4 2 4 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



must keep his dam at the prescribed height, and 

 keep it water-proof. The vagaries of ocean and their 

 intensification under groining and other diversion of 

 currents create many paradoxes besides that of the 

 best neighbour being the worst. There are groining 

 and counter-groining. The scour that has been 

 handed on from A to B must be passed on again to 

 C, or returned to A with interest. Then what of the 

 hinterland proprietor who might expect to come into 

 the firing line more quickly if those on the frontier 

 were not so active? The man in the front calls 

 upon him, with show of justice, for contribution to 

 the expenses of their common cause. But is it 

 common, when we remember that, if the hinterlander 

 could come up to the sea with reasonable chance of 

 staying there and not going down into the waves, his 

 property would often be more valuable than it is 

 now ? At any rate, it is an affair of interest to the 

 nation at large, and it is upon the Exchequer that 

 our sea-coast landlords call for a contribution to their 

 expenses of maintenance. In this case, if in no 

 other, the scheme must be just as national as the 

 support. We cannot subsidise A and B to throw 

 shingle at one another to no nationally useful end. 

 Let the State protect its own coast-line from the sea 

 as from any other national foe, and even push the 

 war into the enemy's country by reclaiming the Wash, 

 planting the dunes, and finding work for its waste 

 labour on its waste lands. 



