§ * MR. MASSIE (Wiltshire, Cricklade)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education what number of schools held upon educational trusts have been transferred to school boards or county councils under Section 23 of the Act of 1870; whether any money consideration has been paid for the transfer; and, if so, how much.
§ MR. LOUGHThe records preserved in the Board's office show that previously to 1902, 1,383 voluntary schools were transferred to school boards under Section 23 of the Act of 1870. The records are, however, almost entirely confined to cases in which building grants had been made. Many of these transfers were for very short periods pending the erection of a school board building in their place. Of the 1,383 schools only some 600 are now used as public elementary schools. Since the Act of 1902, 180 transfers of voluntary schools under Section 23 have been sanctioned, and of these 161 have been completed. It was always hold by the Education Department that only a nominal consideration could be paid for the transfer of a school under Section 23, 412 except in the case where a debt was charged on the premises of the school. I do not know how many payments of this kind were made by school boards, but I believe they were few. Since 1902 the Board have sanctioned the payment of debts in thirty-six cases, and in those cases the transfer would be completed under Section 23. Of these cases thirty were British and undenominational schools, one Wesleyan, and five Church of England, the total amount involved being £14,437. In twenty-one cases the Board have sanctioned by scheme the alienation of school buildings, or an interest in school buildings, subject to educational trusts, to the local education authority for valuable consideration, but in those cases the transfer of the school would be completed under Section 19. In thirteen of these cases the transfer was effected by lease and in eight cases by sale; the purchase money, amounting to £12,026, was mainly expended in payment of debts.