HC Deb 01 November 1949 vol 469 cc282-5
Mr. G. Brown

I beg to move, in page 15, line 34, at the end, to add: (8) The Forestry Commissioners shall make good to the verderers any reasonable expenditure incurred or to be incurred by the verderers in connection with the preparation, maintenance or revision of the electoral register. This again is one of those parts of the Bill reserved for privileged arrangements.

Amendment agreed to.

Schedule, as amended, agreed to.

Second Schedule agreed to.

Bill reported with Amendments; as amended, considered.

7.5 p.m.

Mr. T. Williams

I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read the Third time."

Although this Bill is concerned with a small area of England, it is none the less of immense importance, both locally and nationally. The New Forest is, after all, our one great national park, and is enjoyed by millions of visitors as well as those who reside near by. If this Measure helps to preserve the amenities, improves grazing, safeguards ornamental woods and makes better use of the poorest land for afforestation, it will be fully justified. I think it will achieve all those results.

With so many conflicting interests to reconcile within the New Forest, it was no easy problem to solve, and any Minister might well have been forgiven for handing it on to his successor. Our thanks are due to the Baker Committee, which devoted many months of patient work to sorting out the various problems so that we were able to produce constructive proposals. There were many consulations and negotiations, and though we may have failed to satisfy everybody, we have tried to do our best. This Bill found a place in our legislative programme. It has run the gauntlet in another place and survived the Select Committee, with typical British compromise before that Committee, and it is now on its last lap. It was never possible to satisfy every one of the diverse interests, but we did our best and I think we have achieved a good deal. If the Bill is administered in a statesmanlike manner I venture to suggest that it will not reduce but will add to the amenities and improve the forest generally, both for commoner and visitor alike. I hope that, having passed through the travail of all these various stages, there will be the highest degree of goodwill and co-operation among all the verderers, whatever section they represent.

I wish to thank all those who have helped to smooth out the multifarious difficulties, and I would conclude by expressing my thanks to my legal adviser, Sir Denys Stocks, far his 153rd and last Parliamentary Bill. He has been a tower of strength, not only to me, but to all my predecessors. I wish him well in his retirement, which I hope will be long and happy. In commending this Bill to the House, I wish to associate his name with it. I wish the Bill well, and I hope that the New Forest will benefit as a result of it.

7.10 p.m.

Mr. W. S. Morrison

There is little that I need add at this stage of the Bill's progress. As the Minister said, it has undergone a prolonged period of mastication at various stages by all sorts of interests, and though we have felt it our duty to point out what we considered to be blemishes in the Bill and to make suggestions of what we thought would be improvements, I only wish to say that I add my good wishes to those on whom the great national trust of the New Forest will fall. I hope that there will be harmony between all sections and that they will endeavour, if they are not satisfied with this or that representation, to work together like a band of brothers to preserve the New Forest.

7.11 p.m.

Colonel Crosthwaite-Eyre

I merely merely wish to say that very often I have been the person to object to provisions in this Bill. Several times the Minister has used harsh words about the proposals I have made. Whatever have been our divergencies in trying to get the best Bill, I hope that all those in the New Forest will work together to put the Bill, into effect so that the New Forest will remain, as it has been, something enjoyed by countless thousands of visitors to this one place in England where the smallholder still exists because of his common rights.

7.12 p.m.

Mr. Shackleton

I am delighted to hear the expressions from the Opposition, which I am sure are sincere, that the Bill is welcomed and will be worked to the best of their ability so far as they have any say in the matter. I have only one regret and that is that the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Bournemouth (Mr. Bracken) is not a commoner of the New Forest and eligible to become a verderer himself.