WOMAN AUTOCRAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1933, Page 16 (Supplement)

WOMAN AUTOCRAT.

RULES ISLAND OF SARK.

The woman ruler of the only independent feudal State within the British Empire—who incidentally makes her own licensing laws—lately went to London to present her daughter at Buckingham Palace.

This interesting woman is Mrs. Robert Hathaway, formerly Mrs. Dudley Beaumont, Dame of Sark, in the Channel Islands. She is an autocrat of the island by virtue of a charter granted to her family by Queen Elizabeth. In 1929 she married an American, who left Yale University' during the war to serve in the Canadian Flying Corps. Mrs. Hathaway’s feudal privileges include power to deport anyone from the island without giving reason; power to veto any new taxation or other laws passed by the island Parliament, which she opens herself, and power to veto the sale of any land. “We have all kinds of old feudal customs still in active use,” Mrs. Hathaway said to a Daily Express representative. “Every man on the island has to do two days’ work a year free, or else pay for a substitute, and anyone who owns a horse and cart must also lend them for the community’s good for two days a year. “We fine anybody not less than £3 if he or. she is caught killing a seagull, because these birds are very useful in warning the fishermen about the rocks during foggy weather. The islanders, of whom there are 700, all speak English to the visitors, but speak a dialect of old Norman French among themselves. “My feudal castle is properly known as the Seigneurie. The Parliament consists of the heads of each of the 40 landowning families, who are known as ‘Sieurs,’ together with 12 deputies. Every stranger who lands has to pay Is polltax to me. But this does not go into my purse. I am busy saving up enough money to build a better harbour, which will cost about £30,000. “I am in the enjoyable position of being able to make the licensing laws throughout the island myself. I permit drink from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. everywhere, and make no restrictions of an. kind for anyone residing jn the hotels. Incidentally, in Sark, Scotch whisky costs only 8s 6d a bottle.”