MAJOR HASCHI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the damage done by gipsies camping on the commons and derelict land of Essex; and whether the Home Office can take action in the matter; and, if not, what authority has power to deal with the nuisance?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir M. WHITE RIDLEY,) Lanes., BlackpoolMy attention has not been called to any instances of damage such as the honourable Member refers to; and I fear that, in any case, the matter is not one in which the Home Office can take any action. Provision is, however, made in the Commons Acts for the regulation of commons, and if nuisances of a sanitary nature are caused they can be dealt with under the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1885. Otherwise the matter can be dealt with only under the ordinary law by the local police or by the owners of the soil or the persons entitled to common rights who may, when the facts admit of it, enforce their ordinarv civil remedies.