§ MR. C. J. O'DONNELL (Newington, Walworth)To ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether be can state what is the amount per child of State grant and of rate aid for Catholic elementary schools of Manchester, Preston, Southampton, and Bristol for the last ended financial year.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Board have no information as to the sums spent upon voluntary schools (as distinct from the council schools) from the rates. The-gross annual expenditure per child on maintenance in respect of council and voluntary schools taken together, during the most recent year for which figures are available, was in Manchester £4 4s. 0d., in Preston £2 9s. 7d., in Southampton £4 6s. lid., and in Bristol £3 12s. Id. These figures include the amounts contributed from Exchequer grants and from the rates, and from other sums, if any, received from fees, or endowments, or other sources. So far as can be gathered from the records, the total Exchequer grants, including the special aid grant under Section 10 of The Education Act, 1902, paid in respect of the same year, amounted, so far as the Catholic schools only in these towns are concerned, to an. average of £1 19s, 7½d. per child in the case of the twenty-five Catholic schools, in Manchester, taken together; to £2 Cs. 9d. in the case of the seven Catholic schools in Preston; to £1 19s. 9d. in the case of the two Catholic schools in Southampton; and to £2 0s. 6½d. in the case of the five Catholic schools in: Bristol.