§ MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether, in declining to lay upon the Table
The notes of evidence taken before Head Inspector M'Callum and District Inspectors Gordon and Moran at an inquiry held in the Belfast Model School, on 7th May 1883, with accompanying reports,on the ground that "the reports of In- 66 spectors have been invariably regarded as confidential," he was aware that on 8th March 1875, on the Motion of Mr. Lewis, a Return was ordered by this House for "Copies of the Evidence taken before Mr. Sheridan, Chief of Inspection" (now Junior Secretary),On the inquiry held by order of the National Education Board of Ireland, at the Model School, Londonderry, in May 1874, of his report on such inquiry, of any order or decision of the Board thereon, and of all correspondence relating thereto;that this Return was furnished by the Secretaries of the Board on 15th April 1875, and, on 27th May, was ordered by this House to be printed; that the Return contains not only the evidence of twenty-one witnesses examined by Mr. Sheridan, with his report on the inquiry, but several letters and reports to the Board by the late Head Inspector O'Callaghan and District Inspector Bole in relation to certain matters in controversy between them and teachers of the Model School; and, whether, having regard to this precedent, he will produce the similar Papers relating to the Belfast inquiry of 7th May 1883, in reference to the editorship of The Irish Educational Journal?
§ MR. TREVELYAN, in reply, said, that the case quoted by the hon. Member was exceptional, and the Commissioners of National Education considered the evidence and correspondence regarding it could be produced without disadvantage to the Public Service. That condition did not exist in the case of the Belfast inquiry, and the Papers could not be produced.