SERJEANT HEMPHLL (Tyrone, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he can state upon what grounds payment of the salary of the assistant teacher of the National school at Ardstraw, in the county of Tyrone, which accrued between 1st October, 1898, and 1st January, 1899, was withheld, although the required average of sixty pupils was more than maintained during that period, and although payment of such salaries on an average of sixty pupils was sanctioned by the Treasury as from 1st October, 1898.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURI am informed by the Commissioners of National Education that the salary of the assistant teacher of the National school at Ardstraw for the quarter ended 31st December, 1898, has not been paid because the claim made by the manager was not from 1st October, but from 1st August, 1898, and such claim cannot be allowed. Before the 1st October, 1898, a quarterly average attendance of seventy pupils was required for recognition of an assistant, and this condition was not fulfilled. A claim for salary from 1st October, 1898, if made, will be favourably considered.