§ DR. MACNAMARAI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that Clause 6 of the Education Bill proposes to give the local education authorities, to be created under the Bill, the control of all secular education in the public elementary schools in their areas, it would be competent under the Bill for any local education authority to fix a standard of elementary education more restricted in its scope than that hitherto prescribed by the Whitehall Education Code.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF the TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.No, Sir; it will be impossible for the local authority to evade; the standard set up by Whitehall, because the Department must be assured that the grants are earned before they are paid, and I take it that if the grants were paid improperly the Auditor General would surcharge them.
§ DR. MACNAMARADo I understand that the Whitehall inspection will be continued under the Bill?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOUROh, yes. Whitehall must have means to make itself acquainted with what is going on in the school. I do not pledge myself, of course, to the proposition that the inspection will remain absolutely unchanged in all its details.