Ticker Tape

The following code is missing something or has an error of some kind.
It produces an applet window, then stops with the following message

Exception: TickerTape
Start: applet not initialized

Please advise what is needed to make this applet work.
Thanks.

import java.awt.*;
import java.applet.*;

public class TickerTape extends Canvas implements Runnable
{
public String msg = new String("Thank you for visiting today");
public int count = 300;

Thread thread = null;

public TickerTape()
{
setBackground(Color.white);
start();
}

public void paint(Graphics g)
{
g.drawString( msg, count, 10 );
}

public void init()
{
//
}

public void start()
{
if ( thread == null )
{
thread = new Thread(this);
thread.start();
}
}

public void stop()
{
if ( thread != null )
{
thread.stop();
thread = null;
}
}

public void run()
{
while( thread != null )
{
repaint();
if(count < -400)
count = 300;
else
count--;

try
{
thread.sleep(50);
}
catch(InterruptedException e)
{

}

} // end of while

} // end of method run

} // end of class