§ MR. PICKERSGILLI beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether the Board regard it as their duty to keep a vigilant eye on the enclosure of commons; and whether, if the Board have information which establishes a primâ facie case that land, for the enclosure of which the consent of the Board is by statute required, has been enclosed without such consent, the Board are accustomed to take any, and, if so, what, action.
§ MR. J. A. PEASE (Essex, Saffron Walden) (for Sir E. STRACHEY)The Board scrutinise all proposals in Bills which involve enclosure of common land and report to Parliament thereon, but the Board of Agriculture have no power to institute proceedings in the case of other enclosures. As stated in the reply to my hon. friend on the 11th instant,† district councils may under the Local Government Act, 1894, aid in maintaining rights of common, and the Board of Agriculture will be ready at all times to give them any assistance in their power.