§ MR. FAWCETTwished to know, Whether the hon. Member for Chippenham was prepared to lay upon the Table the Resolutions relating to the employment of Children in Agriculture, which he intends to move to-morrow?
§ MR. GOLDNEY, in reply, said, his Notice and Resolutions were as follow:—To call the attention of the House to the Act regulating the Employment of Children in Agriculture, and to the requirements prescribed by the Education Department with respect to Parliamentary Grants, and to move—
That in order to insure the fair and beneficial working of the Agricultural Children Act (1873), the regulation of the Educational Code should be so far modified as—1, To allow children from whom 150 attendances only are required to attend schools without making a reduction from the Parliamentary grant unless additional pupil or assistant teachers are provided in respect of such children; 2, to allow the grant on a satisfactory examination in extra subjects without children from whom 150 attendances only are required being reckoned in the percentage of passes in the standard examination; 3, to allow grants to day schools in agricultural districts for scholars who complete the required number of attendances and pass in the standard examinations without requiring the principal teacher in such schools to be certificated.
§ VISCOUNT SANDON, in reply, said, that considering the importance of the subject, and that the Resolutions had not yet been in the hands of hon. Members, he must appeal to his hon. Friend to defer the discussion until a later day. His hon. Friend, he felt certain, was only anxious to secure the efficiency of the Act, but the effect of such a discussion, if prematurely taken without due time for consideration, would only injure the object he had in view.
§ MR. GOLDNEYsaid, he had great pleasure in yielding to the appeal made to him by his noble Friend, and would postpone his Motion until the first day after Whitsuntide.