The New Forest Bill, 1892

Abstract

IN connection with the petitions in favour of this Bill, to which the signatures of persons interested in the New Forest are being obtained, I am frequently asked, “What is the necessity for the Bill, and what is its object?” The facts of the case may be shortly stated as follows. The “Woods and Wastes” of the Forest comprise about 63,000 acres of land, the whole of which were, prior to 1698, open and uninclosed; but under the authority of the Acts 9 and 10 William III. c. 36 (1698) and 48 George III. c. 72 (1808), the Crown was empowered to inclose, and keep inclosed, freed and discharged from all rights of common, such quantity of land in the Forest as would amount to 6000 acres, for the growth of timber. By the Act of 14 and 15 Viet. c. 76 (the Deer Removal Act of 1851), the Crown was authorized to inclose and plant with trees any quantity of land, not exceeding 10,000 acres, in addition to the 6000 acres already in inclosure under the authority of the Acts before mentioned. The powers conferred by these Acts are not repealed by 40 and 41 Vict. c. 121 (the “New Forest Act, 1877”), but the rights of inclosure are by sec. 5 of the last cited Act limited to “such lands as are at the date of the passing of this Act inclosed, or as have, previously to such date, been inclosed by virtue of commissions issued in pursuance of the said Acts or some of them.” The New Forest Act of 1877 practically secured the New Forest to the public, but the Act is virtually repealed by the 10th section of the Ranges Act, 1891 (and other Acts therein referred to), under the authority of which the War Department, with the consent of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, can take possession of any part of the Forest for military purposes, and exclude the public from the enjoyment of any tract so taken. Already it is proposed to take 800 acres for a rifle range and the site of a camp, and there is nothing to prevent the exercise of such rights throughout the district, and the conversion of the Forest into a second Aldershot. Wherever a portion of the Forest is taken, the rights of the commoners, if they complain, will be bought up and extinguished; and thus, by taking different areas at different times, the Commissioners may before very long extinguish the common rights, and reduce the Forest into private ownership. It is clear that the proposed inclosure of 800 acres, and the user of the Forest generally in the way described, is in direct violation of the spirit and intention, as well as of the express provisions, of the New Forest Act of 1877.