378 THE SCHOOL BOARDS X V 



singular disposition to accumulate power in the 

 hands of the future Minister of Education, and to 

 evade the more troublesome difficulties of the 

 education question by leaving them to be settled 

 between that Minister and the School Boards. 



I express no opinion whether it is, or is not, 

 desirable that such powers of controlling all the 

 School Boards in the country should be possessed 

 by a person who may be, like Mr. Forster, eminently 

 likely to use these powers justly and wisely, but 

 who also may be quite the reverse. I merely 

 wish to draw attention to the fact that such 

 powers are given to the Minister, whether he be 

 fit or unfit. The extent of these powers becomes 

 apparent when the other sections of the Act 

 referred to are considered. The fourth clause of 

 the seventh section says : 



" The school shall be conducted in accordance with the con- 

 ditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in 

 order to obtain an annual Parliamentary grant." 



What these conditions are appears from the 

 following clauses of the ninety-seventh section : 



"The conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary 

 school in order to obtain an annual Parliamentary grant shall 

 be those contained in the minutes of the Education Department 

 in force for the time being. . . . Provided that no such minute 

 of the Education Department, not in force at the time of the 

 passing of this Act, shall be deemed to be in force until it has 

 lain for not less than one month on the table of both Houses of 

 Parliament." 



