§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Mr. Montagu Williams is correctly reported in the Standard of the 10th instant as having stated, on the hearing of a School Board summons, that,
In his opinion, it was for the parents to say whether a child should go on attending school after having passed the Fourth Standard";and, if so, on what legal authority the opinion is based?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI am informed by the learned Magistrate that he cannot remember his exact words, but the substance of what he said was that, in a case where a parent proves that the presence of a child is necessary at home on account of poverty, sickness, or other trouble, and where that child has passed the Fourth Standard, he thought it was rather for the parent to say whether he might retain the child at home. This opinion, the Magistrate informs me, is based on the decision in the case of "The School Board of London v. Duggan," which was tried in the High Court of Justice in 1884.
§ MR. MUNDELLA (Sheffield, Brightside)Arising out of that answer may I ask who is the proper authority to reprimand, or suspend, or dismiss a Stipendiary Magistrate who refuses absolutely to administer the law and encourages the parents to disobey the legal authorities?
§ MR. MATTHEWSThe question of the right hon. Gentleman is based on an assertion which the learned Magistrate entirely repudiates.