§ MR. B. SAMUELSONasked the honourable Member for Gravesend, If he can state whether the City and Guilds of London Technical Institute, of which he is the treasurer, or the Livery Companies, have made any communications to the Royal Commission on Livery Companies, of which he is a member, showing the extent to which the large funds at the disposal of those Companies are at present and may be hereafter applied to the promotion of technical instruction in London and the provinces; and, whether 384 he is able to state when the Commission is likely to make its report?
§ SIR SYDNEY WATERLOW, in reply, said, the Livery Companies had, in the Returns forwarded by them to the Royal Commissioners, clearly set out the amounts which they had already contributed and promised in support of the City and Guilds of London Technical Institute, and of technical education in the Provinces. Remembering that those large grants had been voluntarily contributed, it might, he thought, be assumed that the Livery Companies would not only keep them up, but increase their grants and subscriptions in furtherance of technical education from time to time as they might find increased funds available for the purpose. The Royal Commission would doubtless feel it part of their duty to inquire and report as to the desirability and practicability of strengthening by Parliamentary sanction the existing connection between the Livery Companies of London and the various industries of the country by some scheme for developing a system of technical education, such as the Companies had themselves initiated and brought into partial operation. The Commissioners were continuing their inquiries, and it was impossible to say when their Report would be ready.