall of policemen, who forced the processionists to break up and incontinently “ran in” any who distinguished themselves obstreperous conduct. Several attempts were made by the students to re-form their ranks, but wherever a dozen or so massed, down came a posse of police to scatter them to the four winds, and finally the students gave it up as a bad job and cleared off. During the invasion of the West End the rioters scarcely did a shillingsworth of damage, and. all told, it appears the effects of their behaviour in the theatre and at the Bodie shop can be obliterated for less than a five-pound note. Surely this must be accepted as another proof of the “decadence” of the Old Country! Twenty years ago 300 medical students on the rampage in London would have meant at least damage to Hie extent of £1 per head.