§ SIR JAMES RANKIN (Herefordshire, Leominster)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether in the event of the Education Bill before the House becoming Law, the managers of any voluntary school possessing an endowment would be allowed to retain that endowment and apply it to purposes similiar to those, to be met by voluntary subscriptions, or whether such endowment would fall into the hands of the local education authority.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI do not think this Question can be answered in general terms. It would depend in each case on the special conditions attached to the trust money referred to
§ MR. M'KENNA (Monmouthshire, N.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether Clause 13 of the Education Bill, as regards the expenses of an urban district council, will reduce the charge now payable by the owners or occupiers of agricultural land in respect of school rates; whether the expenses of a School Board at the present time are paid out of the poor rate, for which agricultural land, subject to the temporary provisions of the Agricultural Rates Act, is assessed at its full annual value; and whether the provision that the expenses of an urban district council, acting as the local education authority under the Bill, shall be paid as expenses incurred for the general purposes of the Public Health Acts, will limit the assessment of agricultural land to one-fourth of its annual value.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe principle of the Bill is to make education a part of the general local government expenditure; and the incidence of the rates for education will be, so far as possible, the same as that for local government expenditure. This will make no change as regards the charge for higher education in any district; and none with regard to elementary education in boroughs. It will make a change in the ease of urban districts net being boroughs by extending the present exemption, and that exemption is from half to three-quarters in the case of agricultural land.
§ MR. C. P. SCOTT (Lancashire, Leigh)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, whether, after the adoption by a local authority of Part III. of the Education Bill, it will be competent for the managers of a public elementary school not provided by that authority to make a charge for rent for the use of the school buildings.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe answer to the hon. Gentleman's Question is in the negative.