§ MAJOR SEELY (Isle of Wight)To ask the hon. Member for the Tunbridge Division whether his attention has been called to representations made by public bodies and others with reference to the scheme formulated by the Charity Commissioners for the administration of Wilder's Charity; and if he can state what were the facts and representations considered by the Charity Commissioners before formulating the scheme.
(Answered by Mr. Griffith Boscawen.) Hyde, Isle of Wight. Augusta Wilder's Charity. 1. The representations made by public bodies and others with reference to the scheme which has been established in this matter were very carefully considered by the Commissioners. 2. The charity is an almshouse founded at Ryde in 1856 for natives of the Isle of Wight, being members of the Church of England or Protestant Dissenters holding the doctrine of the Trinity as taught by the Church of England. The administering trustees were to be the vicar and churchwardens of Newchurch, an ancient parish which occupied a large portion of the centre of the island, and included both Ryde and Ventnor. 3. In 1866 the parish of Newchurch was divided into Newchurch, Hyde, and Ventnor, and from that time the almshouse was administered, irregularly, but not unnaturally, by the vicar and churchwardens of Ryde, Hyde being the portion where the almshouse was situated. No complaint was made of the administration; and the influence of the trustees had been effectual to obtain additional funds from a voluntary source, without which there would be no adequate provision for the inmates by way of maintenance. 4. It was considered by the Commissioners that a scheme was necessary to put the administration on a regular footing, and they have accordingly substituted for the vicar and churchwardens of New-church, who are no longer in touch with 1581 the almshouse, the vicar and churchwardens of Ryde, who have been for many years, though irregularly, the sole administrators. In pursuance of the practice which has of late years been approved they added to the vicar and churchwardens of Ryde three representatives of the County Council; but they reserved to the vicar a casting vote as chairman. 5. Suggestions were received during the period of publication from the County Council claiming a majority of the governing body, and from the Ventnor Urban District Council claiming representation. Since the scheme was established similar claims have been received from the Isle of Wight Rural District Council and Board of Guardians, and also protests from several parish councils against the retention of the vicar and churchwardens. The composition of the governing body as settled by the Commissioners represents a medium between these claims and the state of things found existing; and it is justified in the present case by the following considerations:— (a) The charity is not a parochial charity within the Local Government Act, 1894; (b) It is restricted to a limited class of beneficiaries with a strong Church of England colour; (c) The expressed intention of the foundress was to repose her full confidence in the vicar and churchwardens of the parish in which her almshouse was situated; a confidence which the Commissioners find to have been justified by their administration; (d) The appropriate source of a limited representative element in the governing body of a charity extending to a whole county appears to be the County Council.