§ MR. ALFRED THOMASI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury with respect to the following sales that have been made of Crown property in Wales between 1849 and 1888: (a) lands, foreshores, and rights of the value of £85,535; (b) encroachments on waste lands, £30,236; (c) fee-farm and other unimprovable rents of the value of £34,346, whether it is part of the policy of the Commissioner of Woods and Forests to sell foreshores in Wales, and whether the inhabitants of the districts 698 where the foreshores are situate are consulted previously to each sale; whether in many of the cases where fee farm rents are sold there is some reversion belonging to the Crown under 34 and 35 Henry VIII, c. 20, or otherwise, and whether records are kept of all cases where there is such a reversion; and whether the Commissioner of Woods and Forests will henceforth abstain from all sales of land in Wales except for public purposes?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. JACKSON, Leeds, N.)As regards the Crown foreshores in Wales which remain under the management of the Commissioner of Woods, the policy of the Commissioner is rather against the sale of them, excepting to public bodies or when they are required for the execution of expensive works of improvement. It is the practice to consult the ex adverso proprietors before disposing of foreshore, unless taken under Act of Parliament. It is not supposed that there are many cases where fee-farm rents are sold in which there is any reversion belonging to the Crown under 34 and 35 Henry VIII., c. 20, or otherwise. The sale of the fee-farm rent would not extinguish the reversion. A record is kept of such cases as are known. I am unable to give an undertaking that the Commissioner of Woods will henceforth abstain from all sales of land in Wales except for public purposes.