§ MR. R. N. FOWLERasked the Vice President of the Council, Whether he has received any communication from the Sunderland School Board relating to the working of the twenty-fifth Clause of the Elementary Education Act?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERsaid, in reply, that he had been under a misapprehension with regard to this matter, and had on a former occasion made an incorrect statement in reply to his hon. Friend the Member for Sunderland (Mr. Candlish). He had said that the Sunderland School Board were working the 25th clause in an extravagant manner. By this, however, he did not mean more than that from generous motives they had not been sufficiently careful in ascertaining the condition of the parents and their ability to pay the school fees. He made this statement in consequence of a remark of the hon. Member for Sunderland that £600 had been spent in working the clause. No doubt he misunderstood his hon. Friend, who only meant to convey the impression that £600 had been obtained as a possible fund out of which the expenses rendered necessary by the clause might be paid. He was now informed that up to a recent date no fee had been paid by the Board for any child at Sunderland, and that no contract had been made for the payment of any fee. The Sunderland School Board were, he believed, working this clause with the utmost care and attention to each particular case, and had not paid the fees for any children whose parents were able to pay them.