LAUD WITHOUT CARS

Evening Star, Issue 19710, 10 November 1927, Page 9

LAUD WITHOUT CARS

-—-—♦ ■ THE ISLAND OF SARK GAOL WITHOUT OCCUPANTS. Recently the Hcignour of Sark, wfcft feigned over a, tiny feudal state, died, and Ins’ daughter succeeded, him in lordship; of the Email Channel island. . The forty landowners p&y tribute to their over-lord* and the forty indivisible farms have como down unchanged in their boundaries from the times of Elizabeth. The rent is still oaid, not in cash, but in kind. Tho new, landlady will preside over the island par# Lament, called the Court of Chief Pleas, Its members have for centuries been the holders of the forty farms. There has always been a road fund on' Hark. Each of the farmers must do a day's work a year on the road, or pay the equivalent iu cash. Even more remunerative is tho lax on visitors. They have to pay to land, and the small fee helps to pay for tho harborage. This harbor is unique. It is so tiny that tho smallest steamer can only poke its nose in at high tide, and so cliff-bound that the only way out of it into the interior of the island is through a rock tunnel. Tho island has unwritten laws, but tliev are not very apparent, and one of the" fanners acts ns policeman when required. The gaol is merely an object of curiosity; no one has ever seen a prisoner there. "And there is not a motor car on the island. .