LEAVE. FIRST READING. (Hansard, 4 March 1870)

§ THE LORD ADVOCATE

, in asking leave to introduce a Bill to amend the Act twenty-third and twenty-fourth Victoria, chapter fifty, intituled "An Act to abolish the Annuity Tax in Edinburgh and Montrose, and to make provision in regard to the Stipends of the Ministers in that City and Burgh, and also to make provision for the Patronage of the Church of North Leith," said: Sir, I do not, at this period of the evening, intend to detain the House for more than a few minutes. I have stated at great length the other day the views generally which I entertain upon this subject, and I shall state the import of the Bill which I then announced in a very few sentences. The great object is to effect a settlement of the question in regard to the fund for providing for the payment of the ministers of the parishes of the city, which may be satisfactory to the Churches of Edinburgh on the one hand, and fair and equitable to the citizens of Edinburgh on the other. At this moment it stands upon this footing—that under the Act of 1860 the Magistrates and Town Council, as representing the community, are the debtors in a perpetual bond of annuity for £4,200, payable to a body called the Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Commissioners, instituted by the Act for the purposes of paying their debt and the stipends of the clergy. That is not the only fund provided for the payment of these stipends, there being £2,000 payable to the Commissioners by the Docks and Harbour Board of Leith; and there is also paid to them the produce of the pew-rents. But so far as the Magistrates are concerned, with the exception of these pew-rents, the contribution consists of the sum of £4,200 a year, payable in the form of an annuity; and the chief end and object of the Bill which I now ask leave to introduce is to provide that this perpetual bond of annuity shall be redeemable upon payment of a sum which I propose shall be fixed at £60,000. That is to be paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and that payment being made, and the receipt thereof being duly recorded in the register, the bond shall be held to be discharged—so that as soon as 1322 this takes place there will be a settlement between the parochial clergy and Town Council, and there will be no money transactions between them in future. But it is necessary to make some provisions with a view to enable the Magistrates and Town Council to raise the money necessary for that purpose. I understand that at present there is in hand, the produce of the power of assessment given to them by the Act of 1860—a sum of £15,000 or £16,000; but it is not my purpose to give thorn borrowing power beyond what may be necessary to enable them to complete the sum of £60,000 which the Bill provides for, and I therefore propose by the Bill to give them borrowing power to the extent of £45,000; but if it should be found upon inquiry that either, on the one hand, they require more, or, on the other, they require less, the amount may be taken. They have, at present, under the Act of 1860, upon which the settlement to the matter stands, a power of increased assessment to the extent of 3d. in the pound. I propose that this power should be continued for the period of ten years; but with this proviso, that they shall, out of the produce of that assessment, accumulate annually a sum—I suggest, but, of course, that is subject to modification, of not less than £3,000 a year—in order to pay off the debt contracted by the borrowing power under the statute. By availing themselves of the provisions of the Act, they will save the difference between £4,200 and the interest on the £60,000, or about £1,800 a year. At this moment the parish of Canongate, which is really a part of Edinburgh, stands upon a different footing in regard to ecclesiastical arrangements from the rest of the city. The provision for religion in that parish is an assessment imposed on the inhabitants—I forget at what rate, but I believe 1d. in the pound, producing £250 a year. It is proposed by this Bill to abolish that assessment altogether, and to put the ministers of Canongate on the same footing as the other ministers of the city. At present the church-door collections are entirely devoted to extraordinary charitable purposes; but, following a provision in the Bill submitted to this House by my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh, I propose to give half the produce of these collections to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. With regard to the patronage of 1323 the churches within the city, the patronage is at presented vested in the Magistrates and Town Council; but I propose also availing myself of a clause, which deals with this subject in the Bill of the hon. Member for Edinburgh, to transfer the patronage from the Magistrates and Town Council to the kirk-sessions of the several churches. These are the provisions of the Bill which I now wish to introduce; and I hope, having some reason to believe that the Bill will be satisfactory to the Church, that it will effect a settlement of this long-vexed question.