BOARD OF EDUCATION SCHEME (WINCHESTER, CHRIST'S HOSPITAL SCHOOL FOUNDATION) CONFIRMATION BILL. (Hansard, 30 March 1925)

The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of EDUCATION (Duchess of Atholl)

I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The Bill is a very small one, being simply a confirmation of a scheme approved and certified by the Board under powers possessed under the Charitable Trust Act of 1853. The scheme is one by which a small sum of £200 is to be paid from one part of a charitable foundation to another. The foundation in question is known as Christ's Hospital and Christ's Hospital Foundation School at Winchester, both of which were founded with money left by a certain Peter Simmons under a will dated 1586. Under this will money was left to maintain six poor old men and four young children, who were to be given meat, drink, clothing, and all other things necessary, and the children, in addition, were to receive education. Further, two divinity students were to be maintained respectively at Oxford and Cambridge. As a result of this benefaction, a hospital was established at Winchester, named Christ's Hospital, which for many years received under the same roof the old men and the boys who were to receive education and maintenance. The income, originally only £60 a year, had increased by 1896 to £860, and the trust was then divided under a scheme under the Endowed Schools Act. 1065 The non-educational part of the charity, the six old men, was continued at Christ's Hospital, and the sum of £360 per annum was set aside for it out of the income. Bursaries of not more than £15 apiece were to be devoted to the two divinity students, and with the balance of the income a secondary school was established. Now the income has still further increased, and the school enjoys an income of £870 per annum, though a considerable part of the capital has, as years have gone by, been devoted to the building of the school.

On the other hand, the governors of the charitable trust, having a fixed sum of only £360 a year, have found it impossible to maintain the trust in full, owing to the rise in the cost of living and the cost of repairs to an old building, and, as a result, by the year 1923 the Governors had found themselves obliged to reduce the number of men who were to be maintained under the trust from six to four. They, therefore, applied for a reallocation of the funds, asking for a suns of £210 annually to be paid over to the charitable trust from the educational foundation. The Board of Education approached the local education authority in the matter, because the local education authority had, in the years that had intervened since 1896, been assisting the school from the rates, and the Board, therefore, had to confer with the local education authority on this matter, pointing out that, if this re-allocation of funds was allowed, it might mean that more money would be required from the local authority. The local education authority have made no difficulty whatever in the matter, and, therefore, last September a scheme, which is to be found in the Schedule to the Bill, was drawn up, providing for this transfer of £200 from the educational foundation to the non-educational charity. No other change in the scheme drawn up in 1896 is proposed; there is merely a re-allocation of this sum. Notice was given of the scheme last autumn, and, no objections having been made, the scheme was, therefore certified by the Board of Education last November.

I think it is clear that unless this reallocation is made, the intention of the generous founder cannot be carried out in full. The scheme, which is embodied in the Schedule of the Bill, was drawn up 1066 before the late Government went out of office. It seems to me impossible to suggest any controversial point, inasmuch as the only body that might be prejudicially affected, the local education authority, has made no difficulty, and I therefore hope the House will give the Bill a Second Reading.