§ MR. ELLIS DAVIES (Carnarvonshire, Eifion)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, in view of the unanimous recommendation of the Welsh Commission, presided over by Lord Carrington, that a Commission should be appointed to survey Crown lands and rights in Wales and to make a proper extent of all rents, dues, etc., payable from such land, whether any, and, if so, what steps have been taken to carry out the recommendation.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. HOBHOUSE,) Bristol, E.The recommendation seems to have been founded on a misapprehension as to the sources of information already available, and was accordingly not adopted by the Government of the day. Surveys are in existence, which are periodically brought up-to-date, of practically the whole of the Crown property in Wales, and all rents and dues are properly rentalled. Since the date of the Commission considerable progress has been made in ascertaining the Crown's rights in the comparatively few cases where doubt existed, and under the present system of management no difficulty that the Department is unable with the means at its disposal to deal with, arises in connection with the oversight and protection of the Crown's rights. In the Report of the Welsh Land Commission there is a statement that "188,828 acres of land had been allotted to the Crown in severalty under Inclosure Acts and Awards, and were afterwards sold by the Crown," and that "if no sale had taken place the Crown would have at this moment in Wales an estate in severalty freed from Common rights of nearly 200,000 acres." It seems desirable to point out that the above statement is a mistake. If reference is made to the paper printed in the Appendix to the Report it will he seen that 189,828 acres represent the whole area of land allotted and divided amongst various owners under Inclosure Acts, and not the land allotted to the Crown in severalty, which only comprised a very small portion of this large acreage. The mineral rights under the whole area were reserved to the Crown and are now held and exercised.