HC Deb 19 February 1895 vol 30 cc1100-1
MR. G. C. T. BARTLEY (Islington N.)

I beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education what special duties Mr. Sadler has been appointed to carry out in the Education Department; whether he is the same gentleman who succeeded the right hon. Gentleman as Bursar of Christ College, Oxford; whether the appointment was open to competition or examination by the Civil Service Commissioners; and, under what sub-head the salary for the office was voted by Parliament?

MR. ACLAND

The work of the Director of Special Inquiries and Reports, to which post Mr. Sadler has been appointed, will be to collect and record much information on educational matters at home and abroad of which the Department is constantly in need. Reports based on his inquiries will be published from time to time under the direction of the Department. The appointment, like other similar appointments in the Education Department and elsewhere, was direct and not by competition. The salary will be in the Estimates of this year under a special sub-head in the Education Vote. There is no Christ College at Oxford: the name is Christ Church, and the office mentioned is that of Steward, not Bursar. Mr. Sadler was appointed by the governing body to succeed me in that office when I left Oxford ten years ago. What this has to do with the subject I do not know. Mr. Sadler, as secretary of the University Extension Delegacy of the University, and in other ways, has rendered most distinguished services to education in this country, which are so well known that I need not add anything on this subject myself.

SIR H. ROSCOE (Manchester S.)

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he is aware that the appointment of Mr. Sadler has not received general approval from those interested in educational questions.

MR. ACLAND

So far as I have the means of knowing, I believe the appointment has received the assent and cordial approval of persons interested in Education.

MR. BARTLEY

Are we to understand that the right hon. Gentleman claims the right to appoint somebody to an office the creation of which has not been approved by Parliament, and for which no salary has been voted, and that without going through the ordinary routine of reference to the Civil Service Commissioners?

MR. TIMOTHY M. HEALY

Can the right hon. Gentleman give this House the assurance that Mr. Sadler can spell a word of two syllables?

MR. ACLAND

The appointment has been made in the same way as many similar appointments.