THE NEW FOREST AS A SANCTUARY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—You make an apt remark in your article in the issue of the Spectator of January 2Sth when you say that " experience shows that the position cannot remain as it is," but I must differ from your conclusion that "any changes will be for the worse and not for the better." There is, I venture to think, a change which might be made for the better in the interests of all concerned in this splendid "sanctuary," and I venture also to think that not to effect such a change will be distinctly for the worse. It appears from the local Press that the Commissioners of Woods and Forests and the Verderers, and a few of the large landed proprietors, are now putting their heads together with the view of passing a Bill to enable the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to give or sell land in the Forest for sewage farms, cemeteries. waterworks, gasworks, schools, infectious hospitals, and private roads to improve building sites, and what not. The Commissioners of Woods and Forests administer the Forest solely for the purpose of profit, and apparently the Verderers are a body impotent alike to prevent the Commissioners of Woods and Forests from injuring the Forest, and to protect the beauties of Nature with which the Forest should abound, and private landowners look upon the Forest as an amenity to be exploited for their benefit. The only remedy is to sweep both the Commissioners of Woods and Forests and the Verderers sway, and place the Forest in the hands of a Conservancy Board, whose sole duty should be to preserve the Forest as a sanctuary and national park. Such a body would need but small funds, which would be obtained by the sale of judicious thinnings of the wretched timber grown up under the management of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. To a very large extent all that the Forest requires is to be left alone,—prevent wanton destructions of all kinds, and let forest life go on as Nature dictates, and the birds, beasts, flowers, and trees will appear again and flourish as of old If, however, sewage effluents are to poison the brooks, and smoke-stacks are to belch forth into the trees, while infectious hospitals are to contaminate the air, no beaver (as suggested) or fish will haunt the streams, no timid bird will return, and the public, who are entitled to enjoy their heritage, will be scared away from the Forest.—I am, Sir, &c.,
NAT URA-
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