§ MR. C. REEDsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether an Act passed by the Legislature of Tasmania in 1868, entitled "An Act to provide for the commutation of the sum of £15,000 a year reserved by the Constitutional Act for Public Worship in Tasmania," by which Act the sum of £100,000 is to be paid out of the Revenue of the Colony to the religious denominations willing to receive it—besides paying reduced annuities to the governing bodies of several of those denominations for existing incumbents—in the following proportions viz.—Church of England, £58,466 13s. 4d.; Church of Scotland, £7,866 13s. 4d.; Church of Rome, £23,106 13s. 4d.; Wesleyan Church, £7,333 6s. 8d.; Free Church of Scotland, £2,806 13s. 4d.; Jewish Church, £420—total, £100,000—has received the Royal Assent; and, if not, whether Her Majesty will be advised to give her assent to that Measure?
§ MR. MONSELLsaid, in reply, that in the year 1854, by the Constitutional Act of Tasmania, £15,000 a year was appropriated for public worship. In the year 1862 an Act was passed for the purpose of distributing that sum among the different religious bodies in proportion to their numbers, as taken at the last Census. The object of the Act to which the hon. Gentleman referred was to commute that payment of £15,000 annually by one sum of £100,000, to be distributed according to the numbers of each denomination as returned by the last Census. Tasmania, as his hon. Friend was aware, was a colony having representative institutions and a responsible Government; this was not an Imperial but a local matter, and therefore quite within the competence of the colony. That was the reason why Her Majesty had given her sanction to the Act.