The School Board of London appears to have got itself
into con- siderable pecuniary difficulties. The loans from Public Works Loan Commissioners to which it is entitled are only forthcoming after the completion of the school buildings for which the loans are granted, and as, of course, a considerable outlay must precede the completion of the buildings, the Board has been in the habit of borrowing from the Treasurer temporary loans to meet the current account. The interest on these temporary loans has recently been held illegal, and the Auditor of the Board has surcharged the Chairman and the Finance Chairman with this interest ; but on a case being presented to the Law Officers of the Crown, the Attorney-General held the Board justified in contracting these temporary loans, while the Solicitor-General held that the Board had been acting beyond its powers. Under these circumstances, the Local Government Board remitted their surcharges, but gave notice that no such interest would be allowed in future. The Board, however, is waiting for 291,000 (a good deal of which has been spent beforehand) from the Public Works Loan Commissioners, the application for it having been officially delayed, and has only 25,000 at the bank, while its weekly expenditure is more than 220,000, of which 27,000 is for the salaries of teachers, so that the Board are in a very bad. fix, and have asked permission to state a case for the decision of the High Court of Justice, at the expense of the School fund, defining their exact powers,—and also to be spared all surcharges in the meantime. If they are refused permission to do this, we do not see what will be left, except to imitate the Victorian Government,—discharge their schoolmasters and mistresses without notice, suspend the education of the metropolis, and declare themselves bankrupt. But that will hardly be a nice position for a great educational authority, which ought to be venerable and venerated by the multitude of the taught.
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