§ MR. PEASEasked the Vice President of the Council, in reference to the Minute of the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education, 21st June 1878, Whether it is the intention of the Department over which he presides that the regulations laid down in the above-named Minute for the purpose of defining that which will not be considered as an "unnecessary school" in a non-School Board district shall also apply to like schools in a School Board district; and, if not, whether he would, 1577 state the principle on which a distinction in treatment is drawn between schools in and out of School Board districts erected and managed under precisely similar circumstances?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONSir, the Minute alluded to applies only, as is clear from its phraseology, to non-School Board districts, and it defines in those districts what is meant by "unnecessary" by stating that a certified efficient school, with an average attendance of 30, will, after a year's probation, be no longer considered an unnecessary school by the Department. In the School Board districts, by the Elementary Education Acts, the Department have a statutory control over School Board expenditure both as regards the raising of loans, the construction of schools, and the application for annual grants, and they have also the power of refusing to sanction any annual grant or loan for any school which they consider unnecessary. The Government are not prepared to limit this control over School Board expenditure by applying in School Board districts the rule that an average attendance of 30 would place any new school outside the category of unnecessary. They have, therefore, left the discretion of the Department unfettered as regards the applications of new schools in School Board districts.