§ MR. WEDGWOOD (Newcastle-under-Lyme)I beg to ask the hon. Member for East Bristol, as Church Estates Commissioner, how much of the £265,767 17s. 7d. mentioned on page 21 of the fifty-eighth Report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners represents the rent of agricultural land; what is the area of the lands producing such rent; whether these estates are managed direct or by agency; and who are the agents, if any, and what moneys have been paid to them during each of the last five years for agency work in connection with this agricultural land and also for all agency work.
§ MR. CHARLES HOBHOUSE (Bristol, E.)The gross rents of agricultural lands amount to approximately £250,000 out of the sum of £265,767 17s. 7d., the remainder being chiefly rents of house property in provincial towns and places. The area of the agricultural lands is about 250,000 acres. The Estates of the Commissioners are under the management of the Estates Committee and two firms of land agents are employed, viz., Messrs Clutton, of No. 5, Great College Street, Westminster, and Messrs. Smiths Gore & Co., of No. 3, Little College Street, Westminster. Each firm employs at their own expense local sub-agents or representatives where necessary. The remuneration of each firm for agency and receivership in respect of agricultural property is a commission of 4 per cent. on the rents, and this covers also their services for superintendence of repairs and improvements and new buildings in all but exceptional cases. The total of the payments made by the Commissioners for agency in respect of all the estates vested in them for their common fund is set out each year on the other side of the account from which the figure quoted in the Question was taken.
§ MR. WEDGWOODHow long has this agency existed?
§ MR. CHARLES HOBHOUSEThe payments extend over a very long series of years.