LEAVE. FIRST READING. (Hansard, 1 May 1882)

§ MR. MUNDELLA

I beg to ask leave to introduce a Bill, which has been twice before the House, dealing with the re-organization of the Educational Endowments of Scotland. I shall not, at this late hour, detain the House more than two or three minutes in explaining the change which has taken place in the Bill, The necessity for the measure has been admitted on all hands, and it has not made progress solely on account of the pressure of Business during the last two Sessions; but within that period we have had the advantage of ascertaining the views of Members of this House, especially of Members from Scotland, and of the Public Bodies in Scotland, and we have so altered the measure, both in form and substance, that we hope to meet the circumstances of Scotland and the general wishes of the people of Scotland. The present state of the endowments in Scotland, in many respects, strikingly resembles that which existed in England in 1869. When the Commission reported in 1875, it was shown that there were endowments to the extent of £175,000 a-year which required dealing with. It is believed that they have since increased to £250,000 a-year, and in the City of Glasgow alone the dormant endowments amount to something like £500,000 sterling. Well, Sir, in their present state, many of these endowments are inoperative, many of them are useless, on account of being applied to obsolete purposes; some are too close and too restricted both as to aims and objects; and in the case of others the Governing Bodies are inconvenient. What we propose is not to change the class of beneficiaries, but to make the benefits more suitable and more adapted to the present day, to provide for a rise from elementary schools to technical schools and to Universities, to help the School Board to secure attendance by assisting the class above the pauper class in obtaining education, and, lastly, to help to complete the educational system of Scotland by maintaining that high standard of education which is required under Sec- 1917 tion 67 of the Scotch Act of 1872. The Bill is altered, as I have said, both in form and substance; and it is hoped that it will be more clear and better adapted for its purpose, and make the procedure more direct; and we have somewhat enlarged the scope of the Bill. We have attempted—and I hope we have succeeded in obtaining—a fair solution of the most disputed question—namely, that of the Governing Body. The Bill provides for maintaining popular representation, and gives that representation a preponderance where it already exists, admitting, at the same time, the elective element as in school boards. The Bill contains 45 clauses, and we can hardly hope to pass, during the present Session, a Bill of such dimensions unless we have the general help of Scotch Members. I trust that, in the shape in which we have placed the Bill before the House, it will commend itself to Scotch Members; that any Amendments which may be necessary will not be Amendments as to principle, but as to form and practice, and to which I hope we shall be in a position to give effect. I beg to ask leave to introduce the Bill.