§ MR. MCDONALD CAMERON (Wick Burghs)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate what is the gross amount of reductions of grant under Article 32 of the Scottish Code during the past three years; for what are these reductions made; whether they have been earned by teachers; whether it is proposed to claim these sums as a contribution to a superannuation fund for teachers; and whether a draft scheme to this end is now being prepared by the Department, and what precedent, if any, is there for such a course.
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR SCOTLAND (Sir C. PEARSON, Edinburgh and St. Andrews Universities)In the absence of my right hon. Friend I will reply to the question. The total deductions from the grants to day schools under the Scotch Code (all but a very small portion of which were made under one section or other of Article 32, for insufficiency of local income, defects in premises or instruction, or insufficient staff) amounted in 1888 to £5,735 7s. 10d.; 1889 to £5,840 19s. 1d.; 1890 to £4,859 4s. 5d. The deductions so made are from the grants paid to school managers, and the Department has no means of saying how far under any special arrangement any loss may fall upon the teachers. Any part of the Parliamentary grant not expended at the close of the financial year is annually surrendered to the Exchequer. No such claim as that referred to by the hon. Member is before the Department, nor is any such draft scheme as he indicates 923 —for which I am not aware of any precedent—being prepared by the Department.