MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture (1) whether his attention has been called to the position of Mynydd-y-Gwair Common in Glamorganshire; (2) whether he is aware that the Swansea Urban Sanitary Authority agreed to pay the sum of £100 for the extinguishment of commonable or other rights in the common in question on condition that the money should be expended for the benefit of the commoners interested; (3) whether it is a fact that, in accordance with the provisions of the Commonable Rights Compensation Act 1882, an inquiry was held 166 in June 1896, and a decision arrived at to construct the roads across the common, but that the Board of Agriculture have declined to make an order on the ground that the committee to whom the £100 was paid refuse to reveal the amount of interest accrued on the amount; and (4) whether, in view of the inability of the commoners to take legal proceedings, he will reconsider the decision of his Department?
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. WALTER LONG,) Liverpool, West DerbyThe reply to the first two paragraphs of the Question is in the affirmative. With regard to the third and fourth, I would say that no inquiry has been held, nor have we as yet declined to make an Order in the matter. A meeting of the persons interested in the money in question was convened in June last, but the validity Of the resolutions then arrived at is contested, and we are now considering what further steps, if any, it is possible for us to take.