§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the Board of National Education, at their meeting on the 26th May, 1903, at which the Resident Commissioner was not present, unanimously resolved to grant aid to Allen's Hill School, county Armagh, and that the secretaries of the Board, contrary to the usual practice, failed to notify this decision to the applicants; and will he explain why this resolution was afterwards, at a meeting of the Board at which the Resident Commissioner was present, rescinded.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) The Commissioners at their meeting on the 26th May, 1903, decided to grant aid to this school, but, as there were peculiar circumstances in the case, at their next meeting on the 8th June following, they requested the Resident Commissioner to, visit the locality of Allen's Hill, and, in view of the number of small schools in that locality, to report on the best arrangement of the schools. The Commissioners ordered that in the meantime the action of the Board on the 26th May was to be suspended and no intimation of the grant of that date was to be sent to the applicant. On the 15th December, 1903, the case was again before the Commissioners, and in view of the unsuitable nature of the schoolhouse premises and of the fact that there was no real necessity for the school, with small schools, the order granting aid was rescinded.
§ MR. SLOANTo ask Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that a school was established at Allen's Hill, county Armagh, in the year 1899, by the Rev. David McLaughlin, to meet the wants of that district; that, on 31st December, 1899, application was made to the National Board for aid, on the grounds that there were sixty-two pupils on the roll, thirty-eight of whom never attended any other school; that nearly all the sixty-two pupils were nearly all the sixty-two pupils were resident over two miles from any existing school, a statutory declaration to that effect having been lodged with the Board; and if he can say why the application for aid was refused in this case.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) An application for aid to this school was receive on the 30th December, 1899. The average daily attendance was given as twenty-nine. The inspector in his report on the application stated that there were only forty-two pupils on the rolls and about thirty-one in average attendance, and of the forty-two on rolls eighteen had been withdrawn from neighbouring national schools. The reasons for refusing aid given in Answer to the preceding Question.
§ MR. SLOANTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the fact that a new school building had been erected in 1900 at Allen's Hill, county Armagh, was reported to the National Board with an offer to make any reasonable alterations or improvements suggested by their inspector; and that an application for aid was made and supported by two memorials and afterwards verified by statutory declaration; and whether, in view of the fact that in February, 1901, the Resident Commissioner informed the applicant that if he could show by memorial or otherwise that there were thirty children residing in the district and two miles from existing school his claim would receive favourable consideration, and that a memorial from the parents of forty-eight children resident at the distance named by the Resident Commissioner was presented to the Board, he 1333 can say why the Board refused aid in this case.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) The facts are substantially as stated, save that there is no record of any such promise as that alleged to have been given by the Resident Commissioner, nor could such a promise be given without the consent of the Board. Aid was refused for the reasons stated in reply to the two previous Questions.