MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the recently appointed Rector of Llanarmon-Dyffryn-Ceiriog, Denbighshire, has declined to accept a fee of less than 10s. for conducting the Burial Service under the new Act, and has refused to agree to the customary "offering" being handed to him, varying in amount according to the means of the relatives of the deceased; whether his attention has been drawn to the proceedings of a Vestry meeting summoned in this parish on the 6th of April last, at which only five persons, exclusive of the Rector, were present, and where a resolution was passed exacting for the future the payment of a fee of 10s. and £\ for the right of placing tombstones on the graves in the churchyard, according to the size of the stones; whether such fees have, within the memory of the oldest residents, ever been demanded before; and whether such a resolution is legal and can be enforced; if not, whether he will take steps to prevent any further interference by the Rector with the rights and ancient and unbroken customs of the parishioners in regard to the churchyard referred to?
§ MR. ASQUITHI conclude that the hon. Member, in referring to the "new Act," means the Burial Laws Amendment Act, 1880. That Act did not interfere with the fees for burials; and any person previously entitled by law to receive a fee is entitled, in case of a burial under the Act, to receive the like fee. But the Rector informs me that he has 909 not declined to accept a fee of less than 10s., or a customary offering, inasmuch as, on two occasions, no payment or offering of any kind was tendered or made to him, and on the only two other cases under the Act the usual offering was made and accepted. The Rector also informs me that at a Vestry duly convened and held on the date mentioned in the question, a resolution was come to, declaring that the Rector was entitled to a fee of £1 for every inclosed grave, with a flat stone or kerb-stone, and 10s. for every head stone, and that the size of the stones was not under discussion. The Rector further informs me that fees had, previously to such resolution, been demanded and received, but that no definite scale had been fixed. I have no jurisdiction in the matter of fees collected by incumbents for burials or gravestones; but of course, if more than what is legal is demanded, payment cannot be enforced.