EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.
NATIONALIZATION OF "MINING ROYALTIES.—Mr. Arnold Lupton writes :—In your issue of May 3rd you mention a report that Mr. Shinwell is preparing a Bill for the national- ization of mining royalties, and you also mention that it is stated that "great waste occurs through disputes as to sub- terranean boundaries, and large ' bulkheads ' of coal are left between two estates. A single landlord, such as the State would be, would help the industry." Now, I have had experience for sixty years of the working of British mines, and of some mines in foreign countries. For instance, in France the seams of coal were originally national property, but the Government from time to time granted leases to various people at very moderate royalties. These great leaseholders sub-let the coal to the people who actually sank the collieries at greatly increased royalties, amounting in some cases to 2s. 6d. a ton. Now, nothing of that sort has happened in England ; where the royalties are in the hands of private owners they vary from, say 2d. as a minimum to say 1s. as a maximum, and average something like Od., of which the Government now takes one-half in taxation so that the private owner does not get very much. I am not aware of the great waste alluded to, and I do not think there has been any. I have read statements by people as to this great waste, but I have never seen any detailed support of those state- ments, and I am quite certain that they are entirely mis- leading. If the coal mines of this country are to be preserved for the use of future generations it is in the highest degree desirable that barriers should be maintained against the influx of water from the sea, from lakes, from rivers, from streamlets and ordinary infiltration of the rainfall.
THE "SPECTATOR" AND ITS READERS.—" W. B. M." (Solomon Islands) writes :—My father gets the Spectator in Scotland, and the same week forwards it to me, after which it does a tour of these Islands. To-day (Feb. 17th) I have been reading the Spectator of September 1st, 1923. I expect to get September 8th to the end of 1923 on March 24th. If your paper is appreciated everywhere as it is here, it must be one of the widest read in the British politically-interested world.
"FROM HULL, HELL AND HALIFAX."—Mr. Richard Watson writes :—With reference to the explanations of the saying "From Hull, Hell and Halifax, good Lord, deliver us" (not Hell, Hull and Halifax), may I be allowed to put on record the true phrase, and also its derivation ? .Originally the expres- sion was "From Hull, Oland, and Halifax, good Lord, deliver us." In each of these places there was a public gibbet until comparatively recent times.
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