§ MR. DIXON-HARTLAND (Middlesex, Uxbridge)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, What steps the Commissioners of Woods and Forests intend taking if the proprietor of the new private boat-house, on the Hampton Recreation Ground, elevates the same above the summer level of his old houses; if he can state why the sites and privileges granted, which are worth £1,000, are to be parted with against the wish of the parish to a private speculator at so low a rental as £5 per annum; how many ratepaying inhabitants of Hampton signed the requisition to the Woods and Forests for the latest grant; what claim has the Thames Conservancy to any por- 181 tion of the sites or foreshore on which the new boat-house is being erected, and on which the old houses stand, or have they any authority over the same; why did the Board sanction the erection of the building in dispute, in direct violation of the compact entered into by them with the parishioners in their letter of October 13, 1885; and, if the Conservancy have no claim or rights between the boundary posts and the water's edge in this locality, is it a precedent as regards their jurisdiction over all other portions of the Thames?
§ SIR HERBERT MAXWELL (A LORD of the TREASURY) (Wigton)(who replied) said: The Commissioner of Woods has no reason to think that Mr. Constable will elevate the new boat-house beyond the sanctioned height. The rents paid by Mr. Constable were fixed on the advice of a competent surveyor. Prior to the letting in 1880 Mr. Constable's application was supported by 14 residents of Hampton, and by 13 residents chiefly of Moulsey. I am not aware that there was a requisition in favour of the new boat-house. The site of the new boat-house is not foreshore; and the Commissioner of Woods is not aware that the Thames Conservancy Commissioners claim any interest in, or authority over, it. No letter relating to this land of the 13th of October, 1885, can be traced; and the Commissioner of Woods is not aware of any compact between his Department and the parishioners. As regards the last paragraph, the land held by Mr. Constable is no part of the Thames, though possibly, like much other land abutting on the river, it may be at times flooded by the river water.