§ MR. ARCHIBALD GROVE (West Ham, N.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, in view of the recent disclosures at Forest Gate schools, any steps are being taken 598 to secure an efficient inspection of such schools, and to provide that pauper children receive a proper supply of wholesome and nutritious food; and whether he is prepared to consider a general extension of the "boarding out" system, in lieu of the system which now extensively prevails of herding together the children of the indigent poor in such numbers that they are deprived' of the benefit of home influences and of due supervision and protection?
§ MR. SHAW-LEFEVREThe attack of illness which occurred at the Forest Gate schools, and which it was supposed may have resulted from the food supplied to certain children on a particular day, cannot be regarded as affording any evidence that the children in this school or in other Poor Law schools of the Metropolis generally are not provided with a supply of wholesome and nutritious food. The question as to the food provided in the schools is one which continually receives the attention of the Visiting Committees. Whilst the Local Government Board concur in the view that the boarding out of pauper children when there is a proper selection of the homes, and a careful supervision of the children boarded out, has many advantages, it is quite clear that the boarding out system cannot be adopted generally as a substitute for the Poor Law schools. It is, however, the desire of the Board, in the case of all new schools, to avoid as far as possible the aggregation of a large number of children in one building, and this is a point which it is their practice to press upon Boards of Guardians.