To ask the hon. Member for the Elland Division, as representing the Charity Commissioners, whether he will explain why the Assistant Commissioner, who held the inquiry into the Holme Lacey charities, did not make any inquiries from the clerk to the parish council as clerk to the trustees, but made his investigations in the company of the steward of the trustee whose disbursement of the charity was the subject of the inquiry.

The Assistant Commissioner who held the inquiry into the Holme Lacey charities made his investigations at Holme Lacey prior to the public inquiry, not merely through the agent of the Holme Lacey estate but also through the chairman of the present parish council and the chairman of the administering trustees of the parochial charities.

To ask the hon. Member for the Elland Division. as representing the Charity Commissioners, whether he is aware that the Holme Lacey Parish Council, who will have the administration of the Holme Lacey charities unless otherwise determined, is composed of a majority of the recent trustees' servants, viz., head steward, head gardener, and head mason; whether he will bear this fact in mind in drawing up the new scheme; whether this new scheme will include the Prynce's charity; whether any account has been rendered for the wood that has been felled upon these charity lands since 1837; if so, can he state the amount felled and the amount of money received for the same, and has this amount been disbursed; and, if so, in what way.

The Commissioners have no knowledge of the position of the members who compose the parish council of Holme Lacey. They are bound to regard the council as representative of the parochial electors. It is proposed to deal with the non-parochial charities of the Honourable Jane Scudamore and the parochial charities of the Honourable Mary Prynce and Sir John Scudamore by separate schemes. From an account book of the administering trustees produced to the Assistant Commissioner, it appears that since 1895 the total sum received for fellage of timber on the land belonging to the Honourable Mary Prynce's charity amounts to £70 1s. 4d., which, with other moneys, has been expended upon repairs to buildings and other improvements to the charity estate.