§ SIR HENRY HAVELOCK-ALLAN (Durham, S.E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of a boy named Frederick Reay, who was committed to an industrial school at West Hartlepool on the 2nd March, 1892, on the ground of continual absence from school; whether it has since been medically certified that the boy's eyesight was so defective that he could not see marks or diagrams on a blackboard, and that it was on this account that he absented himself; whether he is aware that it has been stated by the two magistrates who committed him that, if they had known the circumstances which have since transpired, he would not have been committed; and whether, under the circumstances, he will direct his discharge from the industrial school, and allow him to be returned to his parents, who are willing to undertake his proper education?
§ MR. MATTHEWSThis case has been under consideration, and I have directed the boy to be discharged.