Considering the critical state of the negotiations at the time
when we write, it is difficult to write without the risk of doing more harm than good. We should like, however, to draw the special attention of our readers to a letter con- tributed to Friday's papers by Professor Sadler and Mr. Harvey, the joint secretaries of the Settlement Committee. The letter deals with the crucial point, that of the amount of the grant to be paid to the contracting-out schools. The writers point out—and here we are very strongly with them— that a denomination, in order to secure the privilege of control in a school, must be prepared to make substantial sacrifices in regard to the cost of maintenance. Mr. Runciman, they go on to say, is understood to have based his calculations on the assumption that a denomination should pay one-sixth of the cost of maintenance in its non-Provided schools. They there- upon make the very sound and practical suggestion that the scale of grants proposed in the first schedule of the Bill should. be dropped, and that instead it should be laid down that the managers of each non-Provided school should pay towards its maintenance one-sixth of the average cost of maintaining the publicly managed elementary schools in the area in question. The Government by their grant would supply the remaining five-sixths. The managers would of course in addition provide the buildings and would meet the cost of administration.
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