§ MR. BIGGARasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether Government will listen to the complaints from the Madras Presidency, that within the past year or so the Natives have had their ancient communal rights of grazing and cutting fuel tampered with by Government, and that, these rights having been recognized by Government till recently, they, the ryots, demur to the surrender of the same; and, whether, in particular, he will cause inquiry to be made into the complaints of the people of Hassanoor, in the Coimbatore district, that, though shrubs grow within a few yards of their doors, they are now forced to go twenty miles to Sattiamungalum, to ask the talook authorities for permission to cut these bushes for fuel?
§ MR. J. K. CROSSThe India Office has no knowledge of any complaints of the people of Hassanoor. As regards the general question of forest conservancy in Madras, I have to inform the hon. Member that a new Forest Act has lately been passed for that Presidency after a careful inquiry, which established the fact that so-called communal rights in Government forests have, generally speaking, no existence. The Madras Government are anxious that privileges of grazing, wood-cutting, &c., in forests shall be restricted as little as is compatible with the conservation of the forests—an object of the first importance; and I have no doubt they will give most careful attention to all complaints on the subject.