§ MR. MACNEILLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the fact that the rights of persons having burying ground in Killinchy Churchyard, County Down, and whose families for the past 260 years have used the said churchyard as a burying place, have been infringed by the present incumbent, who has locked the gate, and admittance being refused unless accompanied with payment of a fee for each interment; and whether the Government will, by the insertion of a clause in the Local Government Bill, or by separate legislation, take some means of vesting all parish churchyards either in the Poor Law Guardians or County Councils, subject to existing rights of burial?
§ MR. JACKSONThe Government have received a memorial from certain persons complaining of the alleged action of the present incumbent in regard to the burial ground at Killinchy, County Down. This graveyard appears to be vested in the representative church body, pursuant to the provisions of the Irish Church Act, 1869, subject to any existing rights, and I am advised that such rights can be maintained by the parties concerned without any alteration in the present law.