§ Sir JOHN HARMOOD-BANNERasked the President of the Board of Education whether further consideration can be given to those teachers who retired shortly before the recent Government increase of pensions and who had served for periods of over 20 years under the exacting code of 1870?
Mr. PEASEI have at present nothing to add to the replies given on the 12th and 26th February and the 3rd March to questions on this subject. I expect to receive the Report in the course of the next week or so.
§ Mr. TOUCHEasked the President of the Board of Education if he is aware that Mr. Cyril Fitzgerald, of Oxford House School, Highgate, having complied with the conditions of the Order in Council of the 6th March, 1902, and amending Orders, is registered in column B of the Teachers' Register and holds Certificate Register No. F. 1/202; that, in accordance with the intimation of the Board that the sum of one guinea, payable by teachers on admission to the register, would be refunded on application, he applied for repayment of the sum; that repayment has been refused on the ground that Mr. Fitzgerald did not apply within the time stated in the Board's notice of the 29th February, 1912, namely, before the 31st August, 1912, subsequently extended to the 28th February, 1913; and that Mr. Fitzgerald states that he made application direct to the Board twice, namely, in February, 1912, and January, 1913, but such applications cannot be traced by the Board; and will he cause Mr. Fitzgerald's application to be reconsidered and the time extended in the special circumstances, so that he may not be subjected to loss because of the possible miscarriage of a letter, and deprived, on technical grounds, of a repayment to which he would otherwise be entitled?
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Mr. PEASEThe answer to the first question is in the affirmative. The Board received no application from Mr. Fitzgerald during the period when it was open to him to make applications for the refund of the fee, but in February, 1914—namely, twelve months after the expiration of that period—Mr. Fitzgerald wrote to the Board stating that he had made application. As, however, it appeared from a further communication that the letter which he described as an application was actually written in 1911, and did not, in fact, contain any application for a refund, the Board informed him that they were unable to entertain his request for payment of a guinea. I regret to be obliged to adhere to this decision.