§ MR. BRIGG (Yorkshire, W. R. Keighley)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he is aware that owing to the full Government grants for education not being payable sufficiently in advance to meet the expenditure thereon, the local ratepayers will be called upon to temporarily meet 1209 the deficiency; that such temporary deficiency in the West Riding of Yorkshire will amount to over £70,000, equal to a rate of over 3d. in the pound; and, if so, whether His Majesty's Government will consider the advisability, in the interests of the ratepayers, of arranging for the payment of the whole of the grants by quarterly instalments in advance.
(Answered by Mr. A. J. Balfour.) The matter referred to in the Question has been fully considered by the Government. The difficulty arising from the circumstances mentioned by the hon. Member will be met by the Bill recently introduced by the President of the Local Government Board, the effect of which will be to spread the amount required to meet the deficiency over a term of years, thus reducing the burden to be borne by the ratepayers to very small proportions.