Evening Post. FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1906. THE FIGHT FOR THE SCHOOLS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 141, 15 June 1906, Page 4

Evening Post. FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1906. THE FIGHT FOR THE SCHOOLS.

After a considerable- interval of Bilence, the cable has supplied us during the last few day* with come interesting details of the progress of the great struggle which is proceeding in England over the Education Bill. As it is a little more than two months since the Bill was introduced, it is not surprising to learn that the Government considers thai the House of 'Commons Las spent time enough over it. When the debate is resumed on Monday next, we are told, "a guillotine resolution will be introduced to enable the remaining clauses and stages to be finished." Interest will be intensified when the, Bill passes to the House of Lords, but though ite main principles have now been accepted by the popular chamber and the third reading is likely to be Carried almost as triumphantly as the first) there are still " the four-fifths clause" and other important provisions to be pttt through committee. Thfre <i in fact the bulk of the Bill still lift t/j be dealt with* for Sir William AiisoVs amendment, which was menti«:u.u on Wednesday, was apparently mo yed on the second clause, and too Bill' contains forty altogether, of Tliich, however, the firsb scveii exhaust the most highly controversial matter. There is a paradoxical air about this amendment of Sir Williani Anson's. As a champion of the voluntary schools* why does he seek to make their taking over by the local authorities compulsory ? The • answer is that the Church does not want public control, but it does want public money, and_ it would sooner take its chance of making Reasonable terms with the former than face the loss of the heavy contributions which it at present draws from the rates. What is, as a matter of fact, provided by the first two- clause* of the Bill is (1) that "a school shall not be recognised as a public elementary school unless it ie a school provided by the local education authority," and (2) that a local education authority "may" (not "«haH") make arrangements with the owners for taking over a voluntary school, which will then become a ''provided school" fdr all_ purpoaes. In this second clause, M introduced, and as apparently accepted bjr the House, there ie no compulsion on cither side, but a large part of the- argument against tho Bill has proceeded oh the ns» sumption that the church trustees were being compulsorily expropriated, and the carrying of. Sir William Anson's'amend- . WAt KOjrid.iAy.et made the gj*syws&*tu <

! solute. In a spirited reply to the trenchant letter addressed by the Bishop of London to his rural deans, in which this assumption figures prominently, the Morning Leader disposed of the argument as follows : — "All the church has to do is> to keep its schools and to go on safeguarding ita_ denominational objects — if it can. But it must do it at its own expense. What it will not be allowed to do is to sell the goods of the Nonconformists in order to maintain a system which violates their beliefs. The establishment may keep up any sort of inetruction it likes to pay for. But religious piracy must come to an end." The Churchmen's reply to thia kind of argument would, however, be that though their schools aTe not to be "confiscated," as "has nevertheless been freely alleged, they will get no more help from the <aßes unless the local authority does annex them. It may be preferable that a school should be "confiscated'' — at a fair value — than that it should be sbarved'; and Mr. Birrell is wise in hi 6 decision to introduce an amendment which will enable voluntary schools to appeal to the Board of Education^ against the Tefusal of a local authority tio take over a school. As local authorities can be bigoted' as well as church trustees, and their refusal to take a school over might be based upon an unwillingness to recognise the special stipulations for denominational Reaching which the trustees might reasbnably and lawfully require under the Bill, the advantages of allowing an appeal to an independent authority which will be able to take a wider view and to settle all cases on the same general principles is obvious. The gratitude with which Mr. Redmond hailed the concession is ominous for the hopes built upon Nationalist and Catholic opposition to the Bill. The Nationalists, he says, are anxious "to join the Nonconformists in passing a measure which, while safeguarding the Catholic schools, would Temove injustice inflicted upon Nonconformists," and The Times is very much afraid that the necessary compromise may be effected.