MR. H. ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the recent proceedings of the Abergele Burial Board in reference to the consecration of a portion of the burial ground, when a proposal to consecrate was defeated at a full meeting of the Board on 24th June last; whether he is aware that a vacancy on the Board occurred recently through the death of one of its members, and that a special meeting of the Board was summoned a few days sifter his death for the purpose of considering the question of consecration, when a resolution in favour of consecration was passed under protest at this incomplete Board; whether the application was forwarded to the Home Office by the rector of the parish; whether it has been brought to his notice that this special meeting of the Board was summoned before the first possible day for the holding of a Vestry to fill up the vacancy; and whether, under the circumstances, he will withhold his sanction to the application until a full inquiry can be made as to the proceedings referred to?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH, Fife, E.)The answer to the first paragraph is, Yes; to the second, Yes; but I understand that 10 days elapsed, the death taking place on October 31, and the special meeting on November 10. Moreover, had the deceased member been alive and present, it appears, that the resolution could still have been carried by the chairman's casting vote. The answer to the third paragraph is, Yes. With regard to the fourth paragraph, I am informed that this is not the case. The clerk to the Board, the Vestry Clerk, and Overseers were aware of the vacancy on October 31, and notice of a Vestry to appoint a successor might have been published on Sunday, November 5, by which means a Vestry might have 466 been held a week sooner and a day before the special meeting of the Burial Board. Primâ facie the proceedings, so far as the Secretary of State can take cognisance of them, are regular, and as the law makes consecration imperative I have no alternative but to carry it out. A resolution against consecration would, on the other hand, be irregular and invalid. It is only if the regularity of the Board's proceedings were successfully impugned in a Court of Law that I could properly withhold my sanction to-the application.