§ MR. ALDERMAN LUSKsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Who was responsible for cutting down 150 oak trees on the fifty acres of ground, reserved as Recreation Ground, from the common land in that neighbourhood; whether they have been cut down by the valuer of the Inclosure Commissioners; and whether the proceeding is not contrary to the recommendation of the Committee on Open Spaces of 1863?
§ MR. WALPOLE,in reply, said, the 2100 trees so cut down had been felled, not by order of the valuer of the Inclosure Commissioners, but by the valuer of the parties interested in the common. The timber belonged to the lord of the manor, and instead of an unreasonable quantity having been removed, the valuation he (Mr. Walpole) had seen showed that there were hundreds of trees still remaining, and that, in fact, the trees removed were only such as were necessary to improve the beauty of the place, and fit it for the purpose for which it was intended.