§ MR. JACOB BRIGHTasked the Vice President of the Council, Whether a letter was sent from the Education Department to the Clerk of the Manchester School Board, asking if in the opinion of the Board it was desirable that the vacancy caused by the death of one of the members should be immediately filled up; whether, in consequence of the vote of the Board in reply to that communication, the vacancy in the Manchester School Board is not to be filled up; whether letters of similar purport have been addressed to all School Boards wherein a vacancy has occurred since their formation; and, if so, whether, in case of a vacancy or vacancies in a School Board, the right of the ratepayers to elect representatives is to be exercised at the discretion of the remaining members of the Board?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply, said, that this was a matter of some importance. A letter was sent on the 17th of May to the Manchester School Board asking whether, in their opinion, it was desirable that a vacancy, caused by the death of Mr. R. Gladstone, should be immediately filled up. To this a reply was sent back, forwarding a resolution of the board that, in their opinion, it was not desirable that the said vacancy should be immediately filled up. His hon. Friend asked, whether letters of a similar purport had been sent to all school boards where vacancies had occurred? 1351 His answer was, that it had been the practice of the Department to issue such letters since February of this year. The reason they had so acted was this—they found that there was, generally speaking, among the constituencies of school boards a dislike to an Order being sent out immediately upon a vacancy occurring, and very strong representations upon it had been sent up from different parts of the country, and they were founded upon two or three reasons. One was, that they thought that such elections would cause not only considerable expense but also considerable excitement; and another was, that it was found by experience that one vacancy was not unfrequently followed by another; and it was very undesirable to have that sort of excitement immediately followed by another election. In consequence of this, it seemed to them necessary, as they had a discretion in the matter, that they should ascertain the feelings of each particular district. There was nobody that they could officially communicate with except the school boards, and they therefore determined to obtain the opinion of the school boards. They had communicated with the school board at Manchester, as well as with other school boards, for the reason which he had mentioned; but they would issue an Order for an election in Manchester, or in any other place, if any important body of people should think that an election ought to take place. They had, however, had no such expression of desire upon the subject, or it would have been carefully considered. As to the last Question, he could only say that a discretion appeared to have been given to the Department by the Act, but only until Parliament should finally conclude how the election of school boards should be conducted. This power was only given by statute for one year. In consequence of the position of the Ballot question last year, the Government thought that the only course they could then adopt was to take a renewal of the power for this year. They did not think that there should be any further renewal of the power. In a very few days he hoped to be able to bring in a Bill settling future elections for school boards, in which Bill this particular question would have to be dealt with. He did not think that a discretion should be left to the Department in this 1352 matter, and he should be very glad to get rid of it.