§ MR. ESSLEMONT (Aberdeen, E.)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate whether his attention has been called to a scheme for the future administration of the Lady Burnett School, Banchory, sanctioned 24th February, part of which is to provide additional accommodation; whether he is aware that there is a public school within half a mile, with accommodation for 340, with an attendance of only 160; whether the School Board of Banchory has been consulted by the Department before this expenditure for additional accommodation was sanctioned; whether, with one exception, the whole members of the Banchory School Board are opposed to the extension of the Lady Burnett School as unnecessary and wasteful; and whether, in the circumstances, any steps will be taken to remedy the evil complained of?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. P. B. ROBERTSON,) ButeI am acquainted with the scheme for the administration of the Lady Burnett School. The additional accommodation for which the scheme makes provision, consists of a class-room, the necessity for which was repeatedly urged by Her Majesty's Inspector, not in order to 1015 increase the attendance, but in order to provide for the satisfactory teaching of the numbers actually attending. The endowment was under private Trustees, and the Department could only approve of a scheme with their assent, and on their initiative. The School Board had no control whatever over the funds of the endowment, nor any share in the management of the school. The objection of the School Board was known to my Lords only after the scheme had been approved. My Lords do not think that the additional accommodation ought in any way to interfere with the public school, but they are now in correspondence with a view to restricting the attendance at the Lady Burnett School to girls and boys under a certain standard, so as to prevent such interference.