* MR. J. CARVELL WILLIAMS (Notts, Mansfield)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Rev. R. B. Stoney, rector of Shirland, near Alfreton, having been served with a notice of a burial with a Nonconformist service of Mr. Robert Tomlinson, at five o'clock in the afternoon of the 9th instant, declined, not in writing but verbally, to receive the same unless the time was altered to three o'clock, no other service having been fixed for the later hour, thereby occasioning the loss to the mourner's of half a day's wages; whether the rector's action was in accordance with the provisions of the Burial Act of 1880; whether he is aware that the rector also declines to permit Nonconformist burials on Sunday, while other burials are permitted on that day; And, whether inquiry will be made into the facts, with a view to prevent a recurrence of such an incident, and the continuance of such distinctions?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolI have made inquiry and am informed by the rector and churchwardens that the allegations referred to in the Question are absolutely without foundation.