MR. W. NEWZAM NICHOLSONasked the Vice President of the Council, If his attention has been called to a decision given by Justices Lindley and 144 Lopes, in the Court of Common Pleas on Saturday last, in an appeal from a decision of magistrates who hail fined a man five shillings for not causing a child to attend a school:—It appeared that a child, in obedience to a magistrate's order, had been sent to school, but without the school fees, and that admission had been consequently refused; the learned judges quashed the conviction, on the ground that the appellant had sufficiently complied with the order by sending his child to school, adding that, if this interpretation had the effect of creating difficulties about payment of fees, "which was likely enough," that was an omission to be remedied elsewhere; if he will initiate some legislation which will prevent the compulsory clauses of the Education Acts being so neutralized; and, if he will also take into consideration the desirability of reenacting the clauses that gave power to school boards to pay the school fees of children of necessitous parents?
§ MR. MUNDELLAMy attention has been drawn to the newspaper report of the decision to which the hon. Member has referred, and we have decided to consult the Law Officers of the Crown as to the steps it may be advisable to take in consequence. I can hold out no expection to my hon. Friend that the Government will re-enact the 25th clause of the Act of 1870, which the noble Lord the Member for Liverpool (Viscount Sandon) found it necessary to repeal; but we are considering whether it is not possible to assist the children of necessitous parents to obtain payment of school fees with less difficulty and less contact with the machinery of the Poor Law than at present.