§ Mr. KINGasked the right hon. Member for the Stroud Division, as representing the Charity Commissioners, whether the Charity Commissioners have received letters dated 13th October, 1914, 24th October, 1914, and 7th November, 1914, from the clerk to the parish council of Wilby, Suffolk, making inquiries concerning the parochial charities of Wilby; and, if so, why no answer has been sent to any of these communications?
§ Mr. A. A. ALLEN(replying for Mr. C. P. Allen): The three letters mentioned by the hon. Member were received by the Commissioners. They were not answered because they merely renewed a demand as to which explanations had been repeatedly made to the writer in letters and at interviews since the 20th January, 1903, that the Commissioners had no power to comply with it.
§ Mr. KINGasked the hon. Member whether he is aware that, by a communication dated 11th February, 1908, the Charity Commission stated that the charities of Wilby, Suffolk, would be apportioned as to two-sevenths to ecclesiastical purposes and as to five-sevenths to non-ecclesiastical parochial purposes, and that the parochial property as to this five-sevenths would be transferred to representative trustees to hold; why this arrangement has not been carried out; 594W whether it is intended to accede to the request of the parish council that, in accordance with the the Local Government Act, 1894, trustees should be appointed with the object of obtaining for the poor of this parish the benefit of the ancient parochial endowments?
§ Mr. A. A. ALLENThe purport of the Commissioners' letter of the 11th February, 1908, is not as stated in the hon. Member's question. The letter explained that the Apportionment Order which the Commissioners would be prepared to make would (so far as the net income of the Town Lands Charity was concerned) constitute two-sevenths of that income a separate ecclesiastical charity and give representation to the parish council as regards only the one-seventh of that income which was applicable for the poor. This arrangement the Commissioners carried out by their order of the 2nd April, 1908. The Commissioners then had, and now have, no power to modify the trusteeship or the mode of application of the remaining four-sevenths of the net income of the Town Lands Charity which have since the 20th January, 1903, been under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education.