§ MR. HENRY J. WILSON (York, W.R., Holmfirth)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, with respect to the fact that a large number of applications have been made to the Education Department by parents at Southport for free education for their children, which were sent by the Department to the Attendance Committee of the Corporation for the purpose of ascertaining whether the names of the applicants were genuine, and how many free places were available in the public elementary schools, and to the reply of the town clerk that the applications were genuine, but that the managers of the elementary schools refused to state what free places they had, whether, seeing that the parents have done all that the law requires them to do in this matter, what steps are the Department taking to meet as rapidly as possible the demands of the parents?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Sir JOHN GORST,) Cambridge UniversityOn 1st August, the Committee of Council wrote to the town clerk, requesting certain information regarding the applications for free places; but no reply has been received. The managers of the Church of England schools have undertaken to provide free places for all applicants at schools within a reasonable distance of their homes.