§ MR. S. MORLEYasked the Vice President of the Council, If his attention has been called to the fact that a girl named Moore, aged nine, has been required by the master of the Board School of Wiveliscombe to leave the school unless she submitted to have the blue ribbon removed from her dress; that, her father objecting, the child has been without schooling during more than three months; and that the managers have sanctioned the conduct of the master; and, whether, considering such cases have occurred before, more stringent measures could be adopted to prevent their recurrence?
§ MR. MUNDELLASir, the Education Department has always been unwilling to interfere with managers in respect to regulations which they may deem necessary to secure the discipline of their schools. At the outset of this Blue Ribbon movement there were complaints that the wearing of the badge in school hours was a cause of disturbance among the children; and the managers, in some instances, allowed the masters to forbid it. I have, however, satisfied 1486 myself, from personal observation and inquiry, that it is now so commonly worn, both by teachers and children, without injury to discipline, that there is no longer any pretext for objecting to it; and, as it is most desirable that temperance should be inculcated among the rising generation, we have caused the managers of the Wiveliscombe school to be informed that a child must not be excluded from the school on this account.