§ DR. MACNAMARA (Camberwell, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether his attention has been called to two recent letters written by corresponding managers of non-provided schools to applicants in each case for a vacant head-mastership, in the first case from the Rector of Euston, Thetford, Norfolk, dated 20th March, 1904, asking whether the applicant could play the organ, as this extra work was in that place an essential; and in the second from 479 the Vicar of Alwinton, Rothbury, Northumberland, dated 31st May, 1904, stating that a man would be preferred who was a Churchman and communicant, and who would be able to play the harmonium at one of the Sunday services; and, if so, whether he will, in view of Article 15, Clause (1) of the Education Code for 1904, which expressly forbids the imposition of extraneous duties as a condition precedent to appointment, state what action, if any, the Board of Education proposes to take in these cases.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Sir WILLIAM ANSON,) Oxford UniversityI have inquired into the cases mentioned in the Question. In the first case the master who was appointed did not undertake any extraneous duties. In the second case the trust deed required the head teacher to be a member of the Church of England, and the information given on the subject of playing the harmonium was given in consequence of frequent inquiries made by applicants for the post of head teacher. It does not appear that in either case the performance of extraneous duties was made a condition of employment, or that the local education authority took any exception to the appointment, but the writers of the letters appear to have written them under some misapprehension as to the precise requirements of the Code.