§ MR. HAZELL (Leicester)I beg to ask the honourable Member for Thirsk, as a Charity Commissioner, whether his attention has been called to the present condition of certain charities in the parish of Lower Guything, Gloucestershire, called Townsend's, Compere's, and Snell's Charities; is the gentleman now 1272 administering these charities a trustee; if he is not, will the Commissioners see that the trustees appointed under their own scheme administer the funds; whether repeated applications have been made for the rendering of accounts to the Commissioners, and whether any accounts have been filed for many years, if at all; and whether, under these circumstances, the Commissioners will issue a peremptory order for the rendering of accounts to the Commissioners and the handing over the books of accounts to the trustees.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY CHARITY COMMISSIONER (Mr. J. GRANT LAWSON, Yorks, N.R., Thirsk)The attention of the Charity Commissioners has been called by the Parish Council of Guything Loer to the charities mentioned. The charities of Compere and Snell are regulated by a scheme established by the Commissioners in 1869, by which a body of trustees was constituted; the parish council is now, represented on that body by two trustees appointed under the Local Government Act, 1894. The Commissioners have no reason to believe these charities are administered otherwise than by the trustees so appointed, or by some or one of them. Townsend's Charity is not regulated by a scheme, but the portion of the income which is applicable in the parish of Guything Lower is administered in accordance with the recommendation of the Commissioners of Inquiry of 1829 by the vicar and the churchwardens. The latest accounts rendered in respect of all three charities are those for the year 1894. Application was made in 1898 to the trustees for the accounts for the three preceding years, and in the event of its being necessary a peremptory Order for the production of books and accounts will be made.