§ MR. BARRANasked the Vice President of the Council, If he has made any inquiries into the statement which has appeared in the "Leeds Mercury" and other papers, to the effect that at Boston Spa, near Leeds, a little girl was expelled from a national school, which is in receipt of a Government grant, for omitting to curtsey to the clergyman's wife in the street; and, if the facts are as alleged, whether the Department will take measures to prevent the recurrence of such arbitrary acts in future?
§ VISCOUNT SANDONThe hon. Member has been so good as to comply with my suggestion that he should communicate to me personally any information he possessed on the subject of this affair at Boston Spa, of which we had heard nothing at the Department till he mentioned it in Parliament before Easter. A number of local newspapers to which the hon. Member called my special attention have since that time been sent to me containing long and various statements on the subject, and the week before last a letter was addressed to me from the guardian of the child, complaining of her expulsion from school on account, as the writer said, of her refusing to curtsey to the clergyman's wife in the streets, and asserting that there was no other national school which the child could attend. In accordance with the ordinary course in all cases of complaints against a school, we forwarded this letter to the managers of the National School, and I confess to being somewhat puzzled by the case, for, as usual in all such local quarrels, we have assertions and counter-assertions. I am informed in one of the local newspapers, to which my attention has been called by the hon. Member's Questions, that the affair commenced by some prize poultry belonging to the vicar's wife being killed by a neighbour's cat; upon which, it is said, a price of 5s. was put upon the heads of the cats that committed such depredations; that one cat was caught in the act, and killed; that the owner of the cat took it so much to heart that he forbade his adopted child to curtsey henceforward to the vicar's wife, and that upon this—so the story goes—the vicar expelled the child from 1543 his school. On the other hand, the three laymen who are managers, together with the vicar of this school, inform me that the expulsion of the child was by their order. Further, I am told that it was for general insulting behaviour that the child was expelled; and I am also assured that there are two public elementary schools within less than a mile which it can attend, besides several private adventure schools, one of which it does attend. I must say that I have no hope of getting to the bottom of these local quarrels, and I do not know what power I have officially to take evidence about them so as to decide upon the accuracy of conflicting accounts. Two facts, however, are clear: First, that this little drama occurred at the beginning of last October, six months before the complaint was made. It is no wonder, therefore, that this time having elapsed, it is difficult to get at the facts. Secondly, that the child was expelled from the school. As, then, there is no doubt that the child was expelled, we have followed the course we take in all cases of expulsion, and have informed the managers that, in our opinion, expulsion should not be used as a punishment, unless the misconduct of the child is of such a character as to make its association with the other children injurious to them; and that, therefore, we must express our regret at the course which they have taken in this case. I think it, however, only fair to say that, provided there is public elementary school accommodation within easy reach of the child, we do not think it would be for the advantage either of the child or the school that we should force the National School to take her back by refusing to continue the annual grant unless she is re-admitted. I have no doubt, and I trust the hon. Member will agree with me, that when the opinion of the Department as to expulsion from school is known in the country generally, we shall not have a recurrence of such cases.