§ MR. PIKE PEASE (Darlington)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, seeing that the 33rd Annual Report of the Local Government Board on page 477 gives the cost to date of the Poplar (Hutton) schools at £144,725, and seeing that he stated in Parliament last year that the cost had been greatly added to for that year, he can state why no reference is made to the expenditure in the 34th Report of the Local Government Board, and why there is no reference to the further cost of these schools in the 35th Report of the Local Government Board.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) The particulars on page 477 of the 33rd Annual Report of the Board did not give the cost to date of the schools. What the table containing these particulars does show is (as appears from the heading at the commencement of it) the amount of the expenditure authorised during the year 1903. The statement made by me in Parliament last year, which is referred to in the Question, is, I presume, the Answer I gave to a Question by the hon. Member on 25th June last.† If so, I would point out that I did not state that the cost had been greatly added to for that year. I gave the total sum which
† See (4) Debates, clix., 620.1628 had then been sanctioned in respect of the provision of the schools, viz. £156,545. Of this amount the sum of £11,820 was sanctioned in 1900, and £144,725 in 1903. As nothing was sanctioned in respect of the schools in 1904 or 1905 no reference was made to the cost of them in the Reports for those years.