§ SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURN (Banffshire)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate whether the Secretary for Scotland has received a memorial, dated 13th instant, from the Banffshire County Committee on Secondary Education, complaining that, under the Minute of 27th April last, no portion of the grant of £35,000 for secondary education will come to the County of Banff; whether he is aware that Professor Laurie, examiner for the Dick Bequest, stated publicly that no area, even in Germany and America, of the same size furnished higher education to a larger number of pupils than did the County of Banff; whether, seeing that the only secondary education in Banffshire is provided by secondary departments in State-aided elementary schools, the Department 987 will so modify the Minute of 27th April as to give to these secondary departments a reasonable share of the £35,000 grant; and whether the Department can see its way to suspend the 17s. 6d. limit as regards grants to the schools having secondary departments.
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. A. GRAHAM MURRAY,) ButeshireThe memorial to which the hon. Member refers has been received and is under consideration. I have every reason to believe that much good educational work of a higher kind is accomplished in the County of Banffshire. For the reasons already given the Department is not prepared to alter the provisions of the Minute of 27th April, and as the 17s. 6d. limit is statutory the Department cannot suspend its operations.