§ MR. J. WARD (Stoke-on-Trent)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether his attention has been 510 called to the confusion caused by the payment of the annual grant to the local education authorities at the end of each school year instead of by quarterly instalments; and whether he will revert to the old method of quarterly payments.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Mr. BIRRELL,) Bristol, N.My attention has been called to this matter. It is not correct to say that the annual grant has ever been paid on a regular system of quarterly instalments. Ever since the first establishment of the annual grant, forty years ago, it has been paid after the close of the year, and I am not aware that any confusion has thereby been occasioned. But in each of the last three financial years a partial and essentially temporary expedient has been resorted to, by which certain limited sums have in certain cases been paid in advance. The subject is extremely technical and complicated, and the Board of Education are at present making a special investigation into what changes (if any) could properly be made in the method of payments to local authorities in respect of elementary education.