THIRD READING. (Hansard, 4 May 1865)

§ MR. AUGUSTUS SMITH
said, that various inhabitants of the island had been wrongfully deprived of their rights. The waste lands were not a forest at all, and they ought to have been dealt with in a manner analogous to the course pursued with regard to inclosures. It had been customary to hold portions of land which were called "intacks," and which were clothed with all the incidents of personal property; but the Commissioners, being all English lawyers, thought that these intacks did not constitute a right, because they were unfenced, and the land was warned back into the forest. Some persons who had obtained an inkling of what was about to take place contrived to secure their rights by running up a slight fence, while others who did not obtain that information were deprived of long established rights. He hoped the Government would allow the whole subject to be fully inquired into, more especially as the parties who claimed this property had no one in the House to represent them. What he had hoped was, that the hon. Gentleman the Secretary to the Treasury would have agreed to refer the whole question to the Select Committee at present sitting on Epping Forest and the open spaces round the metropolis. But, as this had not been done, he should move that the order for the third reading be discharged, and the Bill referred to a Select Committee.

§ MR. DILLWYN
seconded the Motion.

§ MR. J. C. EWART
said, he had also received complaints of possible injustice. He suggested that a clause should be inserted, that if the parties on a re-hearing established their right to the land, it should be restored to them. If that were done he had no objection to vote for the third reading.

MR. PEEL
said, the object of the Bill was simply to enable the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to pay out of the capital of the land revenue a sum of £2,500 towards a fund to which the commoners of the island would contribute an equal amount. That fund was to be applied to compensate parties who claimed to have a portion of the forest allotted to them in severalty, in the event of those claims being found to be well founded at the re-hearing which would take place under the Act lately passed by the Legislature of the Isle of Man.

§ MR. AUGUSTUS SMITH
asked if this re-hearing would enable the parties to re-establish their claims to the rights of which they had been deprived, or would it only entitle them to compensation?

MR. PEEL
said, the claims rejected on the first occasion would be re-heard by one of the Commissioners, and if any of the claims were allowed compensation would be given, not in land—as some of the lands had been sold—but in money. The boundaries of these waste lands had been accurately defined, and a very liberal arrangement had been made as to the rights of the commoners. The hon. Gentleman had made no objection to the disafforestation of these lands, and the feeling in the Isle of Man was in favour of it. He did not think that a Select Committee of that House was the tribunal best fitted to judge of the matter, and he hoped that the hon. Gentleman would not persist in his Motion.