§ SIR WALTER FOSTER (Derbyshire, Ilkeston)I beg to ask the hon. Member for Thirsk, as representing the Charity Commissioners, if he can state how the £882,914 obtained during the year 1899 by the sale of the real property of charities was made up, giving the number of acres of land sold, and the amount realised by the sale of house property and licensed houses, and agricultural land separately.
THE PARLIAMENTARY CHARITY COMMISSIONER (Mr. GRANT LAWSON,) Yorkshire, N.R., ThirskI regret to find that I cannot give my hon. friend as full information as I had hoped without on-tailing very great labour on a hard-worked Department. Last year the Commission made 396 orders authorising sales of real property belonging to charities. To classify that property would require an examination of all the files relating to each of those 396 orders. Sixteen orders alone account for £518,510 out of the sum referred to in the question. These have been examined and show that of the money received under them £79,704 was for agricultural land, £438,806 for property in towns, including £202,000 for the site of the Roman Catholic church in Moorfields, £78,000 for the site of the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, and £31,000 1135 for property in St. Giles's, Cripplegate. I understand that the large sales of licensed premises, of which I had a vague but satisfactory recollection, took place in years previous to 1899. The great value of a church, not of a public-house, accounted largely for the rise in the figures of 1899 as compared with 1898.
§ SIR WALTER FOSTERIs there no catalogue kept of these transactions?
MR. GRANT LAWSONThere are such records kept, of course, but the documents are very voluminous, and to get the exact details asked for they would all have to be carefully examined.