§ MR. J. CORRYasked the President of the Board of Trade, If it is the intention of the Government to exclude from the advantages that are proposed to be given to boys trained in Training Ships, all boys who have been trained in Industrial School Ships, who, although guiltless of any crime except destitution, have necessarily under the Industrial Schools Acts been committed to these schools by magistrates?
§ SIR CHARLES ADDERLEYIt is not intended to exclude from the proposed grants from the Mercantile Marine Fund, any boys who have been sent to training ships on the score of destitution: but only boys who have been committed by magistrates under the Reformatory and Industrial School Acts, which unfortunately at present confuse crime and destitution both in law and practice. The law at present gives a preference to boys so committed over others to such an extent that they get public grants in aid of their education to the amount of 6s. a-week, while boys not so committed cannot get more than 15s. a-year public educational aid. It was proposed that in all kinds of training ships, except reformatories, boys who are not committed by magistrates, who come by the charity of friends, or the care of parents, whether from inland industrial schools or any other quarter, may, if fit for sea service, be apprenticed to the training ship managers from the age of 14 to 16, and, on their apprenticeship being transferred to a merchant ship, £30 for the two years will be paid to the managers for their training, which, together with the advantages offered by the Admiralty and the usual private contributions, will, it is hoped, cover all their training expenses.