§ THE LORD BISHOP OF ST. EDMUNDSBURY AND IPSWICH moved to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the Benefices (Sequestrations) Measure, 1933, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent. The right rev. Prelate said: My Lords, I need not detain the House many minutes while I propose the Motion standing in my name. I am very grateful that the arrangement has been made to enable me to move this now. This Measure is to round off and fill one or two gaps in the law relating to sequestration. Your Lordships know that sequestrators are the people who receive the income and who are possessed of the property of a benefice during a vacancy. Vacancies in these days are apt to be prolonged. Recent legislation has insisted upon certain periods before which a Bishop can institute or before 350 even a patron can present, and there are other circumstances related to the financial and other conditions of to-day which make it the case. The benefices are often vacant for months, sometimes for many months. Therefore, the responsibility of sequestrators is greater than it was.
§ This Measure deals with four points. The first is to enable the Bishop to assign the amount of the income to be paid out for the curate-in-charge for occasional duty taken during a vacancy. Sometimes no curate is placed in charge of a vacant benefice. The present law does not explicitly say that the Bishop has any control; this Measure provides that the Bishop may control the expenditure. The second matter is the care of the parsonage and the garden. Your Lordships will realise that if a parsonage house or garden is left to itself for six or twelve months the result may be disastrous. There is nothing in the present law which enables sequestrators definitely to look after a garden and take care it does not become a wilderness, or even to see that the pipes of the house do not get frozen, or that the house is thoroughly aired; and as the new incumbent has a right to the profits from the date of the last vacancy subject to such charges as the sequestrators have legally incurred, the sequestrators are rather reluctant to spend money, even on such a necessary thing as keeping the house in condition or keeping the garden from going to weeds. This Measure provides that the sequestrators are to have care for the house and garden. It defines certain things which may be done in that connection and it places all this under the authority of the Bishop who may, if he thinks fit, delegate it to the archdeacon whose business it is to keep an eye on the property.
§ The third thing mentioned is to get rid of trouble that sometimes occurs between sequestrators and a new incumbent in respect of the money which sequestrators have properly spent in order that the services may be maintained. The income of the benefice, of course, comes in at various times in the course of the year. A great deal, the greater part, comes from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty and is payable quarterly or half-yearly as the case may be. Whenever a payment becomes due 351 it becomes payable to the incumbent, although he may have been installed only the day before, and the sequestrators are left to settle with him regarding what is due to them. That is very often the occasion of trouble. This Measure provides that the sequestrators may require the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty to apportion the amount of income which accrues during the vacancy to be paid to them. That, it is hoped, will end all quarrel and dispute. The fourth point concerns a small matter. Occasionally under the Benefices (Exercise of Duties) Measure a Bishop has to inhibit an incumbent, and he may allow the curate-in-charge to live in the house. Sometimes the curate-in-charge has got a house of his own and, in these circumstances, it is not unreasonable that the house should be let. This Measure empowers the letting of the house. These are the four points with which the Measure deals. They are all of a practicable nature, and will assist sequestrators to discharge their responsibilities better. I beg to move.
§ Moved to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the Benefices (Sequestrations) Measure, 1933, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Bishop of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.