§ MR. ATHERLEY-JONES (Durham, N. W.)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, what is the amount that is annually spent by the educational authorities, national and local, upon technical education in agriculture in England and Wales.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) The expenditure by county councils in England and Wales upon agricultural instruction (exclusive of grants to evening continuation schools) was, approximately, £91,000 in 1903–4, and £87,000 in 1904–5. In the same years the grants made by the Board of Agriculture in aid of educational institutions amounted to £9,200 and £10,200, respectively, so that the expenditure on agricultural education in these two years has been at the rate of nearly £100,000 a year. This is exclusive of grants made by the Board of Education to elementary, secondary, or evening schools where instruction may be given in subjects of an agricultural character.