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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0324.PDF
FLIGHT, APRIL 5, 1934 ENGLAND-AUSTRALIA AIR RACE A short history of the donor of the prizes, and some notes on the route over which the pilots will have to fly IR MACPHERSON ROBERTSON, who has offereda cup, valued at £500, for the winner of the England-Australia Air Race, and who has also givenfive cash prizes totalling £15,000, is a man whose life is of considerable interest, and below our contributorsketches briefly the manner of man whose generosity is an inducement to pilots to race over a course originally madefamous by the late Sqd. Ldr. Bert Hinkler. "What are you crying for, Sonny? "" MacRobertson's Cough Drops! " That dialogue will recall to Australians all over theEmpire the days of their childhood. It was the legend accompanying a picture of an elderly philanthropist aboutto buy sweets for a greedy little boy ; and the adver- tisement was to be seen in every town in Victoria aboutforty years ago. It was one of the early efforts of Sir Macpherson Robertson, the Melbourne millionaire choco-late manufacturer, whose offer of £15,000 in prizes for the air race from England to Australia in connection withthe centenary of the State of Victoria has rendered pos- sible the participation of many well-known pilots. The race is divided into two parts—a speed contest fora first prize of £10,000 and a gold cup valued at £500, a second prize of £1,500, and a third of £500 ; and ahandicap race for prizes of £2,000 and £1,000.- Any in- dividual, organisation, or nation may enter for bothsections of the race ; and there is no restriction as to the type or power of the aeroplanes engaged. Landings mustbe made for checking purposes at Baghdad, Allahabad, Singapore, Darwin (Northern Territory of Australia), andCharleville, Queensland. The terminal point will be Melbourne. Victoria will welcome all comers, but fer-ventiy hopes that the victor will be the famous Australian airman, Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith. The race will becontrolled by the Royal Aero Club. This historic enterprise owes something to Scotland. Itsoriginator, Macpherson Robertson, or " MacRobertson," as everyone still calls him, wasborn of Scottish parents in the gold-mining town of Bal-larat, Victoria, in 1860, and cultivated his business acumenat an early age in Edinburgh itself. He was knighted in1932, after having financed an exploratory circuit of Austra-lia by motor-car, and an Antarctic expedition whichgained for its sponsor the Fellowship of the RoyalGeographical Society. In seven years Sir Macpher-son Robertson has given more than £360,000 to the causesof exploration, education, and charity. This sum includes agift of £100,000 for celebra- tions in connection with theCentenary, but takes account neither of the presents whichthe Scots-Australian million- aire is always distributing byway of what he calls " pocket- money expenses," nor of theliberal gifts in kind which he makes to the poor of Mel-bourne every Sunday morn- ing. The amount of £100,000above mentioned will provide £40,000 for a girls' highschool ; £21,000 for a bridge over the Yarra, on which riverMelbourne stands; and £15,000 for a Temple ofYouth. Also, in response to Sir Macpherson Robertson, with the trophy he isgiving for the winner of the England-Australia Air Race. a nappeal by Toe Hduring the bad period oidepression (now happily over), SirMacpherson Robert- son provided food forfive months for 11,000 unemployed men, but hemodestly refused to allow the news to be published that he wasthe benefactor. His gifts to the Mel- bourne University are believed toamount to £50,000. He has helped retur- ned soldiers and struggling miners, and hasasked for no other recompense than their abi- lity to continue work. Sir Macpherson Robertson's Melbourne factoriescover acres ; and his 3,200 employees, working under the most modern conditions, have a pay-roll of £500,000a year. This huge undertaking arose, like the genie from the bottle, out of an old nail-can in which he made his firstsweets in the bathroom of a cottage in the suburb of Fitzroy. When Macpherson Robertsonwas eight years of age, his par- ents returned to their nativeland, and the lad secured a job at Leith which entailedwalking to Edinburgh before dawn to distribute newspapers.From seven until eight o'clock he was a barber's assistant.From nine to four, in conformity with his parents' decision thatwork must not interfere with his education, he went to school;and from 6 to 10 he was back •in the barber's shop. Returning to Australia, heserved by turns ,as a hatter's counter-assistant, baked bis-cuits for a confectioner, cut corks, helped a blacksmith,ran errands, shovelled coal, and minded cows until hesecured a post with a manufac- turer of sweets, for whom heworked thirteen hours a day for half-a-crown a week. Then,little more than a youth, he launched out on his own accountin the. bathroom with some moulds for sweets, two bagsof Queensland sugar, a nail-can, an iron skillet, and a capital ofhalf-a-crown. With this stock- in-trade, a knowledge of therudiments of confectionery mak- ing which he lost no opportunityof extending, and a flair for advertising, he founded his 324
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