THE NEW FOREST.—A CORRECTION.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR." J SIR ,—Although you say that the correspondence about the New Forest is now closed, I must ask you to give me space for one paragraph, not as argument, but as statement of facts without which the correspondence would be incomplete. "A Resident" (and you seem to agree with him) says that the New Forest must be regarded as a national park, and that the commoners should have no special v )ice whatever -with regard to it. In this view the commoners ought not to be liable (as they are) for the expense of defending the Forest from encroachments. The only means which the verderers have with which to meet the coat of defending the public interest is, under the Act of 1877, by levying a rate from the commoners. The other day, when out of the scanty funds at car disposal we had to spend a very considerable sum to successfully resist what we considered an encroachment on the Forest in the matter of sawing-machines, the Treasury refused to repay us any part of our costs on the ground that we were defending our private rights, whereas we maintained that we were the champions of the publics and of the public interest. In short, the commoners are to pay the piper and do the fighting, while the nation is to monopolise the tune and collar the stakes !—I am, Sir, &c., EVELYN ASHLEY.
Previous page
