§ THE LORD BISHOP OF ST. EDMUNDSBURY AND IPSWICH rose to move to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the Queen Anne's Bounty (Powers) Measure, 1937, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent. The right reverend Prelate said: My Lords, I beg to move the Motion that stands in my name. I need not detain your Lordships for more than two or three minutes in explaining that this is purely an administrative Measure, and pointing out what it does. Queen Anne's Bounty, as your Lordships know, make a good many payments to a good many incumbents, the principal one being the dividend which they receive on behalf of the incumbents from the tithe stock. They also make a number of payments, some of specific investments for particular benefices, some by charges upon their common fund which accrue at various stages through the year, so that they have been accustomed to make these payments in varying amounts, and five or six times or more, to a particular incumbent, in the course of a year. On the other hand, it is their duty to receive certain payments from the incumbents for their liability under the Pensions Measure, for their assessments in respect of dilapidations or mortgage repayments and the like.
§ The Measure proposes that all the sums which Queen Anne's Bounty is liable to pay to any particular incumbent in any year shall be totalled together in one sum, and all the payments that it is required to deduct because they are due from the incumbent shall in the same way be totalled together in one; and that when the deductions are taken from the amount which the Bounty has to pay, the residue shall be divided into four equal sums, and on every quarter day an incumbent shall receive a quarter of the net income that he will get from the Bounty in the course of the year. Obviously that would be very much to everybody's convenience, and it will have this additional advantage in the case of incumbents, that all of them will receive some of their income in advance of the date on which they would otherwise do so, because most of the dividends are payable half-yearly, and the first quarterly 41 payment would be made a quarter before it would now become due. In order that the expenses of administration may be met there is power given to the Bounty to charge the better paid benefices with a very small sum—less than one-half per cent. of what they pay to the incumbents—to meet those administrative expenses.
§ The other part of the Measure concerns the tithe stock which Queen Anne's Bounty would receive for the ecclesiastical corporations, that is for Deans and Chapters; and inasmuch as the Ecclesiastical Commissioners deal in all other respects with the incomes of Deans and Chapters it is thought convenient and advisable that Queen Anne's Bounty should be empowered to hand over to the Commissioners such stock as shall be given to them on behalf of these 42 ecclesiastical corporations. Those are the two sections of the Measure—one of an administrative character—which has received the unanimous support of the Church Assembly, and I hope your Lordships will feel that it is right that it should be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent. 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 Queen Anne's Bounty (Powers) Measure, 1937, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Bishop of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich).
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ House adjourned at five minutes past five o'clock.