§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, What is the amount of the ground rents and of any other source of revenue now paid into the Consolidated Fund in connection with the London parks?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. HENRY H. FOWLER) (Wolverhampton, E.)The ground rents and other revenues received in connection with the Royal Parks in London, including Battersea and Victoria Parks, are under the control partly of the First Commissioner of Works, partly of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. The sums received by the Office of Works amount to £1,480, and are paid into the Exchequer as extra receipts. The sums received by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests are derived from property situate within or around certain of the Parks. They are not paid into the Consolidated Fund, but are accounted for as part of the land revenue of the Crown. The particulars for each Park are as follows:—Regent's Park.—For properties within the road known as the Outer Circle, £2,084 18s. 4d.; for properties outside that circle, £14,826 2s. 3d. Victoria Park. This Park was purchased under the Acts 4 & 5 Vict., c. 27, and 5 Vict., c. 20. By these Acts the Commissioners were empowered to lease or sell any part of the Park not exceeding in the whole one fourth. The rental received by the land revenue for the portion leased amounted last year to £3,150 14s. Hyde, Green, and St. James's Parks.—Some small pieces of land which anciently formed parts of the Parks or the freeboards of the Parks are let by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests; but as the lettings include houses which were not any part of the Parks, the rental of the land which anciently formed a part of the Parks or the freeboards of the Parks cannot be separately stated. These pieces of land were inclosed from the open parts of the Parks about the end of the last century. The gross total of the figures I have stated amounts to £21,542.