§ Mr. HUMPHREYS-OWENTo ask the hon. Member for West Salford as Church Estates Commissioner, what were the main items in the legal expenses of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for the year 1902.
1073 (Answered by Mr.Lees Knowles.) The legal expenses amounting to £10,136 10s appearing in the Common Fund Account of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for the year preceding 1 November 1902, were incurred, as to £1,603 16s. 2d. in respect of sales and exchanges of properties, as to £1,085 14s. 8d. in respect of purchases, and as to £7,446 19s. 2d. in respect of church building and various matters (including £2,700 in opposing, in the interests of the Commissioners' Estates, certain Bills in Parliament, of which there were an exceptionally large number in that year), and £2,216 17s. 4d. in costs of litigation with a railway company in respect of questions affecting mineral rights of large pecuniary value.