§ MR. GRIFFITH BOSCAWEN (Kent, Tonbridge)I beg to ask the honourable Member for Thirsk, as representing the Charity Commissioners, will he explain on what grounds the Commissioners have refused to receive a deputation of persons interested in Tonbridge School, who desired to lay before them, reasons why they should sanction a loan for the erection of a suitable chapel; whether he is aware that a new chapel is urgently needed, that its erection was contemplated in the scheme of 1880, and that its erection up to the present moment has been impeded only by the action of the Commissioners; and if he can say on what grounds the Commissioners have refused to sanction the loan?
THE PARLIAMENTARY CHARITY COMMISSIONER (Mr. GRANT LAWSON,) York, N.R., ThirskThe Charity Commissioners have not refused to sanction a loan for the erection of a chapel for Tonbridge School. No formal proposal has as yet been made to them by the governors of the school for this purpose, and, in the absence of such a proposal, which the governors alone are competent to make, it would be premature to receive the deputation mentioned at present. The Commissioners have sanctioned considerable expenditure from endowment upon the erection of a temporary chapel which is now in use, and when certain financial questions which are now ripe for determination are settled, they expect to receive from the governors a formal 942 proposal relating to the erection of a school chapel. Upon any such proposal, when made, the Commissioners will be ready to receive a deputation. The Commissioners are aware that a new school chapel was contemplated in the scheme of 1880, at which date a school chapel was in existence. The delay in the provision of a permanent new chapel is due to the determination of the governors, in which the Commissioners concurred, that any expenditure for that purpose from endowment should be postponed to expenditure on the enlargement of the school buildings and on other provision for school purposes.