FORESTRY AND THE NEW FOREST 



itself with the management of commons and from the New Forest com- 

 moners themselves. 



The objections on the part of the first section apparently were 

 chiefly an intense dislike to seeing the powers of the Crown or of any 

 other landowner 'extended' in any form whatever, whether for the 

 benefit of the community or not. Those of the commoners of the New 

 Forest and their representatives took the form of objecting to the com- 

 pensation provided for their safeguards, and desiring a further com- 

 pensation of money to be paid to them, accompanied by restrictions on 

 the powers deemed to be necessary. 



The Bill was withdrawn, but again introduced in 1893, to meet 

 with further opposition and the like fate, so far as concerned the clauses 

 relating to the New Forest. The correspondence between the Com- 

 missioner of Woods and the Verderers of the New Forest on behalf of 

 the commoners was published as a Parliamentary paper in 1893, in 

 order that the public might understand the reasons for the delay in 

 carrying out the recommendations of the committee of 1889. 



In 1899 the Commissioners of Woods, after consulting the whole 

 of the local authorities in the New Forest and ascertaining that certain 

 of the provisions of the contemplated Bill were urgently needed, intro- 

 duced another Bill in which as many of the objections and demands of 

 the commoners were met as was possible without altogether destroying 

 the usefulness of the Act. But again the opposition of a section of the 

 commoners could not be conciliated, and since the Government of the 

 day declined to take up the Bill except as an unopposed measure it was 

 again lost, and the question has not been further mooted. The dis- 

 abilities however and in some cases the dangers continue, while perpetual 

 friction is caused between the exercisers of the small local privileges 

 which the Crown is ready enough to grant and the commoners who 

 conceive that their rights are affected, though in an infinitesimal degree. 



It will appear then that a very unfortunate and unforeseen state of 

 affairs has been produced by the Act of 1 877, under which the forest 

 is sought to be administered. The effect of the Act, which had for its 

 object the preservation of the beauties of the forest, has been to promote 

 their destruction by depriving the old decaying woods for ever of that 

 protection from the cattle of the commoners which is essential for their 

 protection and renewal ; while its ill-considered and sweeping clauses 

 for the retention of the forest as an open space, without regard to the 

 ordinary necessities of the dwellers therein, have inflicted great hardships 

 and in some cases serious insanitary risks upon whole communities. 



While the commoners very naturally hold fast to the great 

 advantages which they obtained in 1877, yet it is evident that the 

 administration of so large a tract of land containing within its ambit 

 large villages and communities cannot much longer be sacrificed to the 

 interests of only one section of its population. In the present year 

 (1902) the Commissioners of Woods have succeeded with much difficulty 

 in promoting an Act of Parliament which will give them, in conjunction 



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