§ MR. WILLIAM JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland why the programme and rules for the intermediate examinations of 1901, due about 1st April, are not published yet, inconvenience having been occasioned last year by a similar delay; whether these rules can be effected by the Bill recently introduced; and whether, as these rules will prescribe books of which editions have yet to be prepared, he will press on the Commissioners the early publication of the programme and rules, that such editions may be considered by teachers before they disperse for vacation in June.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURI have been in communication with the Assistant Commissioners of Intermediate Education and am informed by them that when the draft rules and programme for 1901 were under consideration in December last the Board determined to defer their final settlement until Parliament had considered the Bill which it was expected would be introduced. The Committee are not in a position at present to give a reply to the second paragraph, as the Bill has only just been issued, but I am informed that it is not likely that the difficulty suggested in the last paragraph of the question will arise.