§ MR. HEALYasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, What reply Lord Derby has given to the petition of the Catholics and Nonconformists of the Island of Grenada in reference to the illegal vote for the Parsonage of the Disestablished Church?
§ MR. EVELYN ASHLEYThe history of the case is as follows:—On the 12th of June came a despatch saying that the Legislative Council had voted a sum of money for the Rectory House of St. George's. As the Church had been disestablished in 1874, the Secretary of State replied by an inquiry as to what obligation there was on the Colonial Government to execute these repairs, and at the same time a telegram was sent to the Governor, instructing him 341 to defer the expenditure of the money voted. A reply was received to the effect that, in the view of the Colonial Government, there was an obligation on them to keep the Rectory of St. George's in repair during the lifetime of Canon Anton, whose vested interests had been saved by the Act of 1874, and that on his death they were, therefore, bound to pay for the dilapidations before handing it over to the Church Body. We were also informed in another communication that the largest portion of the sum voted had been already expended—the repairs having been begun as early as the 12th of May. To this Lord Derby replied that he regretted that the Vote had been taken without his sanction, which would not have been given, and that it was not reported to him till it was too late to prevent the expenditure, and directed the Governor to communicate the purport of this despatch to the Memorialists.
§ MR. HEALYMight I ask the hon. Member whether, seeing that this Vote was illegal, the parties concerned will be compelled to refund the money to the taxpayers?
§ MR. EVELYN ASHLEYsaid the Vote was improper, but it could not be said to be illegal.
§ MR. EVELYN ASHLEYI will lay them on the Table if moved for.