§ Mr. FREDERICK WHYTEasked the President of the Board of Education what sum or sums have been expended by his Department, either directly or by way of grant to some institution, for the encouragement of agricultural education during the past five years?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANI am not sure what my hon. Friend means by the word directly" as opposed to "by way of grant." The assistance which the Board are able to give to agricultural as to other forms of education is given in the form of grants-in-aid and advice furnished, as a rule, by their inspectors. The Board endeavour to secure that the curricula of the various schools and institutions (elementary, secondary, and technical) which they aid with grants shall be adapted to the needs of the localities in which the schools are carried on, and in schools of all types they are giving assistance to agricultural education in some form or another. It is, however, impossible to state precisely what sums are devoted to agricultural as distinct from other forms of education. The grants administered by the technical branch of the Board are in some cases given specifically for technical 1883W work in agriculture, but in the case of these grants also it is frequently impossible, owing to the system of block grants under which they are administered in some areas, to distinguish the sums paid for this particular form of instruction. My hon. friend will find as full information as it is possible to give in reply to his question in. the White Paper issued by the Board in 1909 [Cd. 4569] and in the Memorandum of Arrangements between the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Board of Education in regard to Agricultural Education, issued in September, 1909 [Cd. 4886]. The Memorandum on the Principles and Methods of Rural Education issued at the beginning of this year, of which I am sending my hon. Friend a copy, will also be found useful.