Report of the Land Division. 



[may, 



to supplement the annual statutory record by a general account 

 of the nature of the business arising, and of the facilities offered 

 to the public, under the Acts above referred to, together with a 

 description of the method of administration pursued by the 

 Department. The statutory functions of the Board in relation to 

 Tithe Rent-charge and Corn Rents, Copyholds, Commons, 

 Exchange of Lands, Improvement of Land, Land Drainage, 

 Sale of Glebe Land, Universities and College Estates, 

 Agricultural Holdings, Light Railways, and sundry minor 

 subjects, were on that occasion fully set out in the summary 

 memorandum prepared by the Legal Adviser of the Board. 

 Specific information as to the forms of procedure prescribed for 

 making use of the Board's intervention in these matters was also 

 provided by reprinting the more important of the instructions 

 which have been prepared for expediting the orderly transaction 

 of the necessary business under each head. The information 

 given in the volume referred to* remains at the disposal of those 

 interested in this section of the work of the Board. The present 

 Report is confined for the most part to a record of the business 

 transacted during the year 1903, with serial tables showing the 

 progress made under each head in previous years. 



The number of applications under the Tithe Acts during 

 the year was 1,140, and under the Copyhold Act, 1894, was 

 351, figures which were in each case in excess of those of 

 the preceding year. 



The Board gave further consideration to the proposal laid 

 before them for the regulation, under the Commons Act, 1876, 

 of the Merrow Downs, near Guildford, while a fresh proposal 

 for the regulation of Oxshott Heath, in the county of Surrey, 

 also claimed their attention. After local inquiries draft 

 Provisional Orders were framed in both instances, and the 

 necessary consents having been given the Orders were sealed, 

 and will be submitted to Parliament for confirmation. 



The award in the matter of the inclosure of the open fields 

 and the heath and wastes in the'parish of Sutton, in the county of 

 Northampton, authorised by Parliament in 1901, was con- 

 firmed by the Board. Under this award five acres were allotted 

 for a recreation ground and six acres for field-gardens, all good 



* Cel. 1 5 19, Price 8d. 



