§ MR. THOMAS ELLIS (Merionethshire)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he is aware that the resolution of the Managers of the Church of England school at Cynwyd, raising the school fees for children of parents who refused to pay voluntary rates, was passed on 4th April, 1887, and put into operation by the exclusion of 60 children on 30th May, 1887; whether the first intimation received by the parents that the resolution had been rescinded was in a letter from the Education Department dated 7th February, 1888; whether, deducting from the 193 children of school age in the parish 24 children who now attend a suitable school outside the parish, and the usual percentage of 12½ per cent. there still remain 148 children in the parish to be provided for; whether the accommodation in the Church of England school is 135; and, whether the Education Department has always acted on the principle that a Church of England school is a suitable school for a parish?
§ * THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Sir W. HART DYKE,) Kent, DartfordThe resolution put into operation on the 30th May, 1887, was rescinded on the 30th June following; no information as to either was received by the Education Department till months afterwards, but there is no reason to believe that the later resolution was not as well known in the district as the earlier one. The parents received no intimation on the subject from the Department. The School Board have admitted in writing that there is no deficiency of accommodation, and the hon. Member's figures do not allow for all the space available outside the parish. According to the Statute every public elementary school is ipso facto suitable, and this principle has always been acted upon by the Department.