§ MR. ASHTON (Bedfordshire, Luton)I beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education whether his attention has been called to the cases of F. Samuels, who was fined, and F. Dawson, who was sent to prison, last December, for not sending their children to school at Hyde, Cheshire; whether he is aware that these men had applied for and been refused free places at George Street School. Hyde, near which they lived: that they had been 482 referred by the School Attendance Committee for free places to the Roman Catholic School; and that the, Board of Education had admitted that that school is not within a reasonable distance; whether he is aware that since the date of those occurrences about one hundred free places have been offered in the borough, whereas there are 1,000 applications for free places: and whether the Board of Education will take steps to enforce the provision of sufficient free places according to law.
§ THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE HOARD OF EDUCATION (Sir J. GORST,) Cambridge UniversityThe answer to paragraph 1 is in the affirmative, but the persons named were cautioned several, times by the Attendance Committee before they were summoned. The answer to paragraph 2 is also in the affirmative, except to the last sentence, which is in the negative. In reply to paragraph 3, there are before the Board of Education 368 applications for free places, not directly from the parents, but from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The answer to paragraph 4 is in the affirmative.