§ MR. HARRIS (Galway, E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If he will inform the House on whose recommendation the late Secretary to the Board of National Education in Ireland, Mr. Newel, was appointed a Commissioner; is it the case that, prior to his appointment, he was superannuated and awarded a pension after 46 years' service when deemed unfit for further service; is it true that, immediately on his appointment as Commissioner, his son was promoted over fourteen others of longer service from a subordinate position to the office of secretary; is it a fact that, when Mr. Lowther was Chief Secretary for Ireland, Mr. Newel, during the temporary absence of the present resident Commissioner on a Government inquiry in Malta, succeeded in diverting the £47,000 granted in the Estimates of that time to help the convent schools into the general expenditure instead of appropriating it as intended; and, will he inquire into the extent of the dissatisfaction expressed at those appointments?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY) (Newcastle-on-Tyne), in reply, said, he really did not know, and had no means of knowing, on whose recommendation Mr. Newel was made Commissioner of National Education. He had voluntarily retired from the Secretaryship after 48 years' service. He received the pension to which he was legally entitled, and was appointed a Commissioner by Lord Carnarvon. He (Mr. Morley) had already explained to the hon. Member for Derry the circumstances under which Mr. Newel's son was promoted to the post of Head Inspector, not Secretary. He was satisfied 809 that the appointment was made on the grounds of merit. The change by which the teachers in convent schools did not participate in these grants in 1879 was the act of the Government of the day.