§ MR. HENRY J. WILSON (York, W.R., Holmfirth)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether, while the Education Department urge School Boards to keep a working balance in hand, and have made this working 855 balance practically obligatory by disallowing until recently payment of interest on bank overdrafts, the money raised for the purposes of this working balance has been treated by the Department as applicable to the expenditure of the financial year; whether, while the Department claim that this working balance brought forward from the previous year is available in diminution of the school rate, thus excluding some Boards from participating in the special grant under Section 97 of the Act of 1870, the Boards are not allowed to take credit for the working balance carried forward as a necessary expenditure; and whether the Department will take this matter into consideration in connection with the Bill for increasing the grant under Section 97?
§ SIR. J. GORSTThe balance which a School Board has in hand at the beginning of a financial year is, of course, applicable to the expenditure of that year, and in estimating "the rate required for the purposes of the annual expenses of the School Board," the balances in hand at the beginning and end of the financial year would be taken into account. The practice of the Department in regard to this matter will be considered by the Committee of Council in connection with the Bill for amending Section 97.