THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MAY 21, 1912. DISESTABLISHMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10641, 21 May 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MAY 21, 1912. DISESTABLISHMENT.

The fight for the disestablishment of the Church of Wales, which was begun as far back as .1895, bids fair to be drowned with success, i.e., if the present Parliament lasts until the right of veto of the House of Lords is exhausted. 'ln 1893 Mr H. H. Asquith, who was Mi eta Home Secretary in Mir Gladstone's Administration, introduced the first Disestablishment Bill. The Bill, however, had only reached the committee stage (when Parliament came to an end. Sir Henry Caimpbell-ißannerman, then; Prime Minister, in a letter to Sir S. T. Evans, M.P., on March 12th,. ■1906, said:— "I adhere to the statement made by me before the election to the .Welsh members, through Alfred Thomas and Lloyd-iGeorge, that Welsh disestablishment remains an integral part of the legislative programme of the Liberal party, ;vnd will •be dealt with at the first favourable opportunity." In pursuance of a pledge made in 1908,, Mr Asquith in 1909 introduced another Bill for the Disestablishimen.t and DiLsendowmen't of the Church in Wales. This Bill of 1909 proposed that on January Ist, 191,1, all KM-clesiafitioal corporations in the four Welsh dioceses should be dissolved. From that date no Welsh •bishop would sit in the House of 'Lords; consequently the spiritual peers in that assemlbly would be reduced from 20 t'o 22. The ecclesiastical law would cease to exist in Wales as law, "but the law, articles, rules, and ordinances of the church, would operate by agreement. Full power was given to hold synods and conventions, and to form a Clitweh representative body for the .purpost-

of dealing -ivitii the governmeiit, doctrines and property of the Church after «KseistabHshment. The part of the Bill dealing with disendowment proposed to create three bodies for the purposes of administration. In the fin-st place there were to be Welsh Commissioners, whose functibns would continue nil (December, 1915. Secondly, there was to be constituted a council for Wales, or central authority, consisting of im©m!bers appointed by the councils of counties and county Iroroughs and of (borougiis mid i:r'ban districts of the •required minimum population. Thircl3y, there was to be a Church reprise.. tative body whieili the disestablished Giuirch would have power to create and which the. Kin'g might by charter incorporate to hold land. Of the ecclesiastical property which, did not p'a*s into the hands of the representative Church body, parochial property was to Ibe applied according to schem'-.i made by the county council for the erection or support of hospitals, d'spensaifies, or convalescent homes; fi.r the provision .of rained nurses for the •sick poor; for the provision fof public halls, institutes and libraries; for technical and higher education, and for charitable 'or eleemosynary pur■p>«s for which provision was not made out of the public funds. Evei'T scheme was to provide that onetenth—a new form of tithe—-was to be paid to the Council df Wales. This tenth and all other property in the'r hands would be expended in defraying the cost of the. Act and upon higher education. It was obvious when tlie Bdill was introduced that the state of Parliamentary business ana.de its passage almost impossible. It .was not even carried to a second reading, b.--ing withdrawn in' June, with' a pledge on. the part of the Government that it should be the ftrat measure introduced in the .next session. The (Constitutional crisis of .1910-11 prevented the fulfilment of this'undertaking; but Mr lAjsqiiith promised his supporters that 'Welsh- Disestablishment should share with Home Rule the chief energies of the Government in 1912, and he has kept his promise.