EDUCATION BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3062, 5 December 1908, Page 5

EDUCATION BILL.

NONCONFORMISTS AND THE COMPROMISE. CATHOLIC DEMANDS. FINANCIAL RESOLUTION PASSED. Received December 4, 8.8 a.m. LONDON, December 3. During the Education Bill debate, SirG. White, Member for North-West Norfolk, and ex-president of the Baptist Union, indicated that it the 7s ('! 8s) demand was pressed, the Noncomformists would not adhere to the compromise. Mr Runciman declared that the Government was unable to satisfy the Catholic demands by making the increased grant equivalent to the amount of the existing grant, plus rates. He thought a 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 ne derived from voluntary subscriptions, endowments, and fees. The financial resolution was carried by 241 votes to 119 votes. DEBATE ADJOURNED TILL FRLDAY. THE PREMIER ANXIOUS FOR A SETTLEMENT. THE CHURCH COUNCIL AND THE COMPROMISE. A MOTION TO REJECT IT LOST. Received December 4, 9.20 p.m. LONDON, December 4. In the House of Comnfbns, on the motion of the Prime Minister, further consideration of the Education Bill was postponed until Friday, Mr Asquith remarking that it was a waste of time to proceed until some settlement was reached, sa he hoped it might yet be. The Archbishop of Canterbury, addressing the representatives of the Ciiurch Council at the Churchsaid hs.Tvas not prepared to abandon hopes of a H§fcfc.|ement even after Mr Runciman's last letter, though negotiations were never more dispiriting than now. White believing that a settlement was absolutely needed for England's sake, it wad 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 emLodied in the Bill. Bishop Salisbury moved an amendment that the Bill was unacceptable without serious alterations. !'•

The amendment was lost by 187 votes to 216.

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