Eightieth Report from the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners for

England.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT, &c., &c., &c.

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England submit, in accordance with the 26th Section of the Act 13 & 14 Vict., c. 94, and the 10th Section of the Act 17 & 18 Vict., c. 116, a Report of their proceedings for the year preceding the 1st of November

1927.

An abstract of the accounts of the Commissioners for the same period bearing the Certificate of the Auditor is annexed, in compliance with the directions of the first named Act. See Appendix, No. 1.

The grants which have been secured by the Commissioners to Benefices, Districts, and New Parishes during the past year are enumerated in the Appendix, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Under the provisions of the Act 29 & 30 Vict., c. 111, s. 9, certain Beneficies have been endowed or augmented through the medium of the Commissioners. The particulars of these cases appear in the Appendix, No. 11.

Schemes have been passed for augmenting the incomes of Benefices out of the revenues of other Benefices. See Appendix, No. 12.

Schemes have also been passed for transferring or assigning the patronage of certain Benefices. See Appendix, Nos. 13 and 14.

Under "The Church Building Acts" and "The New Parishes Acts" the following arrangements have been made by the Commissioners, viz. :—

Twenty Districts have been constituted or assigned. See Appendix, Nos. 15, 16 and 17.

A tabular statement showing the various classes of Districts, and the number of Districts in each class, which were formed by the late Church Building Commissioners during the period of the existence of that Board, and by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners up to the 1st of November 1926, and also the classes and numbers of Districts formed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the year preceding the 1st of November 1927, is given in the Appendix, No. 18.

x (13)29593 Wt 25363-4493/32 625 3/28 (Item 20)

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The boundaries of thirty-five Districts or New Parishes have been altered. See Appendix, No. 19.

Five new Churches have been substituted for old Churches.

See Appendix, No. 20.

Eight Churches have been approved as the Churches for Districts. See Appendix, No. 21.

In 133 cases Tables of Fees have been authorised. See Appendix, No. 22.

One hundred and forty-seven Conveyances of sites for Churches, burial grounds, parsonage houses and glebe respectively have been accepted. See Appendix, No. 23.

Certain new Archdeaconries have been constituted and certain Archdeaconries have been augmented. See Appendix,

Nos. 24 and 25.

The Rural Deaneries within certain Archdeaconries have been re-arranged. See Appendix, No. 26.

Under the Acts 6 & 7 Wm. IV., c. 77, and 5 & 6 Vict., c. 26, Schemes have been passed for authorising improvements at the Episcopal Houses of Residence belonging to the Sees of Bath and Wells, Exeter and Ripon.

Under the Rural Deaneries of Pontefract and Hemsworth (Transfer) Measure, 1926, a Scheme has been passed transferring these deaneries from the Diocese of York to the Diocese Wakefield.

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Under the Brislington Parishes (Transfer) Measure, 1926, a Scheme has been passed transferring these parishes from the Diocese of Bath and Wells to the Diocese of Bristol.

Under the Act 3 & 4 Vict., c. 113, a Scheme has been passed for permanently uniting the Sinecure Rectory with the Benefice of Backwell.

Under the Act 5 & 6 Vict., c. 26, a Scheme has been passed for providing one of the Canons of Salisbury with a more convenient house of residence.

In pursuance of the provisions of the Act 17 & 18 Vict., c. 116, a Schedule is annexed of all enfranchisements of copyholds effected by the Commissioners. See Appendix, No. 27.

Lists of the sales effected and of the leases granted with the sanction of the Commissioners, under the authority of the Ecclesiastical Leasing Acts and the Leeds Vicarage Act, are given in the Appendix, Nos. 28, 29, 30 and 31.

A list of Benefices for which Government Stocks and other Securities derived from the investment of purchase moneys under the provisions of the Glebe Lands Act, 1888, have been transferred into the name of the Commissioners is given in the Appendix, No. 32.

The particulars of certain grants voted by the Commissioners out of the moneys paid over to them under the provisions of the

City of London Parochial Charities Act, 1883, will be found in the Appendix, No. 33.

A list of the grants voted during the year out of the funds received by the Commissioners under the Will of the late Henry George White is given in Appendix, No. 34.

Under the Union of Benefices Measure, 1923, eighty-three Schemes have been passed for effecting Unions or other re-arrangements of Benefices or dealing with Churches outside the City of London. See Appendix, No. 35.

Certain superannuation allowances have been granted by the Commissioners. See Appendix, No. 36.

Copies of all Schemes and Representations prepared by the Commissioners and sanctioned and approved by His Majesty in Council and copies of all instruments sealed by the Commissioners and published in the "London Gazette," will be found in the Appendix, Parts II, III, IV and V.

Under the 11th Section of the Benefices Act, 1898 (61 & 62 Vict., c. 48), the Commissioners are to defray out of their Common Fund the expenses of the sittings of the Court constituted by the Act and the remuneration of its officers and all expenses incurred in respect of proceedings in the Court. The amount of the payments made to the Registrar and Clerk appears in the Common Fund Account. See Appendix, No. 1, page 2.

Under the Benefices (Ecclesiastical Duties) Measure, 1926, the Commissioners are to defray the expenses incidental to the sittings of the Court established thereunder and the remuneration of officers of the Court, &c. No expense on this account has been incurred in the year to 31st October 1927.

Under Section 3 (a) of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Measure, 1926, the Commissioners have made a grant of £6,000 towards the endowment of the Bishopric of Derby; under Section 3 (b) of that Measure they have made a grant of £3,300 towards the further endowment of the Bishopric of Chelmsford, and have entered into agreements to pay annual sums of £47 16s. Od. per annum, £249 per annum, and £228 10s. Od. per annum respectively towards the incomes of the Bishoprics of Chelmsford, St. Albans and St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

Under Sections 6 and 7 of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Measure, 1926, certain works have been carried out at Lambeth Palace and at the Palace, Chichester.

During the year a sum of £100,000 (making £200,000 in all) was transferred to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty out of the sum of £500,000 set aside by the Commissioners under Section 44 of the Ecclesiastical Dilapidations Measure, 1923.

Of the 1048 Pensions to retired clergymen amounting to £78,870 per annum charged on the Common Fund and subsisting on 31st December 1926, 135 pensions amounting to £10,098 per annum ceased

during the year to 31st December 1927, and 913 pensions, amounting to £68,772 per annum were subsisting on 31st December 1927. The sum released by the cesser of these pensions increases the amount payable to the Clergy Pensions Board.

In July, 1927, the Commissioners adopted a new Scheme of augmentations of Benefices on the ground of population, dating generally from the 1st May 1927, and Rules relating thereto were issued. Under this and previous Schemes the scope of the Commissioners' augmentations on the ground of population is now as follows:

(1) To raise to £200 per annum the incomes from all sources of all Benefices (of whatever population and in whatever patronage, but if in saleable patronage by terminable grants only).

(2) To raise further to £300 the incomes from all sources of all Benefices by a grant in each case of one-half the sum required provided that the other half be paid by or through the Diocesan Board of Finance.

(3) To raise the incomes from all sources of Benefices of which the patronage is public, or though not public is legally incapable of sale

to £350 per annum if the population at the census
of 1921 amounted to 300 and was less than 4,000;
to £400 per annum if the population was 4,000 or over.

The total grant on the ground of population is limited to £250 per annum in the case of any new district constituted since 1st February 1917, and the detailed regulations provide for reconsideration of grants made in certain classes of cases upon the Benefices being united to others, and for grants not being made in special circumstances appearing to the Commissioners to affect the claims of the Benefices to augmentation out of the Commissioners' Common Fund.

There is a considerable decrease in the amount brought into the year's account of the net rental of the Commissioners from their Estates. The receipts from agricultural lands are diminished slightly by allowances and reductions of rents due to the conditions of agriculture, but the principal fall in receipts is in the Mineral Royalties, owing almost entirely to diminished output of coal by reason of the long stoppage in the industry, the full effect of which is shown in this Account. The aggregate diminution of receipts would have been larger but for an increase from tithe rentcharge arising, however, entirely from the fact that by reason of the synchronization of dates of payment of all tithe rentcharge under the Tithe Act, 1925, and the bringing into the rental of the year all tithe rentcharge to 1st April 1927, in some cases 11 years and in others 1 years tithe rentcharge comes into this year's rental. In next year's account only one year's tithe rentcharge will come