Towyn-on-Sea and Merioneth County Times

■LttE CONSERVATIYE LEAGUE AT OSWESTRY. MR CLIVE BRIDGEMAN EXPLAINS THE EDUCATION ACT. Na/imt.^18 Oawald Lodge of the Greorrm ^°Ilser?ative League, was held at the After thef °?weatry> ,ou Friday evening, down f ransactiQn of business the members sat Mr R £ a capital dinner provided by Mr Ouzeman. and ho n&'ies> J.P., the Lodge Master, presided, Prosnn^f*aS SUPP?^81^ by Mr Clive Bridgeman, the P oapectxve candidate for the Division, a«d others. strfJf a g Wu held at the Willow street Assembly Rooms, at which Mr Bridgeman dre.« nn *>^7 interesting and instructive ad- occunipd tl u Ca i0n Acfc- Mr R- E- Hnghes clnd £ Ar 6 °riai i' and °tkers OQ the platform in- 5 J w e8SM5 J- Dnmvii,e Lees, Arthur Lovett, RnL ?°"V '°?S Edwards, J.P., J. p. Sheather, ■tiorace Smith, and W. Martin. MJR0 .^airman ia a few brief remarks introduced M matl to fclie meetinw *BH,L? £ d$?man Who waa loudly cheered, said it thpiV i R1 latest pleasure that he accepted not ir £ >nV- 1011 t° discuss a subject, which though not very interesting, was one which their opponents • naa ing a great deal of. All those who were HA]- 8 J ln P0^108 and were determined, as he leve everyone in that room was, to carrv the thfi'!nL- P,° to the front> ought to understaud tn u U 11 an t0 haYe his fingers ends, so as a 9 to speak with Iiia enemies at the gate (applause). He had been often told that he was not sufficiently well known in that part of the Vision. He did Hot think it was his fault, but WJ, D^L ra was one that could be remedied, _i en 0 contested a hopeless division at Worcester- accused of being too young. He replied and -?i! 7 gave him time he would over that kn 3 Wa8 accuse^ °f n°t being sufficiently well known there, he ventured to think there were ways Kettmg over that objection, especially if the Hidness extended to him that night, would be TTo .ln °ther parts of the Division (applause). lved m the other end of the Division where he BPlf Pe aPs better known, but in justice to him- self, he should say he had not been about in Shrop- Wf T7v, ™1!Ch darinr the past few years, eoause he had been endeavouring to make himself for acquainted with different political subjects, Jor politics wag a thing he took more interest in taan anything m this life, and he thought it was his duty to try and learn all he could before he to.teach other people (hear, hear). With that ■SS 1D ?leW, 6 had 8erved for many years as Kn. 4- V^i\° 'hen Colonial Secretary (Lord ihl -nV and affcerw«^s as ex-secretary to the iK- C*ian™1,or of 'he Exchequer (Sir Michael m„J\ach)' and ^or 'ast years he went sinno and visited those Colonial posses- in v Wi 'J Were more important tha* many people 1 Jefemed to imagine (hear, hear). Since ? 1 been deing what he could to study the lerl a 1i?Q *luestion and the most practical know- wf\ JaCq*ired Ava3 that he had got on the I» authority in the world—the th,?T>011 .Board (aPPlause). He had been on fo^i tu i_^°r 81x years and he must be a bigger I than he ever imagined himself to be if he had time T?1'8°mething about the subject in that opBonnnf a,tl £ >? Was a subject of whick their iffnorpn S 8P°^e a reckless way a»d with imnnr-f a1mosfc asfcoundin^. He thought it most of th« should be able to contradict some consfc a7surd statements they read and heard of litt'ft D (aPP^auae)* He muet take them bask a elamJT?7 m hl8tor^. on that point. Up to 1870 the coni^ ar^ education of the children in tkis r-Ountry was carried OJt very largely by voluntary effert. That effort was put forward by the Church rehVioif^K 19 R-°man Catholice, and other the S d168' rass^ted by c«tain grants from effort In 1870 I-t was fouad that those year an T °Tr thf wh°,e country, and in that school, Aclwas bron^t in ^bich instituted Board SverJ' xn heSe-W!rue be up at the rate- school, w M 0 places whera the Voluntary requSd 'ir, 6 ina11 the d-ildrenwho were to r „ The^ (the Board s.h.ols) schools and not fL ^'C'0 Wltb tbe ^oluntary schools, and not as their opponents thought, to Board school/ alto^e4ber (applause). In tie rates or W6le t0 be 811PPorted out of by grants fro J the E^hequer88 iTw 'S°h"ols' that timo vooequer it waa enacted at should l»o '• no definite religious knowledge he deflDi^ '>• »«»»t ™ to Z i !7 "'jbod,. That miiht u i 1 rd Schoo)' though a child might belong to the Church of England suchWaS- fgaA • f°r that Chiid to be tfnght th« r !ml-e D*? aS the AP°stles Creed or hi a Thl3m' and aven duty to our neigh- bonrs whick was one of the beautifal parts of the catechism, eould not be taught in a Board school. Moreover it was net possible to ascertain whether the teachers who gave religious instruction of an undenominational character, even believed in the teaching they were called upon to give (shame), That he thought was a great fault. Notkincr of much importance happened after that, except that education became compulsory, and 1891 the Unionist party made elementary education free, whioh he mentioned had been a very great boon (o the working classes (hear, hear.) They were often told by the Radicals that the Unionists never did anything for the working man, but he thought the granting of free education was of very great importance (applause). Proceeding, he said no- thing of a further importance occurred until the Education Act of 1902. The object of this Act was to consolidate and bring under one authority all the different kinds of education. Until then there had been two different kindi of education, the Board and the Voluntary schools. SMondnry edu- cation was dealt with more or less by amateurs in the Grammar sohools and the people who kept private schools; and technical education was pro- vided by bor«ugh and county councils and by the ^olnntary institutions known as palytechnio?. These different bodies competed with each other, sometimes in a very unfair way, and very often in a way extremely extravagant and expensive to the ratepayers. The ehject of the new Act was to bring these different kinds of education under Olle authority, and one which could follew the COUrse of one particular child from the commence- ment upwards. By that means the child of a Porting man who might not be able to give that child a better education than that obtained in his village schoel, might if the child wag clever enough, go on by means of a scholarship or grants from the central authority, from one step to an- other until the 6child got to the very top rank and pissed through an university (applause). By that Act poverty would not stand in th3 way of giving a child the best education (applause). Proceeding, the speaker said that between 1870 and 1892 the expenses of the Board schools which were at first only supposed to cost a rate of three pence in the pound, gradually rose, and those who were responsible for managiug the School Board were so anxious to make them superior to the voluntary schools that they spent more and more, and even- 7 expended so much that it became very difficult for schools depending on voluntary sub- scriptions to keep pace with the Board schools. • ITM8 lli1611 thought, and in his opinion quite rightly, that the voluntary schools, which, were subjected to the same examinations, should get more benefit out of public money (applause). It was thought that the secular education they gave, apart from the religious instruction, should be paid for to a greater extent out of miblic money. That was, he considered, perfectly fair (applause). •J1S ^as more especially the case when they con- sidered that the voluntary school buildings did not belong to the public, but to those people who founded them with the definite object that their own particular religion should be taught there (hear, hear). Between 1870 and 1902 a great many of those who were opposed to them in politics imagined that voluntary schools would be wiped out of existence by that competition, but so far from that being the case the Church voluntary schools were Hearly doubled, as well as the number of children (applause). That showed that the feeling in this country in favour of voluntary schools was so genuine that people were ready to put their hands in their pockets as well as in many instances having to pay a school board rate (ap- plause). This was done for years at greaW sacrifice, and in some cases the teachers accepted positions in the echools for love of their religion, at lower salaries, than they might have had if they had estered the board schools. It could not be therefore expected that the owners of the volun- tary schools would offer their school buildings to the public authoiities for nothing and undertake to keep them up unless some guarantee was given that the one object for which they had made those sacrifices in the past should be maintained in the future. This was that their children should be taught in a particular creed (applause). During the time between 1870 and 1902 oddly enough most of the voluntary schools other than Church, Roman Catholic and Wesleyans, ceased to exist, because they found that the undenominational teaching given was as much as they required. He did not know of any other reason for it. They had an instance of that in Oswestry, where a British School which had hitherto been kept up, he believed by Dissenters, was sold to the town because they thought the religion taught was as much as they required. They wanted to have the religion which suited them best given at the expense of the town (laughter). He did not blame them, for if this was all the reiigion they weuld have their children taught they were quite right; but he did blame them for trying to prevent others who wanted something better and had con- sciences equally with them, from getting something more definite (applause). He objected to those people saying they bad got all they wanted, but were not willing to give them what they wanted. How ever were they going to unite those two kinds of schools unless they gave the managers of Volun- tary schools the power to give religious teaching as before? It was certain the Voluntary schools would not otherwise be lent to the country. If a Radical Government had been in power and bad forbidden that privilege the Voluntary schools would have been closed, with a result that the ratepayers would have to buy new schools, or buy the Voluntary schools put up by some particular denomination. That would have been an enormous sum, and something between 20 and 30 millions sterling. They would also have had to spend a great deal more in keeping them up. Therefore, the government thought it was only just that the Pu° IJ Wk° bad hitherto supported the schools should have that privilege. Thev considered it economical, and it was to the benefit of the country that it should be saved from unnecessary expense (applanse). The only difference under the Act was that the Board schools would go on as before, only they came under the county council as the education authority. The Voluntary schools also were under the same authority, and were able to raise a, certain amount of money, but so much as the Board schools out of the rates. The Voluntary school managers still had to keep up their fabric and buildings. This was not by any means a small item, for in London the cast of keeping up the buildings, the cost of buying land and sites, and paying off loans on the Board schools, amounted to something between a quarter and one third of the whole amount raised by the rates. That was not a small contribution for the volun- tary managers to make for the sake of getting in return under a conscience clause what they had had before—three quarters of an hour a day for religions instruction (applause). Touching upon the points raised by opponents of the Act he said it did not impose a new test upon any of the teachers. There was no teacher who was free from a test before who was subject to one now. The Board schools would still remain undenomin- ationa!, and so far from any test being imposed it was taken off pupil teachers, or assistant teachers need not now belong to the denomination to which a Voluntary school in which they worked belonged. It was said that Nonconformists were barred from some of the plums of the profession. That was not so, and they were admitted into some posts they could not enter before. It was perfect nonesense to say tkat tests were imposed. What the oppo- nents of the Act asked for was that the Voluntary schools should be prevented from having what they bad always had (applause). Then there was the question of public control. The Voluntary schools were not entirely maintained by public money, becau3e the managers stiil contributed a large share towards their maintenance in the way of buildings and alterations that might be necessay. They were therefore fully entitled to a share in the control. If they were not allowed a majority they would have no security that head teachers belonging to their own faith would be choswn. If they did not get that they could not be expected to give them sehools for nothing. They had consciences as well as their opponents, and they conscientiously beliwved that undenominational teaching which left out the most vital points of their religion was not enough for their children (applause). With regard to the opposition raised he did not think that Dr Clifford and others like him represented the best of Nonconformity.