A Feudal Isle

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 810, 2 November 1929, Page 20

A Feudal Isle

The Dame of Sark and Her People

HRS. Dudley Beaumont, the Dame of Sark and one of the last surviving examples of an absolute ruler in Western Europe, recently visited London to see her grand-children. For two years she has reigned as Dame of this little Channel Island, eight miles north-west of Guernsey, succeeding the late Seigneur, her father, Mr. William Collings. She discussed her island dominion eagerly with a “Daily Mail” reporter. Mrs. Beaumont’s burdens are not light, and she has but a small staff to assist her. Schemes of sanitation, school examinations, road repairs, harbour construction, fishery laws, tithes and taxes are all features which she has to master in detail and attend to personally. Crimeless Isle She derives her income from ancient seigneurial dues consisting chiefly of taxation in' kind. Recent experience has shown that refusal to accept money in lieu, a practice that had been allowed to creep in, has resulted in an increase in the area of land under cultivation. There is a tax which must be paid in fowls by each house according to the number of its chimneys. None but the Dame herself may keep a female dog, or pigeons. No property may be bought or sold without her consent, and she receives a tax on every sale to the value of l-13th part of the purchase price. Sark, nevertheless, claims to be up to date. “We were the first to adopt compulsory education,” said Mrs. Beaumont proudly, “before Queen Victoria’s reign began; and to-day the minimum wage for women is £1 a week. “There is no crime in the island, and the small prison is perpetually idle.” The Dame has also to solve ecclesiastical problems. The church building is her property, erected by her an-

cestors, and the incumbent is paid out of her family estate. Most of the people can speak English, but their native language is a pure descendant of the old Norman French. “I can read old Norman French as easily as English,” commented the Dame. Despite the deaths of more than 40 per cent, of the men who fought in the war, Sark still has more men than

women. These men, 40 in all, were bound to serve their King and country according to the terms of Queen Elizabeth’s charter, from which M rs ' Beaumont’s seigneurial rights are held. Lobster fishing is a flourishing j®' dustry, and the latest problem of tb* island is its harbour, for the improvement of which £IO,OOO has b eeß voted.