§ MR. VILLIERS STUARTasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it would be right to conclude, from the Irish Church Funds Return, that on and after 1932 the permanent income of the Commission will be £293,000 per annum; and, whether that income may be safely taken as representing, at the rate of three-and-a-half per cent, a capital of between £8,000,000 and £9,000,000 sterling; and that, therefore, after paying off the National School Teachers' Fund, the Intermediate Education Fund, and the Royal University Fund, in all about £2,900,000, between £5,000,000 and £6,000,000 will still remain available for the Arrears Bill and other purely Irish purposes?
§ MR. COURTNEYSir, the permanent income of the Church Fund, as given in the Returns recently presented, is taken from the last Report of the Church Commission, which shows the state of the Fund on the 31st of December, 1880. Its position in this respect had not appreciably altered at the date when the Return was prepared. But it does not follow that the relations between the permanent and terminable income of the Fund will always remain the same. Persons owing rent-charges, rent, or mortgages to the Church Fund, may redeem their liabilities. The terminable income would be thereby increased, and the permanent income diminished. The Government are not prepared to undertake responsibility for the calculation made by the hon. Member. But I must observe that the present value of a capital of £8,000,000 or £9,000,000, accruing 50 years hence, would be only £1,600,000 or £ 1,800,000.