§ SIR WALTER FOSTER (Derby, Ilkeston)I beg to ask the hon. Member for Penrith whether he is aware that in the new scheme for the administration of the Church and Poor's land of the township of Defford, in the County of Worcester, the Charity Commissioners have stipulated that the three representative Trustees shall have a ratal qualification of not less than £15, whereby all members of the working classes of the district, and also any other person occupying a house without land attached, will be entirely excluded from the administration of the charity; whether he is aware that instead of the share of the poor in the fund being distributed in coal, as hitherto, it is intended that this shall only take place after a preference has been shown by subscriptions to dispensary, infirmary, hospital, convalescent home, and provident clubs, a method of distribution which is generally objected to by the people of the country districts; and whether the Commissioners intend to take any action in the matter?
* MR. J. W. LOWTHERAccording to the original Trusts of the endowment of the Church and Poor's Land of Defford, the Trustees are to be "landowners of Defford, which are of the best, largest, and ablest estates there," and the Commissioners consider that their proposal fairly represents the original qualification. The provisions for the application of income, which are inserted in the draft scheme, are those in general use in schemes for dole charities; they were approved by a Select Committee in 1884; they do not give preference to any one of the several alternate modes of application suggested, of which distribution in coal and other articles in kind is one.