LONDON LIFE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 46, 16 October 1931, Page 4

LONDON LIFE

Gepifr.ey Tebbutt.)

ANTjaONY FGEKEI^ 4N AERONAUTIGAL colossus "*4 WHO' HXS "MADE rig FpRTUNE ^HAT HATS COST MUN. (Speciallv Written for the "Post"

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LQND.QN, Sept. 9. . Between 1914 and 1918 we had no cause to venerate the nanie of Anthony Fokker. "But bygories being bygones, ahd Fokker's aim now being j to 'produce the mbst eeonomical comI mercial aircraft instead of the skyfull of fighters which*, * used by the Gef mans, "were" at oue time such" a menace to the Allies on the Eastern Front,' we must considef him as ohe in whose hands lies niuch of the future o'f'flyirig. The Antliohy Fokker I met in his luxury suite at' the Savoy this morning has made, probably, more money out of aeroplanes than anyope. els'e in the world. The graceful monoplane's, all so trup to typp, and bearing his name, wing their way between Amsterdam and Java, throughout Europe and the United States ; they are built under iicense m many fcbuniries, which Fokker comes once a year, from New Mork to visit." They *Parry passengers " instead "of "machine-guns, mails instead of hombs; Fokker, whose name was the terror of air wapfare, is now the pripce pf the pea'ce-time avfatiqn 'industry. We can have nothing against Fokker except the "regret "that "Ke* was not on our side. A Dutchman and a neutral, he was entitled to eell his wares in the'best niarket; and two years before the'war, the Germahs had giyen him'a commission to train pilots and build aeroplanes for them. Fokker, twenty-three, wben war broke out," acHievelci fame first by the pircraft he built, and afterwards by his devices to improve "their 'flying and fighting capacity. His was fhe invention that enabled fixed machineguns to be timed to fire between the revolving'blades of the. pro'peller, and the pilot' to release a stream' of 1'ead when 'the nose of his machine was 'in direct line" with an enemyrs 'plane. Had otjr b'ombers beeii able to reach them, the Fokker aircraft werks would have been oue of the prize objectiyes of the war. The Future of Flying. But Fokker, who speaks rather a charming blend pf English, mixed with a Putch-Ajnerican acqent ahd Transatlantic slang, thinks UQW not of gun-timing, but pf achieying the aeroplane that will carry the biggest corumerpial load, and the largest s'afe number of passengers, at the lowest running cost. Fpkker's origmal Dutch shrewdness does not forsake him; be is confident of the future of flying, but he vrill not venture into yisionary realms. Somebody asked hirp if he thopght it would become possible to fly to other planets. "What are you going to do whep you get there?" he parried. I questioned him on the more immediate future; on the possibilities of a'fl 'Ahglo-Aiistralian sei:yice,*bf* which he is a keen advocate; on the coming day of the flying private owner, whiqh, he thinks, oply the cost is holding b'ack. ")Vbat he said about America's future in aviation will not be very heartening to British people, though one feels convinced that it is true: That the United States are going to dominate aerpplane manufacture a§ tflpy haye dommated the motor-car industry. The secret pf it? Mass production of cheap and reliable engines. Fokker seems to have few racial prejudices Hvhere aeroplanes are concerned. He thinks' Britah/s position as a producer of the engines that drive the Schneider Trophy winners is unassailable/clearl'y, he thinks highly of British engines for light' aeroplanes. * * But he regards the United States as the home of the commercial aircraft engine. Fokker is a'fund of information for ariyone with an'e'ye to'the fut'ure. But I think he would defy those who like to amuse themsplves by caleulating a man's occupation from his appearance and manner. Qne would not think that this tall, dark Dutchman, snapping American phrases over the 'telephbne with G'ernianic gutturals, \vho looks like a pautious, conservative business pian, was one of ttie few who flew conVincingly a^ far back as i910, when he was nin'eteen. He is no romarieer; he deprecates even the niost romantiq stunt^. "And yet his whole career has been' qne of the r'o^ncqs of a new age. How Street Cries Survive. A supimez: which never really began has passed into autumn, tbe phim-ney-sweep" and the coal man, ihe falling leaves' and the risi'ng gas-bifls bring their uhpleasant reminders of winter's approach. The pifiably inapprppriate ice-cream seller who goes pdst my hous'e on a "tricyele has given ihis sumni?! best after an unetjual and soon the muMn-man— who c'ari rely ' on the weather to fiid his time-honouped callirig, yrherpas that moderri upstart seller of fiozen qoncoctions cannpt saf ely go by the caienday— yr'ili b© iaking his plaqe. Tlie street cries siill baffle me. I have leafned to distinguish the highpitehed call 'of the niilk-boy from the coal-man's cacophonous cry in seaych of qust'om. ' But there are 'many interiheqiate ' str,eet cries wflich, to a re-latfvei'y-nqw Loridoner, defy definition untif one has seen the crier. And even fhose who pan rply on thp evidepqe of their ears to tell which is t^e chiMney-swe'ei) nnd )vhich the oijinan are uhahlp to tell ?nq yrh^t they are replly saying'.' Berhaps the elders have caught' jusf the correct iniqnatipn ffpm generaiions pf the sam'e trade, and dpn't Ve^ijy ^jnow themselves! ' T shall try te learn this winter, hut I am npt hdpeful of success. I §ha|l probably leave the warm 'flre and go tp ' ihe dpor" 'on ' ' 'the e^ectatiq'n of muffiiis, only to find that It is the 1 4. * * .*T*» •«.!» I •"* * c^'s-jnea^ man. The Male Hat. Rropounding the fheory thaf men gpenfl more money tflan "lyomen on hats, the diarist of ihe "Evening Stqndard'' says that in initia) cost and maintenance flis haf bill is £27 L5s a year- — in spite pf his haying but °ne hat a year. Of this amount, £26 goes into the receptive hapds of the c)pakrooni atfendants of London restatirants. Eq lunches and dines out 9n fiye days of eyery week, and, a? h'e cannpt decent)y leaye an attendani less hfia.ii a shilling for fhe gine'eure of guarding a haf fpy the dur.atiph

pf a meal, his hat in this way costs him ten shillings a week'. '*' Aliowing thqt only ih the big cities is orie'thus penalised, and for the fact that the 'majority of men eorisider'a shilling a meal for the safe-keeping of one hat to he twicP as" much as convention deinands, there is much iri the theoyy of 'this entertainin'g purveyof of odds and erids. We must rePkon the ' cost of any article "by upkeep as; well as' initial outlay— and, on the hasis of the hard lot of the town-dweilei* ih these matters, there seems to be a large credit halance in favour'of the ladies when hat expenditure is compared.