§ Sir J. BUTCHERasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in cases where the Charity Commissioners are satisfied that the sale of lands belonging to a charity and vested in trustees for the charity will be advantageous to the charity, the Commissioners have any statutory or other powers to insist, against the wishes of the trustees of the charity, that the proceeds of sales shall be paid to the official trustees of charity lands, instead of being paid to the trustees of the charity for investment; and whether the Commissioners have power to refuse to sanction an advantageous sale of charity lands except on terms that the proceeds of the sale shall be paid to the official trustees of charity lands?
§ Mr. BALDWINI beg to refer the hon. and learned Member to Section 24 of the Charitable Trusts Act, 1853, which expressly empowers the Charity Commissioners, when authorising the sale of charity land, to give such directions in relation thereto, and for securing the due investment of the money arising from any such sale for the benefit of the charity, as they may think fit. In the exercise of the statutory discretion conferred upon them by that Section, it is the practice of the Commissioners, in the absence of special circumstances justifying a departure from the rule, to require that the proceeds of sale shall be invested in the name of the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds.