§ MR. O'REILLYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the Parochial Board of Cambusnethan, Scotland, have refused to pay for the education of Roman Catholic children in the Roman Catholic school there on the ground, as stated in their Resolution, "that the Parochial Board have no voice or control in that school," and "that the teacher there is quite unable to undertake their secular education:" whether a Parochial Board is justified in refusing to pay for children at a school on the ground that they have not control over that school: whether this Roman Catholic school, the inefficiency of which is so alleged, has an average attendance of three hundred pupils taught by one certificated teacher and seven pupil teachers, and was reported on by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools in the following terms in 1869: "The very satisfactory state in which I found the school last year is fully maintained;" and in 1870, "A very well taught school:" and, whether the decision of the Parochial Board of Cambusnethan is in accordance with the Regulation of the Board of Supervision for the Relief of the Poor in Scotland of the 13th February 1862, which says—
When there is a properly conducted Roman Catholic school in the parish, the child of Roman Catholic parents who is boarded out ought to be sent to that school, if it be within a reasonable distance of the Roman Catholic family in which the child is boarded?
MR. BRUCEsaid, in reply to the first Question, the parochial boards had no right to refuse to take a child to a Roman Catholic school, on the ground that 886 they had no voice or control over the school. But it was true that the parochial board in question had assigned that as a reason for refusing to pay for the attendance of a Roman Catholic pauper child at the Roman Catholic school, which, as pointed out in the Question, had received satisfactory notices from Her Majesty's Inspectors. The decision of the parochial board in respect to the matter was not in accordance with the rule which had been quoted by the hon. Gentleman. The subject was brought to the notice of the Board of Supervision by the Presbyterian minister of the parish, and his protest against the decision of the parochial board was sent back to the parochial board, with a recommendation that they should at once rescind the resolution referred to. No answer, however, had as yet been received by the Board of Supervision from the parochial board.