§ MR. EDMUND ROBERTSON (Dundee)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury why the promised copies of precedents of trust deeds of voluntary schools have not been laid upon the Table.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe Return to which the hon. Gentleman alludes has turned out to be an extremely voluminous one; the printers have been at work on it night and day, and it will very soon be out of their hands. Of course the information is not Government information; we have had to collect it, as there are no official documents.
§ MR. EDMUND ROBERTSONWhat I asked for were the precedents of voluntary school trust deeds settled by the Education Department. These necessarily are official. As far as I know there are only five or six, and I hope they may be furnished before we conclude the consideration of Clause 8 of the Education Bill.
§ SIR HENRY FOWLER (Wolverhampton, E.)Will the right hon. Gentleman supply copies of the deed of the National Society, the deed which applies to the great bulk of the denominational schools of England and Wales?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThere are a good many of them.
§ SIR HENRY FOWLERThere is one model deed. It is contained in a very small pamphlet. I do not think there will be much discussion as to Roman Catholic or Wesleyan deeds, and I think for the purpose of our debates it will be sufficient to give us the deed which applies to the great majority of the denominational schools.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI am afraid the matter is not so simple as the right hon. Gentleman seems to suppose, but I will do my best to give him information as soon as it is placed at my disposal.
§ MR. EDMUND ROBERTSONSurely it would be easy to reprint the trust deed of the National Society published in 1864. There are only four pages of it, and it could be turned out by tomorrow.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURSpeaking without book, I should think a trust deed as old as 1864 would have had successors. I cannot promise more than that I will do my best.