§ MR. WOODSI beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education whether the Education Department intimated to the Warrington Union School Attendance Committee in November, 1896, that the school accommodation at Earlstown was deficient; whether the Department has, since that time, been in communication with the School Attendance Committee of the urban district council of Newton-le-Willows on this subject; whether the Department, in November, 1897, intimated to that council that, if the Committee did not provide the necessary accommodation, they would issue an order 901 for the formation of a school board; is he aware that free schooling cannot be obtained unless the children walk nearly a mile further, and that the managers of the Wesleyan school are compelling the children to pay fees; and will he lay upon the Table the correspondence in connection with this case?
§ THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION (Sir J. GORST, Cambridge University)In February, 1897, the attention of the Education Department was drawn to the deficiency of school accommodation in Earlstown. They at once issued notices, under section 9 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, requiring a school for 300 to be built at Newton Common; and last month plans for a school for 493 children were approved by the Department. Complaints have been received from time to time of the want of free school accommodation in the district; but, in the opinion of the Department, there will be plenty of such accommodation easily accessible when the new school is finished. I do not think it is necessary to lay the correspondence on the Table. The Wesleyan school is entitled to charge fees under the Act of 1891.