EDUCATION BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13925, 5 December 1908, Page 5

EDUCATION BILL.

GRANTS FOR SCHOOLS.

CONFLICTING INTERESTS.

By Telegraph.—Press Association—Copyright.

London, December 3. During the debate on the Education Bill, Sir Geo. White (chairman of the Education Committee) indicated that if the Anglican demand for increased grants for schools were pressed the Nonconformists would not adhere to the compromise. Mr. Runciman declared that the Government was unable to satisfy Catholic demands by making an increased grant, equivalent to the amount of the existing grant, plus rates. He thought the 50s grant to contracting out schools erred on the side of liberality. A larger grant would be putting a premium on contracting out. The Government was really offering to provide five-sixths of the cost of maintenance, leaving one-sixth to be derived from voluntary subscriptions, endowments, and fees. The financial portion of the Bill was carried by 241 to 119. The Times declares if the settlement breaks down it will be on the point of petty finance, not on the general principle. The Daily Chronicle says if the Archbishop of Canterbury persists in his ultimatum, or anything like it, all hope of a settlement by consent is dead.

ANGLICAN OPPOSITION.

GOVERNMENT URGED TO

DROP THE BILL.

(Received December 4, 10 p.m.)

London, December 4.

In the House of Commons last evening the Prime Minister moved that consideration of the Education Bill be postponed till Friday, Mr. Asquith remarking that it would be waste of time to proceed with it until some settlement had been reached, as he hoped might yet be the case.

The Archbishop of' Canterbury (Dr. Davidson), addressing the Church Council in the Church House, said that he was not prepared to abandon hope of a settlement, even after Mr. Runciman's last letter, though the negotiations were never more dispiriting than now. While believing a settlement was absolutely needed for England's sake it was possible to secure educational peace at too great a cost.

Mr. C. A. Cripps,; vicar-general of Canterbury, moved, " That the council do not accept the compromise embodied in the Education Bill."

The Bishop of Salisbury (Dr. Wordsworth) moved an amendment, "That the Bill is unacceptable without serious alterations."

The amendment was lost by 187 votes to 216, and Mr. Cripps' motion was carried by 189 to 99, but declared lost, because it did not obtain a majority of the three orders—bishops, clergy, and laity. The Council deprecated proceeding with the Bill this session.

Before the passage of the Education Acts of 1902-3 there were two kinds of elementary schools in existencethe " board schools'' (administered by the county or borough councils), wholly supported by Imperial grant* and local rates, in which only simple Bible-teaching, purely undenominational, might be given; and the "voluntary schools," which received only Imperial grants and nothing from the rates, the balance of the cost being defrayed by voluntary subscription?. These schools remained under private management, and in them denominational religious instruction was given. 80 far as religious teaching was concerned, the arrangement worked well, but educationally it was a failure. Voluntary subscriptions Ml short, and voluntary schools were often understaffed, the consequences being disastrous for the children. The Acts of 1902-3 provided that the whole cost of education throughout the country should bo a public charge; but they left the old voluntary schools, which were now called " -provided" schools, mainly under private management. Nonconformists, 'therefore to their great displeasure, found themselves taxed and rated for the maintenance of schools in which doctrines obnoxious to them were taught, in the management of which they had no control, and from which their children and themselves were excluded as headmasters by a religious test. In 1907 Mr. McKcnna brought in a Bill making provision for relieving the local education authority of the cost of giving religious instruction in schools, by making it. compulsory for the managers of non-provided schools to pay to the education authority a sum equal to one-fifteenth of the sum paid in salaries. This Bill was dropped. "ho Bill brought in by Mr. Runciman a few weeks ago, and abandoned in favour of the present one, proposed to give rate aid exclusively to the council type of schools, having teachers appointed without religious tests. The chief points in dispute, which led to its abandonment, were whether the absolute right of entry of the clergy to alt schools should be permitted in school hours, and whether head-teachers - should bo forbidden or permitted to give denominational instruction.