§ SIR W. HART DYKE (Kent, Dartford)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture if he intends to transfer the powers of his Board in respect of agricultural instruction to the Board of Education, or if he intends that the Board of Agriculture shall undertake the organisation and coordination of such instruction throughout England and Wales.
§ The following Question also appeared on the Paper:—
§ MR. WALTER PALMER (Salisbury)To ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he can inform the House whether it is proposed, in accordance with Clause 2 of the Board of Education Act, 1899, to transfer to the Board of Education the powers of the Board of Agriculture in matters appearing to relate to education; and, if such transfer is intended, whether he can state when it will take place.
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. HANBURY, Preston)I am not prepared to transfer elsewhere any part of the existing duties of the Board of Agriculture, the functions of which, especially with regard to agricultural instruction, might, on the contrary, with advantage be enlarged. I am unable to state as yet in detail how this can be brought about, but I attach great importance to the necessity for extending the work already done by the Board in collating and publishing the results of experiments and the most recent discoveries bearing on agriculture both in this country and abroad, and also to the adva tage to be gained by friendly co-operation between the Board and county councils in devising the best methods of instruction and experiment.