QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY (POWERS) MEASURE, 1939.

HL Deb 27 April 1939 vol 112 cc749-51

4.17 p.m.

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 Queen Anne's Bounty (Powers) Measure, 1939, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent. The right reverend Prelate said: My Lords, I need not detain your Lordships more than two or three minutes in presenting the two Measures which appear on the Order Paper. The first gives additional powers to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty to deal with the proceeds of the sale of houses under Queen Anne's Bounty, and the disposal of these funds is regulated by Acts of Parliament and Measures which were passed in earlier times. Under modern conditions it is found that the uses to which these proceeds may be applied are rather too limited and the powers which Queen Anne's Bounty has are too restricted. So this Measure gives them rather more power to deal with those funds with the consent of everybody whose consent is required, for the benefit of the benefice concerned.

The second series of provisions relates to the Tithe Act in connection with which your Lordships are aware that Queen Anne's Bounty has obligations to incumbents, and there again there are a few provisions which were not sufficiently foreseen when that Act was passed, and which are provided for in this Measure; so the Bounty gets an additional administrative advantage. There is one other clause in the Measure which gives an indemnity to the Governors for payments they made which were proved to be irregular, although they were quite properly made in remuneration for services very adequately rendered to their Chairman of Committees and joint treasurers, mainly in connection with the tithe which came to Queen Anne's Bounty to collect and distribute before the Tithe Act was passed. Those payments, although properly made, were not in accordance with the regulations under which the Governors act in accordance with the terms of their Charter and this Measure indemnifies them for those payments so made.

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, 1939, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Bishop of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich.)

4.19 p.m.

THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH

My Lords, I would like in a very few words to support what has been said by the Lord Bishop of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich in regard to this Measure. The Ecclesiastical Committee has reported this to be a merely administrative Measure, but I cannot consider that anything that concerns the National Church is of no importance to the community at large, even those whose religious adherence is given to some other body, and I think it is important that a Measure of this character should be passed. There are two points in the Measure which deserve attention. One relates to the man-power of the Church, and the other relates to the resources of the Church. It is a very common remark made to us that the Church might make better use of its resources, and that the Church does not employ its man-power to the best advantage. In regard to the resources of the Church, Queen Anne's Bounty desires to have greater freedom in dealing with parsonage houses. The diffi- culty is that though the Church of England is ready to sell some of these overlarge parsonages the buyers do not come forward. This first Clause will go a long way towards alleviating that difficulty. Very often changes ought to be made in a parsonage house to make saleable the property. This Measure puts it into the power of Queen Anne's Bounty to spend money upon making these parsonages more acceptable to possible purchasers.

The other point that occurred to me of importance is the transference of some of the emoluments of one benefice to another. Before the Church of Assembly came into existence, I took the initiative in promoting a Bill with the great help of the late Lord Buckmaster to facilitate the union of benefices. That Bill became an Act, and has been once or twice adjusted by Measures of the Church Assembly. In this case as in so many others there have been changes in the law relating to tithe, each change professing to be final. New arrangements then have to be made when one benefice is required by a scheme to contribute after a union a portion of its stipend to another benefice. This clause gives Queen Anne's Bounty the opportunity of reviewing this question of stipends involved in the union of benefices in the light of things as they are to-day, and to make changes from what was arranged before the passing of the Tithe Act. In both these respects the object of the Measure is to make the Church of England more up to date in its methods.

On Question, Motion agreed to.