§ MR. KNOXI beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education what is the result of the communications between the Science and Art Department and the Board of Intermediate Education for Ireland, relating to the rule under which the Board's result fees have been treated as endowments and deducted from the fees payable by the Department; whether his attention has been called to the Report of the Board for 1896, wherein the amounts of result fees paid to each school out of the original endowment and out of the local taxation (Customs and Excise) grant are separately set out, showing that less than one-sixth is derived from the endowment; and whether, under the circumstances, the Science and Art Department will revise their rule and give retrospective effect to the revision, so as to secure equal treatment in this respect to Irish and English schools?
§ SIR J. GORSTAs it appears that the Board of Intermediate Education are able to specify the portion of result fees which is paid out of the local taxation grant, that portion will not, for the future, be treated as endowment by the Science and Art Department.