§ MR. F. S. STEVENSON (Suffolk, Eye)I beg to ask the Comptroller of the Household, as representing the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, whether, in accordance with the precedent set by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1894, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners will consider the desirability of inquiring, by means of a Departmental Committee, into the best means of extending the facilities for the granting of agricultural allotments upon the estates under their control, and into the applicability thereto of provisions of the Local Government Act 1894, and into other like matters appertaining to the subject.
§ THE COMPTROLLER OF THE HOUSEHOLD (MR. G. LEVESON-GOWER, Stoke-upon-Trent)The Estates Committee, which is charged with the management of the property under the control of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, holds its meetings weekly. For some years past it has been made known, in the parishes in which the Commissioners are possessed of agricultural property, that they are desirous of affording all reasonable facilities for the acquisition of allotments by the labouring population. A large number of allotments have been provided, and many negotiations with District and Parish Councils are pending at the present time.
§ MR. CYRIL DODDasked, whether similar facilities would also be afforded to small shopkeepers who often wanted allotments?
§ MR. LEVESON—GOWERThat is certainly a question that will receive consideration.