SECOND READING. (Hansard, 13 May 1892)

§ *LORD SANDFORD

My Lords, the object of this Bill is to confirm the provisions of a scheme framed by the Charity Commissioners for the better appropriation of the funds of a Charity for the poor in the parish of Bingley in the County of York. Parliamentary confirmation is necessary, because the present administration and distribution of the funds of the Charity are limited by an Act passed in 1853, whereby they are taken out of the jurisdiction of the Charity Commissioners and even of the Court of Chancery, and no diversion of this Charity can be carried out without the Bill which I ask your Lordships to read a second time. The last Report of the Charity Commissioners, to which reference is made in the Preamble of this Bill, contains a short paragraph relating to the subject, and, as it states very concisely and clearly the object of the Bill, your Lordships will perhaps allow me to read it— We have, during the past year, provisionally approved a Scheme, to be laid before Parliament, for The Charity of Samuel Sunderland, in the Parish of Bingley in the West Riding of the County of York. The Scheme is fully set out in Appendix C. to this Report; and we now proceed, as directed by section 60 of the Charitable Trusts Act 1853, to state the grounds of our approval of the Scheme. The Charity of Samuel Sunderland is regulated by an Act of Parliament, 'The Bingley School and Charity Estate Act 1853' (16 and 17 Vict. c. xiii), under which the income of the poor's share of the Charity must be distributed and paid to the poor of Bingley, upon two days named in the Act, in the porch of Bingley Church. The Trustees are desirous of appropriating out of the poor's share of Sunderland's Charity a sum of £3,000 818 New Consols as an endowment of another Charity at Bingley, known as the Cottage Hospital, founded by Indenture date 15th August 1889. As the end which the Scheme has in view cannot, regard being has to the requirements of this Act, be attained without the authority of Parliament, and as it seems to us that the Scheme is desirable, and that all parties interested are anxious that it shall be established, we have provisionally approved it. No objections have been made to the Scheme. Pursuant to the recommendation of that Report, the Bill was introduced in another place under the auspices of the hon. Member for the Division of the county in which Bingley is situated, and endorsed by Sir Stafford Northcote, the Parliamentary Representative of the Commissioners in the House of Commons. I do not think it is necessary to say much in advocacy of the Bill, because those who are locally concerned have shown a great interest in the diversion of these dole funds to the institution and maintenance on a proper footing of a far better charity than that at present established—namely, a cottage hospital. They feel that it will be more for their permanent interest to have such an institution in their midst, than that they should receive half-yearly sums of money which they may spend, or perhaps mis-spend, as soon as they receive them. Your Lordships will appreciate the wise conduct of these canny Yorkshire folk. At the same time, in case of any charge being made that this is spoliation, and that no money assistance from the Charity will be henceforth available for the deserving poor, I may say that some money will still be left; the purchase of £3,000 of Consols will not exhaust the present funds of the Charity, and there will moreover be the annual rental of a farm which, under the scheme, is henceforth to be let out in allotments. As every one concerned in the parish, after full notice of the intention of the Commissioners has cordially acquiesced in the scheme, I need do no more now than ask your Lordships to read the Bill a second time.