§ MR. LANE-FOX (Yorkshire, W. R., Barkston Ash)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education if he will state on what grounds the West Riding education authority have ignored the request of the managers of non-provided schools that their schools should be supplied with Bibles, while making no-such refusal to similar requests from provided schools.
§ MR. MCKENNAI have no information as to this, and it is not a matter in which the Board have any authority to intervene unless a specific case, in which a dispute has arisen between the managers and the local authority, is submitted to them for determination under Section 7 (3) of the Act of 1902.
§ MR. LANE-FOXMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman if he will inquire whether such a case has arisen, and whether the ground of refusal was that the Bible was a merely denominational book, or whether it is considered a book unnecessary for the education of children?
§ MR. MCKENNAI cannot undertake to do anything of the sort. This is a 77 question which may come before me to determine in my judicial capacity under Section 7, Subsection 3, and I must wait till the case is brought before me.
§ * MR. CLOUGH (Yorkshire, W. R., Skipton)Do not these schools belong to the reputed richest Church in Christendom, and is that Church too poor to provide Bibles for their day schools and Sunday schools?
§ [No Answer was returned.]