§ MR. MACLEAN (Bath)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if his attention has been drawn to a report made at a meeting of the Bermondsey Board of Guardians on the 18th January last, showing that the average cost of educating and maintaining the Poor Law children of Bermondsey in the village community, recently erected at Shirley at a cost of £320 per bed for 560 children, was during 1904 £1 11s. 1d. per child per week; and that in January, 1906, the community was costing the ratepayers £625 per week, or £1 1s. 9d. per 447 child per week for 588 children; and whether the Local Government Board will take measure to check such expenditure by boards of guardians, seeing that it keeps the children as a class apart, and isolates them from the educative activities and interests of everyday life.
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. RUNCIMAN,) DewsburyI have not seen the report referred to, but I am aware of the high cost of maintenance in the Shirley schools, and I am in communication with the guardians on the subject. I will not lose sight of the matter.