§ MR. CLAUDE HAY (Shoreditch, Hoxton)To ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Education Department on the 5th March 1891 stated that they were prepared to sanction loans for the provision by the London School Board of four proposed swimming baths, one of which was to be erected at the Hugh Myddelton School; that after the objections of the Department to the preliminary plans in May 1902 had been met by the School Board, 756 the Board of Education for the first time refused to sanction the Board's proposal to construct swimming baths, and subsequently declined to give the matter further consideration; and, if so, will he state whether the Board of Education will now reconsider the position they have taken up with regard to the provision of this swimming bath by the School Board; and also say in how many cases in England during the last ten years the Board of Education have approved plans and sanctioned loans for the provision of swimming baths by School Boards.
(Answered by Sir William Anson.) The Board do not consider that the School Board are the proper persons to erect swimming baths, in view of the fact that other local authorities have been given powers for this purpose. The decision of the Board not to allow the School Board's application was only come to after careful consideration. The reply to the last portion of the Question is seven.