§ THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY moved to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the New Dioceses (Transitional Provisions) Measure, 1927, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent. The most rev. Primate said: My Lords, I apologise to your Lordships for intruding again. I ought to have said when I spoke on the last Resolution that if any of your Lordships feel that the notice given is not long enough, and that you ought to have had more time for considering this, I should be quite ready to postpone it until after the Recess. But, on the other hand, it is a very great advantage that matters in regard to which there is not a shadow of opposition anywhere should be passed through as speedily as possible. I do not desire, however, that there should be the appearance of the least detraction from the powers possessed by your Lordships' House, to discuss fully, and, if necessary, reject a Resolution of this kind. I have always maintained that to be of real importance and I do not wish it to be 958 supposed that I am stealing a march on the House.
§ If the last Measure were technical, this is still more so. We have been making new dioceses in different parts of England—that may have been wise or unwise—and all the proposals have not been successful, but those which have, result in dividing up old dioceses into different parts, and there the laws and rules which belong to the old dioceses require modification in order to make the new diocese have its proper entity. For example, the diocesan conference is now a statutory body. It has a right and an obligation to do certain things. What is the diocesan conference of the new body? The new diocese has to have a diocesan conference, like the old body before it was divided. Those technicalities have to be gone into very carefully, and this Resolution merely gives legal validity of an undoubtedly constitutional character to the modified constitutions which are consequential on the passing of the New Dioceses Measure, but which require statutory enactment in order to make them operative. I think the matter is not one to which anyone could possibly find grounds of objection, and the Report of the Ecclesiastical Committee says as much.
§ Moved to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the New Dioceses (Transitional Provisions) Measure, 1927, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.