§ MR. COBB (Warwick, S.E., Rugby)I beg to ask the hon. Member for Merionethshire, as a Charity Commissioner, whether there are considerable numbers of Parochial Charities, some of which are partly and others wholly non-ecclesiastical, the Trustees of which are in different cases: the incumbent only; the Churchwardens only; the Overseers only; the Incumbent and Churchwardens; the Incumbent and Overseers; the Overseers and Churchwardens; the Incumbent, Overseers, and Churchwardens; persons appointed solely by co-optation, without the authority of any scheme or of any direction under the instrument creating the charity; persons (either without or conjointly with the Incumbent, Churchwardens, and Overseers, or any of them) appointed under a scheme by co-optation or by nomination, and none of whom have been nominated or elected by the Vestry or inhabitants: and persons nominated or elected by the Vestry or inhabitants either alone or conjointly with other Trustees; whether lie can state in which of these cases the provisions of the Local Government (England and Wales) Bill will ensure that Trustees nominated or elected by the Parish Council or the parish meeting shall be added to or substituted for the existing Trustees, and to what extent; whether in a large number of cases of Parochial Charities, notwithstanding that the instrument creating them gave special powers or directions for the appointment of new Trustees, the Commissioners have granted schemes appointing new Trustees, and in many cases authorising the nomination or election of some of the Trustees by the 1529 Vestry or inhabitants; and whether he will, without granting any formal Return, make inquiries and state to the House the opinion of the Commissioners as to whether the different oases named in the first paragraph of this question are respectively more or fess numerous, and, if possible, the order in which they would come in point of numbers?
§ * THE PARLIAMENTARY CHARITY COMMISSIONER (Mr. T. E. Ellis,) MerionethshireAs this question refers to charities amounting to between 40,000 and 50,000, it is impossible to give a detailed reply to my hon. Friend. As to the various cases in which Incumbent, Churchwardens, or Overseers, or some or one of them, are Trustees, those in which the Incumbent and Churchwardens are Trustees are by far the most frequent, and those in which the Overseers alone are Trustees are the least frequent. With a view to obtaining a general estimate of the proportion between the various alternative Governing Bodies referred to in the question, an examination has been made of the charities entered in order of application to the Commissioners in a single ledger of the Official Trustee of Charity Funds. After deducting charities held by Municipal Trustees and various Urban Authorities, I find that out of 311 charities the following are the Governing Bodies: — Incumbent and Churchwardens, 140; Incumbent, Churchwardens, and Overseers, 21; Churchwardens only, 12; Churchwardens and Overseers,8; Incumbent, Churchwardens, and others, 8; Churchwardens and others, 5; Incumbent and Overseers, 4; incumbent, Churchwardens, Overseers, and others, 3; Incumbent, Churchwardens, Guardians of Poor, and others, 1; Overseers and Guardians of the Poor, 1; Overseers, 1. In these 204 cases, when the charity is non-ecclesiastical, the Overseers and Churchwardens will here-placed by persons elected by the Parish Council. In 31 cases the Incumbent alone controls the charity, in 22 cases the Incumbent and others (not Churchwardens and Overseers), and in 54 cases the Trustees are all appointed by co-optation. As the Bill now stands those charities will not be directly affected.