§ Mr. CLOUGHasked the Home Secretary whether he proposes to impose upon the ratepayers of the West Riding the burden of providing, at a cost of £40,000, ecclesiastical fabrics in which to hold Divine service at the lunatic asylums of Menston; Storthes Hall, and Scalebor Park; and whether he is aware that Divine service is now acceptably conducted and numerously and reverently attended, every Sabbath, at the Menston Asylum, in a comfortable and commodious recreation hall; that these services are in turn conducted by Free Church, Anglican, and Roman Catholic ministers, and that stipends are paid to each of these distinctive denominational representatives by the West Riding Asylums Committee?
§ Mr. McKENNAI would refer my hon. Friend to the answer which I gave on the 15th instant to a question on this subject by the hon. Member for the Barkston Ash Division. I am informed by the Commissioners in Lunacy that there is no reason why chapels for the three asylums in question should not be built at a total cost of about £14,000. As regards the latter part of the question Divine service is held every Sunday in the recreation hall at Menston Asylum; Church of England and Nonconformist ministers officiate in turn, but Roman Catholic services are not held in the hall. The proportion of patients attending the services is below the average in asylums generally. The Church of England, Nonconformist and Roman Catholic chaplains all receive salaries.
§ Mr. CLOUGHasked whether a church, at a cost of £15,000 to the ratepayers, was built for the Wakefield Lunatic Asylum, and whether the Anglican service alone has been conducted therein; whether Free Church and Roman Catholic services have to be held in other apartments belonging to that asylum; and whether the Anglican chaplain is the only one that receives any stipend?
§ Mr. McKENNAA chapel was built for the Wakefield Asylum in the year 1859 at a cost of about £4,000, not £15,000. It was formerly the case that it was used for 1443W Church of England services only; but it is now used for Nonconformist services also. Roman Catholic services are held in one of the wards of the asylum, and a certain number of Roman Catholic patients attend the Wakefield Roman Catholic Church on Sundays. The Church of England, the Nonconformist, and the Roman Catholic chaplains all receive salaries.