§ Mr. HAYESasked the Horne Secretary whether the Isle of Wight County Education authority remain willing to continue the arrangements by which convicts in Parkhurst Prison had under the late Governor of the prison the privilege of obtaining educational works from the central library for students in Bloomsbury through the authority's library at Newport, Isle of Wight; and whether he will communicate with the authority and invite the continuance of their co-operation in the education of the convicts in that prison?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSI beg to refer the hon. Member to my reply to his previous question on this subject of the 13th ultimo. The Director of Education for the Isle of Wight was good enough to make such an arrangement, but it has lapsed. I do not know whether or not he would be willing to resume it: it was a voluntary arrangement on his part and I am not in a position to press him in the matter. The co-operation of the education authority has been much appreciated by the Prison Commissioners, who wrote to the Director as recently as January last expressing the hope that it would be continued.