BUBAL COMMONS. 283 



approval or rejection by the Committee. In several 

 cases the Committee has insisted upon an increase of 

 the appropriations of land for recreation or allotments. 

 In others it has refused inclosure of parts of Commons, 

 on the ground that no public benefit would result. 



The case of Maltby Common, which came before this 

 Committee in 1879, is a good illustration. This Common, 

 of seventy-eight acres, is situate six miles from Rotherham 

 and twelve from Sheffield. It is much frequented by 

 visitors from both these towns, and there are no other 

 Commons within the same distances. It was originally 

 included in the list of thirty- eight schemes approved by 

 the Inclosure Commissioners, under the Act of 1^45, and 

 it was then proposed to assign three acres for a recreation 

 ground and three for allotments. The Commission now 

 again sanctioned a scheme for its inclosure, but with the 

 requirement that twenty-four acres should be set apart 

 for recreation, and five for garden allotments. There 

 was strong opposition to the inclosure from the people 

 of Sheffield and Rotherham. There was no evidence 

 that any public benefit whatever would result from it. 

 It was represented indeed that part of the Common was 

 damp; but this might have been remedied by a regulation 

 scheme. It was threatened by the promoters of the 

 scheme, that if Parliamentary sanction to the inclosure 

 were refused, they would, by agreement with the 

 Commoners, effect the desired object without such 

 authority, and that in such case the public would lose 

 the benefit even of the twenty-nine acres, proposed to 

 be allotted to them. Under the influence of this fear 



