§ MR. THOMAS O'DONNELL (Kerry, W.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Return dealing with education granted on April 5th, will be ready; and whether seeing that three months have elapsed since it was granted, steps will be taken to have it laid as soon as possible.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I am informed that the particulars asked for by the hon. Member have involved extremely difficult problems in the analysis of the educational statistics of of the several Departments concerned, it being impossible by mere extracts from ordinary statistical records to set out with any accuracy the comparisons between the educational figures of the different parts of the United Kingdom which the hon. Member desires. To prevent the Return from being very misleading, almost all the items have had to be subjected to elaborate investigation, in order to make it possible to give them upon anything approaching a true basis of comparison. Efforts are being made to have the Return ready within a fortnight.