§ VISCOUNT EBRINGTON (Devon, Tavistock)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education with reference to the Petition which was addressed by the inhabitants of Mitton, in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, to the Education 3 Department in 1891, praying for additional school accommodation similar to that provided in analogous circumstances in the neighbouring parish of Beer Ferris, and to which the Department replied, on 9th February, 1892, to the effect that, having inquired into the case, they thought it would be met by the provision of an infant school at Mitton Combe to hold 50 children, at which children might remain till passing the Second Standard, or attaining nine years of age, whether, in view of the facts that the petitioners were not consulted on the said inquiry, that Mitton and the adjoining hamlets are one and a-half to two miles and more from the existing school at Buck-land Monachorum, and that greater facilities have been given for education under similar circumstances at Beer Ferris, the Department will raise its requirements for a school at Mitton to one that will hold 60 children, girls being allowed to finish their education there and boys to remain till ten, if desired?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Sir W. HART DYKE,) Kent, DartfordThe facts are in the main as stated in my noble Friend's question; but it was held expedient in regard to the educational benefit of the district that one good school should be maintained in a central position rather than two small schools in different parts of the parish.