§ MR. A. ALLEN (Christchurch)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether he can state by whom the expenses incurred in connection with a public local inquiry under Clause 4 of the Education Bill now before Parliament are to be defrayed; and whether, if these are to be defrayed by the local education authority, the Board of Education will secure, in the regulations relating to such inquiries to be made by thorn under Clause 13 (3) of the Bill, that the local education authority shall be protected against having to hold a second inquiry in the case of a particular school within, say, a year, if the result of the ballot has established that the statutory four-fifths majority in favour of special religious instruction does not exist, and 709 generally against having to hold frivolous and unnecessary inquiries?
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The expenses in question will be defrayed by the local education authority. I will give careful consideration to the point referred to in the last part of the Question.