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Throughout all the years in which he was accumulating a fortune by selling American flour for American millers, Mr. Rennie never displayed any friendship for this country. His contempt for American institutions undoubtedly caused him to believe that he could beat American millers at their own game, and it was in the attempt to supplant them in the flour trade of the Orient that he met his Waterloo, and for the present at least put an end to flour milling in China. The failure has been so complete and overwhelming that the field will for a long time be regarded with misgivings.
A TRADITIONAL NEW TERRITORIES LATRINE
In Volume 23 (1983) of the Journal, in a Note entitled “Traditional New Territories Farming: Manuring", I discussed the traditional New Territories type of village latrine.1 Recently, a traditional New Territories village latrine in full working order was drawn to my attention, and, since these latrines are now very rare, and will very soon be entirely a thing of the past, I felt it would be worth while taking a plan of the latrine, and giving a description of it.2
The latrine in question was built of field stones, set in a mud mortar. The wall was thickly faced with mud, which in turn was covered with thick lime plaster. This method of construction requires the walls to be rather thick, and in this case the walls were from 1 foot to 1 foot 3 inches thick. The roof was of tiles, laid double thickness for coolness. These were laid on pine beams resting directly on the top of the walls. Because of the weak construction of the walls it was essential to stop rainwater from running down the walls and washing out the mud which held them together: the eaves therefore overhung the walls by about 9 inches. The foundations of the walls were of plastered stone, and projected several inches beyond the line of the walls. The walls themselves only began some inches above ground level, again to keep damp away from the mud.
The latrine formed a rectangle 16 feet long by 14 feet 3 inches wide on the outside, and about 14 feet by 11 feet inside. The height of the walls to the springing of the roof was 6 feet 1 inch outside, and 5 feet 10 inches inside; the structure was gabled, and the additional height under
222
Throughout all the years in which he was accumulating a fortune by selling American flour for American millers, Mr. Rennie never displayed any friendship for this country. His contempt for American institutions undoubtedly caused him to believe that he could beat American millers at their own game, and it was in the attempt to supplant them in the flour trade of the Orient that the met his Waterloo, and for the present at least put an end to flour milling in China. The failure has been so complete and overwhelming that the field will for a long time be regarded with misgivings.
A TRADITIONAL NEW TERRITORIES LATRINE
In Volume 23 (1983) of the Journal, in a Note entitled “Traditional New Territories Farming: Manuring", I discussed the traditional New Territories type of village latrine.' Recently, a traditional New Territories village latrine in full working order was drawn to my attention, and, since these latrines are now very rare, and will very soon be entirely a thing of the past, I felt it would be worth while taking a plan of the latrine, and giving a description of it.2
The latrine in question was built of field stones, set in a mud mortar. The wall was thickly faced with mud, which in turn was covered with thick lime plaster. This method of construction requires the walls to be rather thick, and in this case the walls were from 1 foot to 1 foot 3 inches thick. The roof was of tiles, laid double thickness for coolness. These were laid on pine beams resting directly on the top of the walls. Because of the weak construction of the walls it was essential to stop rainwater from running down the walls and washing out the mud which held them together: the eaves therefore overhung the walls by about 9 inches. The foundations of the walls were of plastered stone, and projected several inches beyond the line of the walls. The walls themselves only began some inches above ground icvel, again to keep damp away from the mud.
The latrine formed a rectangle 16 feet long by 14 feet 3 inches wide on the outside, and about 14 feet by 11 feet inside. The height of the walls to the springing of the roof was 6 feet 1 inch outside, and 5 feet 10 inches inside; the structure was gabled, and the additional height under
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