HC Deb 28 April 1914 vol 61 cc1543-4W
Mr. BRIDGEMAN

asked the Chairman of the Petitions Committee what was the total number of petitions received from Wales in 1912 against the Established Church (Wales) Bill; how many of those petitions were rejected; what was the number of signatures appended to the rejected petitions; and whether any petitions were subsequently received and passed from any place or places whose petitions had been rejected; and, if so, what was the number of signatures so received?

Mr. BURT

During the Session 1912–13 1,105 petitions against the Established Church (Wales) Bill were received from Wales. Of these one petition was rejected, namely, that from Llanbadrig, presented to the House on 11th July, 1912, which contained 380 signatures. A petition was subsequently received from the same place (Llanbadrig), and was presented to the House on 5th February, 1913. It contained 389 signatures, of which 387 were passed and two were omitted as being in the same handwriting. While no other petitions were rejected, the Committee reported that some of the signatures to 351 petitions out of the total number of 1,105 were in the same hand-writings, and therefore such petitions transgressed the rules.