BRITISH POLITICS. SPEECH BY MR. ASQUITH.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 14, 17 January 1908, Page 7

BRITISH POLITICS. SPEECH BY MR. ASQUITH.

EDUCATION AND OLD AGE PENSIONS. By Telegraph.- Pres3 Association.— Copyrigti. LONDON, 16th January. In the course <^f a speech at Lancaster yesterday, tho Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, Chancellor cf the Exchequer, said coal had riseu in pric-3 owing to u7iormou<3 industrial activity, and the price of bread hnu risen because of a temporary shortage m the world's harvest. Tho Chancellor said tho Education Bill to bo brought forward during the coming would be short 'and pimple. Au^old aga pension system must be built op gradually, 'with due regard to the financial exigencies of tho country, and as far as the' money for pensions Was derived from taxation there must ; be a scheme under which all elas&ce, I including workers, would make just and | adequate contribution to the pension I furld. It was upon those lines the Go"varnment intend to proceed. j Nothing vbfinite as to the '/.nes of the j n?w Education Bill is yet known. The Committee of the National Council* of th? Free Churches of Great Britain recently adopted " a resolution declaring that no settlement of the education question would be satisfactory which providedv for tho preferential treatment of any church, and urging the Government not to sanction any provision 'to allow of "contracting out." When clause 2 of the Jast Education Bill was before the Hours of Commons Mr. Birrqll, the then President of the Board of Education, explained that its provisions were to be subject to the condition that the local education authority must assume tho whole responsibility of maintaining tho fabric. There was to be no contracting out of public control or out of ths obligation to maintain tho fabric. His remarks had particular reference to the section authorising local authorities to make any arrangement they thought fit with tha owner of any existing voluntary school for having such use of it as was required for carrying it on as a public elementary school. ' In connection \Vith the , question of old age Densioiio, the Westminster Gazette published a statement that during this year the Government will probably devote £5,000,000 or £6,000,000 to provide tho funds for an old ago pension scheme. The House of Commons in 1906 agreed to a motion declaring tho urgent need of provision being made, out of funds provided by taxation, for the payment of old age pensions. The Government, through tho ChancelloßpOf the Exchequer, reserved the fullest liberty as to- the time, mode, and extent of the application of this principle, but offered no opposition to it. THE BOARD OF TRADE. ' (Received January 17. 3.35 a.m.) LONDON, 16th Januaiy. Unless the Governmnnt indicates its intention to raise the Board of Trade to the samo status as that of other departments of State, the matter is to be made the subject of an amendment to the Address-in-Reply. Thp difference in status is purely one of salary — the President of the Board of Trade receiving only £2000, while the Secretaries of State (Home, Foreign, War, Colonies, and India) receive £5000 each.