§ MR. HARMOOD-BANNER (Liverpool, Everton)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he can state the details of the rental for the year 1904–5, amounting to £513,760 9s. 7d,, mentioned in page 166 of the eighty-third Report of the Commissioners of His Majesty's Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues, dated 29th June, 1905, and where any information in connection with the specific rentals, the amount of each rental, the tenure, the character, whether agricultural or otherwise, can be found; whether there are in any, and what, counties agricultural or farming lands vacant and unlet which are available for the purpose of use by the unemployed under the direction of the Distress Committees; and what is the total acreage of agricultural land in each county, or land available for such purpose, under the charge of the Commissioners.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. MCKENNA, Monmouthshire, N.)Detailed particulars of leases granted each year are given in the appendices to the Commissioners of Woods Report for that year. A classification of the rents collected by Mr. Stafford Howard is given in the report for 1905, see pp. 3 to 7. A classification of the rental collected by Mr. Horner was given in the Report for 1901, pages 84 to 103, and the variations that have occurred since by purchases, sales, re-lettings, etc., are for the most part shown in the subsequent reports. The Report for 1905, page 74, gives details of the agricultural lands which are temporarily in hand for want of suitable tenants. These lands are all in course of cultivation, the necessary labour being employed by the Commissioners of Woods. The Commissioners have no power to appropriate the land for use by the unemployed under the Distress Committee unless on payment of adequate rents.