§ DR. R. MCDONALD (Ross and Cromarty)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, It being a fact that the Land Commission for England are now attempting to sell to about 120 squatters on Ashdown Forest, Sussex, the small bits of land that they have reclaimed from the forest during the last 12 to 18 years, whether compensation is to be given to those squatters for their houses and reclamation of land if they are not able to buy their plots and are consequently evicted; whether he is aware that the said Commissioners demand at the rate of £50 per acre as the price of these plots, while land similar to theirs when they took possession of it was sold a few years ago to Mr. Thompson, of Ashdown Park, for £8 an acre, and which he declared at a public meeting at Netley, on Tuesday the 23rd, was dear enough at £5 an acre; whether, considering the discrepancy of £50 per acre demanded from these peasants by the Land Commissioners and £5 or even £8 per acre as paid by Mr. Thompson, he will take such steps as will prevent these people being evicted till this discrepancy is properly explained; whether, in the event of a reasonable price being fixed for those bits of land, he will also make arrangements not only as to this but as to all other commons that English peasants may be enabled to buy their lands in a manner similar to those made for Irish peasants; whether the Commis- 434 sioners have interdicted these people from cutting peats in the forest (a right unquestioned till lately and rather beneficial than otherwise to the land), and in consequence they have to pay 33s. 4d. per ton for coals; whether one of those interdicted declared at the mooting referred to above that he had to pay £1 5s. and costs for cutting peats, being convicted by the Uckfield Bench, one of the magistrates sitting thereon being a Commissioner for the forest; and, if this be so, whether, if the fine were illegally levied, it will be repaid to the man?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CHILDERS) (Edinburgh, S.)I have been in communication with the Land Commissioners on the subject of my hon. Friend's Question, and am informed by them that the small bits of land referred to are recent encroachments, illegally made; and they are now being sold under the Provisional Order, confirmed by Parliament, for the regulation of Ashdown Forest as an open space. The encroachers comprise all classes, from landowners to labourers. In the event of their not being able, or willing, to buy their plots, they are entitled to such compensation as is provided by the Enclosure Acts. The price asked is the fair market price, which it is the duty of the Commissioners to obtain. It, of course, varies with the quality and convenience of the land sold. Most of the encroachers have agreed to the price asked, and are willing to buy more land at the same rate. The Commissioners have not the power to interdict people from cutting peats; but the Provisional Order, before quoted, prohibits this practice, which is damaging to the surface of the forest.