§ MR. STOREY (Sunderland)I beg to ask the hon. Member for Merionethshire whether any, and, if so, what, schemes for charities have been, during the fortnight ending 17th June, sent to the districts concerned by the Charity Commissioners; and to what newspapers each has been sent?
§ * THE PARLIAMENTARY CHARITY COMMISSIONER (Mr. T. E. ELLIS,) MerionethshireEight schemes under the Charitable Trusts Acts and two under the Endowed Schools Acts. The cost of advertising schemes 1666 under the Charitable Trusts Acts being borne, not as in the case of the Endowed Schools Act by the Parliamentary Vote, but by the charities concerned, the instructions for advertising these schemes are given, not by the Commissioners, but by the Trustees.
§ MR. STOREYI am sorry to trouble the hon. Member; but I do not want the information for myself alone. A number of hon. Members desire it, and I must ask him to be good enough to read it.
§ * MR. T. E. ELLISThe hon. Member wishes that these schemes, which are very numerous, should be laid in the Library of the House; but that, I take it, should only be done by the direction of the House itself. In order that the House may know something of the work which is undertaken, I desire to say that the number of Orders made by the Commissioners last year was 2,914. Of these, 553 related to the appointment and removal of Trustees, and 209 to the establishment of schemes. As the schemes under consideration are altered from time to time, it would require the services of an extra clerk or two in order to keep them altered up to date if they were exhibited in the Library. This shall be clone if the House desires it, but otherwise I think the Charity Commissioners are not justified in incurring this trouble and expense.
§ MR. STOREYI am really sorry to trouble my hon. Friend. My question is not as to the number of Orders for the appointment of Trustees, but as to the promulgation of new Schemes, of which he said there were 209 in a year. He tells us eight have been issued in the last fortnight. Will he be good enough to tell us what those eight are?
§ MR.T. E. ELLISI will supply the list.
§ MR. STOREYI apologise to my hon. Friend for giving him so much trouble, but I venture to ask him this supplementary question—whether, in order to prevent my having to ask a similar question week by week and his having to reply to it, he will consider some method by which this information can be placed, if not in the Library, at any rate somewhere where Members who are interested can see it?
§ * MR. T. E. ELLISI have already told my hon. Friend that, in accordance with a desire expressed in this House in 1886, these schemes were carefully indexed and placed in the Office of the 1667 Charity Commissioners for inspection. Since then one hon. Member, in 1886, asked to see a scheme, and the brother of another hon. Member a few weeks ago made a similar application. I have considered this question carefully. I am anxious that hon. Members should have every opportunity of scrutinising these schemes; but I do not think I should be justified in doing as the hon. Member for Sunderland suggests except by direction of the House itself.