§ SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)To ask the President of the Board of Education what will now be the position in respect of Clause 4, as amended, of voluntary schools transferred to a county council, as provided schools, under leases from year to year, with no rent or with a nominal rent, as, for example, in Gloucestershire, Nymphsfield church school and Stonehouse national school.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) Schools that have been transferred under the Act of 1870 to local authorities, and are council schools at the time of the passing of the Bill, will not come within the definition of " existing voluntary schools," in Section 13 (1) of the Bill, and will therefore not be open to the provisions of Clauses 2, 3, or 4 of the Bill. I may add that neither of the schools named in the Question is in an urban area, and would therefore on that account not, in any 357 case, have been within the provisions of Clause 4.