Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/75

 1899 Primary Education. [67

voluntary schools argued that the board schools obtained too much for what they did, whilst the adherents to board schools maintained that religious teaching in voluntary schools was obnoxious to Nonconformists. The vice-president of the council, Sir J. Gorst {Cambridge University), made an indiscreet but obviously truthful analysis of popular opinion, which drew upon him criticism from both sides. He said that most agri- cultural labourers were indifferent upon the subject of the education, religious or secular, given to their children. He ex- plained that the people in villages would not have board schools because they disliked the idea of paying school rates. The con- science clause was the remedy for the religious difficulty that Parliament had provided, and it was a fair one; but the conscience clause was very seldom used except when parents were instigated to use it by representations from the outside. In rural districts the children in Church schools generally re- ceived the religious instruction which their parents approved. Only on one day in the week was the catechism taught, and then only to children whose parents acquiesced in that course. Nonconformist children were not debarred from becoming pupil teachers in rural schools, but young people in the country were very unwilling to become pupil teachers. Touching on the subject of training colleges, he admitted that the existing accom- modation was much too limited, and observed that Noncon- formists had established fewer such colleges than the Church of England. Sir Henry Fowler {Wolverhampton, E.) speaking rather as a leader of the Opposition than as a private Noncon- formist, found fault with the administration of the Education Department, which, he alleged, was not impartial, because it favoured voluntary schools. He described our system of ele- mentary education as most expensive and inefficient, and urged that decentralisation was desirable,* because the department could not manage satisfactorily 20,000 schools. Mr. Balfour, however, found no difficulty in rallying his supporters by assuring them that the object of the resolution was to attack the voluntary school system, which the majority wished to maintain, and this appeal was promptly endorsed by 204 to 81 votes.

Another effort was made this session to pass a bill for im- proving Scotch Private Bill Procedure, which for many years had appeared in the speech from the Throne as a matter requiring attention. In the previous session the Government bill had met with much adverse criticism, and was therefore referred to a select committee — composed mainly of Scotch members — for improvement. From that ordeal it emerged in practically the same form, as regarded essentials, as origin- ally presented. Its primary object was to save much of the expenditure incurred m the promotion of private bills, by ren- dering it unnecessary for technical inquiries to be conducted at Westminster, and to allow them to be undertaken in the localities affected by such bills. The Lord Advocate, MrQoQol

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