§ MR. CREMER (Shoreditch, Haggerston)I beg to ask the hon. Member for the Tunbridge Division of Kent, as a Charity Commissioner, whether any, and, if any, what reforms have been made in the application and administration of the endowments of St. Katherine's Hospital in the Regent's Park, or whether what the Charity Commissioner in 1893 in this House described as a scandal, still exists; whether £6,402 is annually expended upon salaries and management; £561 upon education; and £190 upon gifts; whether the master still receives a salary of £1,200; how many sermons he preaches during the year; and what are the other duties connected with his office; whether there are three brothers and three sisters, each of them receiving £300 per annum, besides being provided with a residence; what are the duties performed by the brothers and sisters; how many inquiries have at different times been instituted into this endowment, and what changes have resulted from such inquiries; and whether he will cause to be laid upon the Table of the House a copy of the reforms which Mr. Skirrow, on behalf of the Charity Commissioners, proposed several years ago, and also a 22 statement of the income and expenditure of the hospital during the year ended 31st December last.
§ MR. GRIFFITH BOSCAWEN (Kent, Tunbridge)I have nothing to add to the very full statement I made in the House on discussion of the Estimates, 27th May, 1902.† If the hon. Member, however, desires to have the figures for 1903, they are open to his inspection at the office of the Charity Commission. But I may say at once that the amount expended on management, including salaries of chapter clerk and surveyor, repairs, and outgoings, is not £6,402 but £2,683. As the hon. Member is aware, the charity is administered under regulations made by the late Lord Chancellor Cairns, acting as visitor under warrant from Her late Majesty as patron, and the Charity Commissioners have no power to modify them.
§ MR. CREMERWhen did the reduction in the expenditure take place? Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the figures contained in my statement were given me by the Charity Commissioners as showing the amount actually expended on salaries and management?
§ MR. GRIFFITH BOSCAWENI cannot say what figures were given to the hon. Member on a former occasion. I only know that the figures in his Question are not the correct figures for the present time, and that in my Answer I have given the correct ones.