The London Welshman

The Welsh Campaign. LLANELLTYD SCHOOL. Board of Education Support the Merioneth Committee. On the 13th of April the managers of Llan- elltyd National School were served by the Edu- cation Committee with a formal notice that owing to their failure to provide new school buildings on a new site as recommended by the county architect the local education authority would cease to maintain the school. Thereupon the managers sent a copy of the notice to the Board of Education, stating that they were not prepared to erect a new school on a new site, but proposing to carry out certain improvements, writing at the same time to the Education Committee, stating that they were not aware of any powers conferred upon the authority to require the building of a new school upon a new site, nor would they consider such a requirement as reasonable, and that they had therefore made an application to the Board of Education to hold an inquiry under Section 7, Sub-section 3 of the Act of 1902." On the 24th ult. the Board of Education wrote to the Education Committee that they had instructed their architect, Mr. S. R. Tatham, to inspect the school and report thereon. The inspection took place on Satur- day the 3rd inst. On Saturday the decision of the Board of Education was received by the Vicar of Llan- elltyd (the Rev. W. Owen) and a copy forwarded to the secretary of the Education 'Committee. The Board say I am directed to express the Board's deci- sion upon the matter as follows :—The man- agers are proposing extensive improvements such as would undoubtedly remove many of the defects in the existing building. Having re- gard, however, to the character of the site and to the structural anangement of the School, t, the Board feel that the result of such improve- ments could not be regarded as providing satisfactory permanent accommodation for the district. In their opinion a new building is needed upon a new site, and the managers could not properly be asked to spend upon the existing buildings the considerable sum of money proposed since the school when so im- proved could still only be regarded as of a temporary character. The Board must therefore require that a new building be provided upon a new site. If the building of a new school is begun at once the existing buildings can continue to be recog- nised pending the opening of the new school until the end of the present year (May 31, 19°5). "I am to request that the managers will at Once inform the Board whether they propose to provide a new school as required at the earliest Possible date. In the event of their declining to do so, it will become the duty of the local Education authority at once to take the necessary steps to provide the new building." Accompanying the copy of the letter for- warded to the secretary of the Education Committee was a communication addressed to himself and containing the following passage:- As the managers may possibly decide not to build new premises, the Board request that the matter may have the early attention of the local education authority in order that, upon the managers' decision being communicated to hem, they may be in a position to take without delay the necessary steps with a view them- selves to provide new premises." It will be remembered that Llanelltyd is the ome of the 27 children who have been with- drawn from the Church School, and are driven daily to Dolgelley Council School, where they are also provided with a mid-day meal. The dumber of children now left at Llanelltyd chool is only about nine. ANOTHER ENQUIRY. th an encluiry held at Llandecwyn last week, Merioneth Committee argued strongly in favour of closing the School, there, as the average attendance is only a dozen or so. Some of the parents, however, and all the landowners, were strongly opposed, and one gentleman urged that the cost of conveying the children to Harlech—about three miles away—would be £ 150 a year. But Mr. Guthrie Jones, who appeared for the Committee, put in a tender containing an offer to undertake the work at Z50 annually. We hear, however, that a Free Church School is about to be opened in the Wesleyan Chapel, the result of which will be that the Church School will be left with only nine children. SALARIES IN A CATHOLIC SCHOOL. At Barry, on Saturday, Mr. Claud Schuster, barrister, on behalf of the Board of Education, conducted an enquiry into representations made by the managers of the St. Helen's Roman Catholic School that the local authority had failed to maintain and keep the school efficient. The chief ground of complaint was that the local authority did not pay salaries equal to those paid in the provided schools within their area. On behalf of the authority, Mr. S. T. Evans, K.C., M.P., declared that the only conceivable test was that adopted by the examiners, who unanimously declared the school efficient. He denied that the Board of Education had a right to interfere with the discretion of local author- ities in the engagement of teachers and the payment of salaries, provided the schools were maintained efficiently, any more than the Local Government Board or the Board of Trade had the right to interfere with local authorities exercising the powers vested in them by Act of Parliament.