RECLAIMING THE WASH. [TO THE EorroR or THE " $PHOTATOli."3
SIR,—The subject of reclaiming the Wash is naturally one of very considerable interest in the part of Nor- folk from which I take the liberty of asking you to con- sider a few of the difficulties apparently overlooked in your interesting article, in the Spectator of December 23rd. As you are evidently aware, the subject is by no means a new one. Sir John Rennie's report, referred to by yourself and the writers in the Daily Chronicle, disclosed, to tell the plain truth, a visionary scheme. I do not mean to say that his plans could never be put into practice ; doubtless they could, upon two conditions,—the first, unlimited time, and the next, similarly unlimited means. It is perhaps un- necessary to say that when the " Victoria county " proposal was first given publicity, it excited great interest in this part of the country. It was thoroughly considered by gentlemen of large capital, and filled with a laudable spirit of enterprise,— the late Lord George Bentinok, amongst others, took much interest in it, as did several Norfolk and Cambridgeshire land- owners. But the scheme finally settled down to the much more limited enterprise of the Norfolk Estuary Company, whose operations, extending from the year 1851 to the present time, are by no means encouraging to similar speculators, much less to such a scheme as is now revived. We, Sir, in this locality have a lively recollection of the experience of such firms of contractors as Messrs. Peto, Brassey, and Betts, and the late Mr. Simons, of Hull, who raised up their banks against the German Ocean only to find a practical illustration of the fable of Mrs. Partington and her mop against the Atlantic. Yes, Sir, the most persevering efforts were doomed to failure, and Mr. Simons had the misfortune to be ruined in a single night by the destruction of his plant and all his works.
Since these failures, the Norfolk Estuary Company has prudently confined itself to assisting, in a humble if tedious way the operations of Nature, without challenging the north- east winds and the tides they throw into the Wash to deadly combat. They are reclaiming land undeniably, but very slowly, and if Mr. G. Meynell, the chairman of the company, or its vice-chairman, Sir William Ffolkes, were consulted by the new schemers, I am sure they would put the Daily Chronicle and its contributors into possession of much valuable informa- tion. Indeed, I am not sure they would not be glad to put them into possession of the Norfolk Estuary Company itself and all its prospective property in the Wash, upon very generous terms. Anyhow, I am quite sure the difficulties and cost of the proposal have been greatly underrated, and that if the unemployed have no better opening for their labour than the one suggested, they have but little to fall back upon. The work would absorb millions of public money and most likely hundreds of years before any considerable portion would be ready for profitable cultivation.—I am, Sir, &c., King's Lynn, December 27th, A. S. PAGE.
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