HC Deb 18 April 1899 vol 69 cc1444-5
MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to the unsatisfactory position of the Madras Law College; whether he is aware that the present principal of that institution was appointed at a salary of Rs.1,200 per month, on the understanding that the whole of his time should be devoted to the work of the College, but that this condition has been waived by the Government, and that the principal has been granted permission to practise at the bar; whether he is aware that numerous complaints have been made to the Madras Government as to the failure of the principal and his assistants, owing to their private practice, to adequately perform their duties at the College; whether his attention has been directed to paragraph 75 (page 113) in the Third Quinquennial Review of Education in India, recently issued, in which it is stated that, during the period 1892–97, the profit to the Government, arising from the excess of fees, etc., over expenditure at the Madras Law College, amounted to nearly a lakh of rupees; and whether, in view of these facts and the low percentage of students obtaining their law degree at that College during the period in question, he will consider the desirability of recommending that the teaching staff should in future give their whole time to their duties, as is the case in the other Arts, Engineering, and Agricultural Colleges in the Presidency?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON,) Middlesex, Ealing

I have no information on the subject of the honourable Member's Question, a copy of which will be transmitted to the Government of Madras for its consideration. With reference, how- ever, to the statement quoted from the Third Quinquennial Review of Education in India to the effect that during the period of five years from 1892 to 1897 the profit to the Government from the College amounted to nearly a lakh of rupees, the honourable Member has doubtless observed that the same paragraph states that a separate building has recently been constructed for the use of the College at a cost of about four lakhs of rupees, which must have more than absorbed any surplus income.