DISESTABLISHMENT BILL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 18 May 1912, Page 5

DISESTABLISHMENT BILL

CONFISCATION OF CHURCH PROPERTY.

DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

MR LLOYD GEORGE'S SCATHING INDICTMENT. BY CABLE—PBESB ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. LONDON, May 37. In the House of Commons the Disestablishment Bill was read a second time by 343 to 267. Twelve Liberals abstained from voting. Sir Edward Beauchamp, Liberal member for Lowestofb, and Mr George Harwood,. Liberal member for Bolton, voted against the Government. Lord Hugh Cecil said that establishment beijTig a relation between the United Kingdom and the Church, ought to be treated Imperially, not as concerning Wales alone. The confiscation of property which the Church had held without dispute for 300 years, and its diversion to secular objects was wholly indefensible. Mr Lloyd George denied that the funds derived from tithes were the property of the church. They were held in trust for the nation. The Church,, while accumulating endowments, accepted the principle that the maintenance of the poor wras the service of God, but the poor's share of the tithe had been annexed. Government had been charged with pillaging tho Church, but the Church set the example when it severed its connection Avith the ancient faith. Property intended for the use of the poor and sick went to great families. The Duke of Devonshire had issued a circular accusing the Government of the robbery of God; yet the foundation of the Duke's fortune lay in property taken from the Church Such an accusation should not be rnade^ by those whose family tree was laden with the fruits of sacrilege. At the Reformation of the Catholic churches, monastries, and almshouses, the poor, and even the dead, were robbed. Now, when the Welsh were seeking to re--cover part of the pillage for the poor, those dripping with the fat of sacrilege ventured to accuse the Government of robbine God. Mr Edgar Jones nnd Mr T. Richards indicated that the Welsh, while desiring a settlement, did not want the Church's money. The Church had failed in its trust, and must .surrender it to the nation. Mr Bonar Law taunted the Government, which, he said, was not proud of its proposal. The motive of the Welsh roembers was to weaken the Anglican Church, not to strengthen the free church. He censured Mr Lloyd fieorge tor his attack on the Duke of Devonshire, which was the most extraordinary he had ever heard in the House of Commons. Di.l he mem that the Duke nusht to hand over his property to the htateP It was an unfair aUnok on a man for what his ancestors might hare done four centrums ago. He was catisfieri to base the Welsh ChurcVs title to endowments on prescription alone. r,ii_ .^cKenna defended disenri.owroent -Ihe tithe was a creation of the law. Parliament ought not, after disestablishment, to impose a tax on Welshmen for the benefit of a church which was not national.