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EDUCATION BtLL. ? ..

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EDUCATION BtLL. Clause IV. Fight. THE MANDATORY MOTION. The Conimons on Monday went into Commib- tee on the Education Bill and proceeded to con- sider Clause 4, which provides that facilities for 'tpecial religious instruction 'n transferred Voluntary school in urban areas with a popu- lation exceeding 5,000 may be afforded if the ocal education authority is satisfied, after folding a public local inquiry, That the parents of at least four-nfths of the children tttending the school desire those facilities, Mid that there is public school accommodation tn schools not aiTected by a permission given under this section for the children attending the school whose parents do not desire those facilities." Subsections of the Clause enact that the special instruction given under the extended facilit.ies shall not be at the expense of the authority, and that a permission may be withdrawn by the local authority if after hoid.iag a public local inquiry it thinks chat the coftditioits on Hie strength of which the perrÏ:;¡i"si:õn:WAs:g¡:ven, no longer obtain. Mr EVEY' eUGIL moved to aubstihtte shall for may," so as to make the afford- big of extended facilities mandatory. Mr EIRHEEE. in declining to' accept the lIomendment. took the opportunity to explain the important amendments which had been placed on the the order paper by himself. He faid these new amendments did not in any way raise questions new to the Committee, ut really only focussed into a whole in a con. 1IeCubve myor the arncndment3 pattered about the order paper. All his observations must be taken to apply to Oausa 1. The clause as drafted was admittedly an Dbvious exception to the whole scheme and plan of the Bill as laid dO'n in the first clause. 't had i -and d;d not quarrel with the description—an excrescence on the whole BiM but it was in the opinion of the Stovernment a necessary clause, and ought to De made effective in consequence of what !ollowedthe debates in Committee on Clause t It b<td been said that if the Government had onlyhad the courage to base the measure -Dn an enturely secular system, or if they had copied- the facuities-aU-i'ound system— lhe pam-dsBO'Tuna.tionat system, as it was would be no necessitv for Clause t, and the eager supporters of the Govern- ment wouid have been spared a b-orden all iheir political minds and opinions by the appearance in a measure which they were Mixious to support of Clause 4, with *ts undoubted denominational flavour, -;aste, and character. That was quite Anaccurate. and had the Government either s-vstem they would still "aave been face to face with aU the dimculties ifh'ch made Clause 4 necessary, because it was not to he supposed that Roman Catholics 'M* Jews or Angi'cans would be content to say 'that all their religious feelings were gratified amply hy having half or three-quarters of an aour every school day of the week for the pur- pose oi teaching a mere catechism or formu- *ary. They would have said that was the ieaati part of religious education, and he agreed. ?Hear. he.ir.) Religious education consisted of something more- It consisted of a spirit animating the instruction—(Opposition cheers) —a spirit which was as much to he found, he hoped, in the Council schools as in the Volun- tary schools. (Ministerial cheers.) The clause as introduced was a purely voluntary clause. There was no kind of obligation on the local to c*ve fa cilities. As soon a. that tvas grasped the paper became crowded with Mnendments, making the clause mandatory, proceed mg from ali parts of the House. The Government had to consider whether they could meet the views represented by these amendments. One of the new amendments ught to remove the risk of any existing Voluntary school that fulfilled the conditions tJeing improperly refused by the local educa- tion authority, the extended facilities which were frankly contemplated by the clause. The Government proposed permitting an ap- peal to the Board of Education in the event of a. refusal by a local authority to make an arrangement for the tranter of the school. He hoped the necessity for such an appeal would rarely occur. When- ever it did the Board might, if it thought fit ,%fter consjdering the circumstances of the case and the wishes of the parents of the children attending the school, make its own order. Such an order, once made, must be complied with There was an alternative. If the Boird thought it was expedient they might make an order allowing the school to stand out as a State aided school, receiving a Parliamcn- tary e;"ant and not rate aid. He besought everyone who held those objections of prin- ciple which every educationist must enter- tain to schools standing out from the national system, to consider that this was an exception grafted on He was confident that it was not iiketv that the local authority would take upon themselves ni the first instance to refuse these expended factlities- If they did-and he did noc quarrel with anyone who considered the possibihty—then there was an appea! to the Board of'Education. Assuming the Board of Education supported the appeal, it was most umikcly that the local authority would refuse to be guided by the decision of the Board of Education. If. however, they stil! held out. them was a mandamus, but there was the other alternative suggested—that the -school should continue' as a State-aided jcbooi That was a mo-:t remote con- tingency. There was another amend- sient which provided for a further contingency, which was even more improbable. than the other. Assume that the local edu- cation authority had taken over the school 4nd the n-iation;; between the managers and the ioca) authority become strained-one was disposed to be tyrannical and the other was ragbag and foolish, then there would be an appeal to the Board of Education, and if that appeal was upheld they might contract out &s it was caUed. or stand out as he caued it, and receive the .Parliamentary grants on]y. and receive the .Parliamentary grants on]y. There -!guin tbeGovermnentsho'wed their good faith in th.:? matter and how intent they were that the facilities offered in the clause should not be illusory. The advantage of the amend- iae!tts he had outlined were obvious. The amendments provided that if there was any djLfferenceof opinion between theauthoritics and the tour-nith school as to whether it should be taken over there should be aD,rappeal. If in the opinion of the Board of Education the school should be takcnover in that sense it might become an obligation upon the local authority to take over the school on the terms and con. ditions nxed by the Board of Education. He was giving a great advantage by this amend- ment. Another amendment provided that in these four-fifth schools there should be no rent. He had already stated the reasons why he thought that now became reasonable. The Bill as introduced was a purely voluntary arrangement. There was no obligation to take schools. There was any quantity of room for any dispute as to what the rent should be. They had altered that and made it possible that the 'local authority might be required to take over the school and grant these tacihties, and they thought it was much more conducive o these schools being taken over by voluntary arrangement without any appeal at all, which after all was what they wanted to say and in these four-fifths schools the question of rent should not afford an opportunity of haggling or bargaining between the parties, but that it should be eliminated from the negotiations. (Opposition laughter.) As a saieguard they bad introduced the haiiot to secure condition A. He did not suppose anybody would object to that a mean;, oi: ascertaining the wishes of the parents of the children, and they also provided that the children should be in average attendance at the school ior not less than six months, so as to prevent tho moving about of children from One school to another simply for the purpose of obtaining these facilities. He thought the the Government propoed were far more practical than those proposed by Mr Cecil. He maintained that these amendments would give effect to the desire of the hon. mem- ber, while they would certainly give effect to the desire of the Government, which was that the facilities in the clause should be real and genuine facilities. It was, in his opinion, the Mst scheme for giving security to the schools they sought to benefit by the clause. (Minis- terial cheers.) Catholics Unsatisfied. Lord E. was anxious to say a few word- in explanation of the view taken by his [ellow Catholics of the Government's new pt o- posais. His eo-ireigionists. he sajd, received these proposals with great disappointment and much surprise. (Hear, bear.) They had been led to believe, and in fact it had been admitted by the Government, that Clause 4 had been in- serted in the Bill for the purpose of meeting Lheir case- Instead of doing so. however, the clause would destroy practically one batf of the Catholic, schools. Contracting out might be some attractton. but in the form in which it was put :0rthe right hon. gentleman's amend- ment it meant starvation. (Hear, hear.) In the opinion of the Catholic community the onlv practical result of the new proposals of the Government was to deprive the owners of Catholic schools of the rent promised by the Bill. A Dght of appeal was given, but the only result of an appeal was to be an order to starve. (Hear, hear.) { Mr E. BLAKE said if it were insisted that I the price of religious freedom in their schools tthouid be the loss of rent the Catholics would readily make the sacrifice. Mr H. PAUL supported the amendment before the Committee. He thought it could not be denied that thia was a Christian and a Pro- testanb Bill, and it followed from that that acme little indulgence was owing to the Jews ajid Catholics. Mr LYTTELTON had no doubt that the feeling against paying for denominational teaching which had found expression in the Dasstve resistance movement would determine the d?c?ons of numerous local education ?uthori?. The Minister for Education had always contempiat,ed the possibility of strenu- ous opposition to Clause 4. The nght hon. ?tien?n bad referred to the remedyof man. S???????? S?.,S???-?.??? ??.°.????? starve .he dcnom?at;onat schoots by meana of ?"?onrr.icting out "order. th..<- Dr. MAC?AMARA. wtule cons?denng that the proposal that there should be no rented where these extended facilities were g?r, ;t was a fair one. saw no good reason for tnx to ma.'kc: the clause mandatory. .f contracting out proposals no tv put forward by the Government, he was extremely sorry it had emanated from a Liberal Front Bench. (Hear. bear.) It was wholly a!:en to Liberal principles to allow a school to draw nine-tenths of its income from public sources and yet re- main outside of public centre*). He viewed this contracting out proposal with great disap- pointment and with something very nearly approaching disgust. Mr L BLARDY considered that the new pro- posals of the Government placed a premium upon the refusal of local authorities to grant extended facilities. Mr BELLOC wished to make the clause directly mandatory. Mr W. REDMOND behoved that if the amendments proposed by the Government were carr led the Roman Catholic schools would be put back to the position they occupied before the year 1902. If the poor struggling Roman Catholic schools were deprived of re- ceiving rent as proposed by these amendments it would inua.me the Roman Catholic people with the idea that a gross injustice was being done them. He urg"d the Government to make the clause mandatory. Mr Chamberiain's Attack. Mr CHAMBERLAIN said the fact that no member had really supported the Government showed that it was impossible to amend the I Bill. It was drawn on wrong lines, and could not be a final settlement. He should vote for the amendment, caring very little whether it was carried or not. He believed the clause was honestly introduced to give facilities in a large number of cases, but if may remained the ciausc would be wholly illusory and a sham. The Government scheme was so elaborate that few people outside the House could understand it. It would allow schools tvbich were not permitted to enjoy facilities to contract themselves out. That would be doing a great injustice to those schools what- ever denomination they were. It would put them in an intolerable position. If they accepted the amendment and made the clause mandatory every other provision in the clause should be made mandatory, and they must do away with the absurd, ridiculous, and inconsistent distinction between urban and other areas. (Opposition cheers.) They must do away with that other absurd proposition that four-fifths of the parents were entitled to a conscience and three-fifths were not ent t]ed to any conscience. If they did not they would not be carrying out the pledges they bad given, and would be providing facilities for denomina- tional instruction. What would the passive resistors say then ? (Opposition cheers.) That brought them back to the separation of reli- gious from secular teaching. That was the only possible solution. Mr A. SPICER believed that Clause 4 was rea.sona.bie because it was to be worked by a local authority. Mr T. \V. RUSSELL should vote for the clause bein mandatory. because he believed that to thr'v the religious questions into muni- cipal elections all over England wouid be one of the worst thins the House of Commons could do. Mr RAMSAY MACDONALD had he<'n ex- ceedingiy amused by some of the speeches delivered that afternoon. If the country had been Nonconformist to any great extent lie could have understood them. He wanted to point out that having by a large majority rejected the idea that it was only the duty of the State to concern itself with secular educa- tion, the House would only deal with this religious question by applying those principles of toleration which demanded the recognition of the existence of different denominations- Ho supported the amendment before the Com- mittee. Mr L. Withams to the Rescue. Mr LLEWELYN WILLIAMS said the right hon. member for Birmingham- (-'Ylr Chamberlain), had referred to the fact that no member on that side had got up and said they supported the amendments proposed by the Government. That was the reason he rose to state that he represented the vast majority of members onthatsidc in telling the Government that they had the undivided support of the vast majority of their followers if they were'pre- pared to stick to their Bill and to the amend- ments they had put on the paper. In the last few days the members who had been most vocal on the Liberal side were those who opposed the Government, but he asked the Government not merely to regard the views of those members, but also to regard the views of thoss who silently followed the Government into the Division Lobby. He was one of those who supported the secular amend- ment, and be regretted ever since that more members had not had the courage of their opinions to support the amendment That was the logical and inevitable solution, but the Government had not accepted it. The Bill had been built on the principle of local option. Clause 4 as it stood gave the local authority the option to give extended facilities, and he urged the Government as they had after mature thought introduced a Bill based on the prin- ciple of local option not to -,auow themselves cheers)—or to be M&ndished out of it by speeches made on cither side of the House. Lord Ba!carr&-i had said tha.t 50 per cent. of the Catholic schools would be destroyed by Clause 4. Nothing surprised him more than to hear that reiterated. Mr D1LLON Clause 4 leaves 50 per cent. of the CathoHc schools outside its operation. Mr WILLIAMS Does the hon. member mean to say that if 50 per cent. do not come within the operation of Clause 4 they will not come within the operation of Clause 3 ? Mr D1LLON Clause 3 is no use to us at all. Mr WILLIAMS That is another matter. If a school, he continued, could not be brought within the conditions of Clause 4, there was nothing to prevent that school being brought within Clause 3. That was not the destruc- tion of denominational teaching in this country. As to contracting out, if he thought it would be used by the Board of Education indiscriminately, or that its power would be invoked to a large extent, he would view it with great apprehension but he did not conceive that anything of that kind would happen. He assured the Irish members that the We)sh members, who represented the greatest body of Nonconformists in this country, only asked that local option should be allowed them because they bad not got a Parliament of their own to decide what they wanted. Mr D1LLON We arc going to support your part of the Bill. Mr WILLIAMS said he was glad to hear that, but that dealt with only a small part of the Home Rule question. If this clause was made mandatory a greater flame would he kindled in Wa]e.;¡ than the present Government would be able to put out. but if local option was allowed if they trusted the local authorities in Wales the Bill would work smoothly and well. Someone had said, Suppose there was a pig-headed authority ?" No one knew better than he did that things were done during the last three or four years buth in W&iea I and outside it which in their sober and calmer moments none of them would like to justify. There was a state of war and the Welsh Coercion Act, as it was called, was

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EDUCATION BtLL. ? ..