§ MR. STEVENSON (Suffolk, Eye)To ask the Secretary to the Board of Education what pension is being paid by the Governors of Whitgift School, Croydon, to Mr. Robert Brodie, formerly headmaster of this school; whether he is aware that the Rev. George H. Huddlestone, who had been an assistant master at the same school for a period of thirty-one years, was dismissed by the new headmaster, and, consequently, ceased to be a member of the staff in the Christmas term, 1903; whether representations were made by the governing body or by any governor of the school to the Board of Education for permission to pay a pension to the said Mr. Huddlestone; and, if so, what reply was given to these representations by the Board of Education, and on what grounds was it based; and whether, in the event of the establishment of a pension fund for assistant masters under the new scheme of this school, Mr. Huddlestone would be entitled to obtain any benefit from the school funds.
(Answered by Sir William Anson.) The pension paid to Mr. Robert Brodie is £400 a year. At the request of the governors, the Board have sanctioned the payment to Mr. Huddlestone of a grant, as a special gratuity, of a sum equal to one term's salary. It is not clear what scheme is meant by the "new scheme" mentioned in the Question; nor how Mr. Huddlestone could benefit by any pension 686 scheme which may be established in the future.