§ VISCOUNT CRANBORNE (Rochester)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether, in the case of St. John's, Wakefield, Church of England School, notwithstanding the fact that the managers notified to the Department that in the determining school year the parents of the children were compelled to expend a sum equivalent to 1s. 4d. per child for books, the Education Department refuses to allow this sum to be taken into account in calculating the fees now chargeable?
§ MR. ACLANDThe sum in question was not a charge for the use of books, but a sum received for books sold to children, and cannot, therefore, be reckoned as part of the school fee in the determining year. Moreover, it was not entered in the school accounts for that year. The managers state that during the determining year the children were compelled to purchase books as a condition of being allowed to attend. I have to point out that such compulsion was illegal, and that if any complaint had been made to the Department at the time the managers would have been told that the children must be admitted, whether they bought the books or not, or the Government grant would be forfeited.