§ SIR M. E. HICKS BEACHI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department—(1) whether the words in the Twelfth Clause of the Established Church (Wales) Bill, providing for appeals against any decision of the Welsh Commissioners on certain points, are intended to give a right of appeal in all the cases in which it was given by the Forty-second Section of the Irish Church Act; and, if not, whether he will explain the difference, and the reason for it: and (2) whether, by Clause 1056 28 of the Bill it is intended that the Representative Body of the Church in Wales shall be charged with the payment of stamp duty on the conveyance to them by the Welsh Commissioners of the churches, parsonages, or private benefactions which are now, and according to the Bill would still remain, the property of the Church?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe answer to the first question is in the affirmative. Clause 12 of the Bill has a somewhat wider scope than the Arbitration Section (Section 42) of the Irish Church Act, and therefore is drawn in more general terms. It would give a right of appeal not only on questions of compensation arising under Clauses 17, 18, and 19, but also on questions as to what constitutes a private benefaction within the meaning of Clause 5, and what amount is payable in satisfaction of any existing interest in tithe rent-charge under Clause 16. The answer to the second question is that Clause 28 of the Bill corresponds to Section 35 of the Irish Church Act; and I am informed that the Commissioners of Irish Temporalities conveyed 1,628 churches, with school-houses, lands, and burial grounds, to the representative body in Ireland by a single vesting order, on which one stamp duty of the nominal amount of 10s. was paid. It is not intended that ad valorem duty should be paid on any part of the property which is to be transferred by the Commissioners to the Representative Body in Wales, and I will consider the question of amending the language of Clause 28 so as to make this clear.