MR. CARVELL WILLIAMSI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether in the early part of the present year the Combined Count of British Guiana, in view of financial depression in the colony, adopted a resolution in favour of the gradual withdrawal of State aid from, the religious bodies new in receipt of annual grants of public money; and whether it is intended to bring in a Measure for that purpose?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (MR. J. CHAMBERLAIN, Birmingham, W.)In March last the Combined Court of British Guiana passed a resolution that no persons thereafter appointed to any office in the Church of England or the Church of Scotland should have any vested rights or any claims on the Colonial Government after the 31st of March, 1899. It does not refer to the grants now made to the Roman Catholic and Wesleyan bodies. The Governor has been instructed to consider the question of the gradual abolition or reduction of the endowment by the State of all religious bodies in the colony.