HC Deb 16 May 1912 vol 38 cc1425-6W
Mr. ORMSBY-GORE

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether burial grounds bequeathed to or purchased by the Church in Wales since the year 1662 will be treated as private benefactions; and whether such burial grounds will be handed over to the Representative Body established by the Established Church (Wales) Bill?

Mr. McKENNA

The answer is in the affirmative.

Mr. EDWARD WOOD

asked whether consent has recently been refused to an application made originally in August last by the Normanton Burials Board for leave? to have the whole of a piece of land, lately added to a burial ground known as the upper cemetery, consecrated; and, if so, what was the reason for such refusal, in view of the fact that there is already ample provision of uuconsecrated ground belonging to the same board, and that there is at the present time considerably greater demand for burial space in consecrated than in unconsecrated ground?

Mr. McKENNA

The effect of the proposal, to which I felt obliged to refuse my consent, would have been the consecration of the whole of a burial ground which when originally provided, had been divided, as required by law, into consecrated and unconsecrated parts. This, I am advised, is not authorised by the Burial Act of 1900, which now governs this matter, and I was bound, therefore, to inform the Burial Board that their proposal must be limited to a portion of the ground. They revised their proposal accordingly, and I approved it.