§ MR. COZENS HARDY (Norfolk, N.)I beg to ask the hon. Member for the Penrith Division of Cumberland (Mr. J. W. Lowther) whether it is the fact that the Governors of the Whitgift Foundation in Croydon have recently paid £200 out of the income of the Charity towards the cost of restoring a monument to Archbishop Whitgift in Croydon Parish Church; whether such payment was authorized by the Scheme by which the Charity is now governed; and, whether the Charity Commissioners have taken, or propose to take, any and what steps to secure the repayment by the Governors of the 200?
MR. J. W. LOWTHER (Cumberland, Penrith)The Governors of the Whit- 304 gift Foundation in Croydon have recently paid £200 out of the income of the Charity towards the cost of restoring a monument to Archbishop Whitgift, in the Parish Church of Croydon. Such payment was not authorized by the Scheme by which the Charity is now governed. On the 29th of April last the Charity Commissioners informed the Governors of the Whitgift Foundation that, in their opinion, the sum of £200 charged in the accounts of the Charity for 1888 as the contribution towards the cost of restoring the monument was not properly so charged. After this intimation it might be presumed that the Governors would now proceed to make good to the funds of the Charity the amount thus appropriated unless they preferred that legal proceedings should be taken for testing, by a judicial decision, the authority of the opinion expressed by the Commissioners.