- Sir John Gcrrst delivered an interesting speech on the
Education question to a. meeting of the metropolitan division of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional
Associations at the Constitutional Club on Thursday, in which he ignored the controversy between Rate-aid and State-aid, but appeared to assume that the help given would be State-aid, and that the difficulty would be to know to which schools it should be given and by whom the distribution should be made. His contention, as we understand it, is that aid should be given to all poor schools in need of it, whether Board-schools or voluntary sehools, bat that the discrimination as to which schools those are that need it, must be made by some elective local body. Why so ? Would not the inspectors of the Education Department be the very best judges of the schools' needs ? Sir John Gorst pointed out that the cry for further delay which has been raised (and which was supported by Mr. E. N. Buxton in Thursday's Times) is a cry for an impossibility. The whole controversy must come on in relation to £100,000, which will go towards paying off the National Debt, if not allotted to the Education Department, as it otherwise would be, before the Budget of next year. And if the allotment of this comparatively small sum can be determined on sound principles, then a great step will have been gained towards the solution of the best scheme for the Bill of the Government. Why does not Sir John Gorst give us his own judgment more plainly ? We suppose that he is bound to hold his tongue till the Cabinet has quite made up its mind. It is a pity that the real Education Minister should not be in the Cabinet.
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