MR. T. M. HEALYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is he aware that the Chairman of the Erasmus Smith Board, on the 11th of March, 1886, stated, in reply to the late Lord Chancellor Naish and Lord Justice FitzGibbon, that the gross rental of the Erasmus Smith Schools estates was £10,014, and the net income more than £8,000; if so, can he explain how the income has fallen since 1886 to £7,000; has his attention been called to the fact that the High School, Harcourt Street, Dublin, attended by 300 pupils, is one of the Erasmus Smith Schools, though it is more than 20 miles from the nearest of the Erasmus Smith estates, and more than 100 miles from the chief parts of those estates in Limerick and Tipperary, where the gross rental of the Erasmus Smith School estates is £6,000; how many of the pupils attending the grammar schools at Tipperary, Galway, Drogheda, and Harcourt Street are children of the Erasmus Smith tenants, or can be described as "other poor children" who resided within two miles of Tipperary, Galway, or Drogheda; is he aware that Erasmus Smith was compelled by the laws of his day to appoint exclusively Pro- 148 testant Trustees and Protestant schoolmasters, and to provide that the pupils of his schools should be sent to Trinity College, which admitted only Protestants; and that these provisions are relied upon by the members of the Education Commission, who wish to exclude Catholics from the benefits of the endowments; is he aware that Lord Justice FitzGibbon has refused to sign the Draft Scheme signed by Mr. Justice O'Brien and two of the Assistant Commissioners, on the ground that whatever Erasmus Smith was compelled to do by the laws of his day is, in his opinion, not evidence of his intentions; and whether, seeing that more than 95 per cent. of the children for whose free education Erasmus Smith left the endowment are Catholics, he can take any steps to secure the adoption of a scheme which will admit Catholics to the benefits of these endowments?
MR. J. MORLEYI believe it is a fact that the Chairman of the Erasmus Smith Board stated, on March 11, 1886, that the net income of the schools estates was more than £8,000. The net income of that Board for the year ended May, 1891, was returned to the Commissioners as £6,583. They inform me they have no information as to the causes of the reduction referred to. The circumstances under which the school in Harcourt Street was founded are stated at page 108 of the Report of the Commissioners for the year 1885–6. In replying to a question put by my hon. and learned Friend on Monday last, I gave the number of pupils attending the schools at Galway, Drogheda, and Tipperary. These figures were courteously supplied by the Governors who, however, stated they were unable to give any further information. The Commissioners have no information in the matter. The functions of the Commissioners are of a judicial character. At the conclusion of the public sitting held to consider the objections to the Draft Scheme for the Erasmus Smith Endowments the Judicial Commissioners stated that they would appoint another occasion on which they would publicly state the conclusions at which they had arrived, with such reasons as they might think it right to give. The only document issued by the Commission was a Draft Scheme the objections to which were discussed at the public sitting referred to, and the 149 Judicial Commissioners have not been able to concur in signing any scheme to be submitted to the Lord Lieutenant. They have fixed a day in October at which to announce their decision, and to state the grounds of their opinions. This sitting could not have been appointed for an earlier date.
MR. T. M. HEALYIs it a fact that the effect of the action of the Protestant members of the Board, in refusing Catholics fair play, will be that the entire endowment will revert to the Protestants for all time?