§ MR. T. E. ELLIS (Merionethshire)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the old burial ground of the parish of Llanfrothen, Merionethshire, has, for some years, been too full to allow of any more interments in it; whether, 20 years ago, a lady presented to the parish a piece of ground adjoining the old burial ground; and, whether the present incumbent of the parish refuses to Nonconformist parishioners the right of availing themselves of the provisions of "The Burials Act, 1880," in burials in the additional portion of the parish burial ground; and, if so, whether he can take steps to prevent this defeat of the law?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)I received a letter this morning from the Rector of Llanfrothen, who informs me that the burial ground of the parish is not full, that many burials take place 827 there annually, the last having taken place on the 17th instant. It is a fact that a piece of land was presented to the parish by a lady for burial purposes, but on the condition that the service should be conducted according to the rites of the Church of England. This piece of land was conveyed to trustees under 36 and 37 Vict., c. 50. Presuming that the condition attached to the devise was inserted in the conveyance, the provisions of the Act of 1880 do not seem to me to have been evaded; for Clause 9 of that Statute enacts that the Act shall not authorise the burial of any person without the performance of any express condition, on which any right of interment in any burial ground vested in trustees, not being the burial ground of the parish, may have been granted.