THE NEWMARKET SCHOOL BOARD.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEOTATOR:] SIR, —The supporters of a national scheme of education who dis- approve of the religious element being taken out of the hands of the Public Schoolmaster, must hear with regret of a serious abuse which has arisen in the generally admirable system of Board Schools. The sporting town of Newmarket appears to be the place which has started a new intrigue in the Education contro- versy. Its School Board has found out how not only to evade the clause which forbids the teaching of denominational catechisms and formularies in Board Schools, but even how to evade it with the express sanction of the Education Department. The time- table of the St. Mary's Boys' School, Newmarket, of which a copy lies before me, signed by H.M.'s Inspector on behalf of the Educa- tion Department, is simply indistinguishable from the time-table of a Voluntary Church school, and, in fact, specifies the Cate- chism as part of the week's work. An arrangement has been made between the Church Committee and the School Board to divide the hours of the school-day between them, and the school is now as abaolutely a Church school as it could have been before there was a Board and a Rate. This adroit arrangement seems quite congenial to the prevailing ideas of the place. According to the "Slang Dictionary," " Newmarket " is the recognised term for the game of tossing halfpence, when the winner of two tosses out of three carries off the whole stakes. Just so the "Church party" at Newmarket, having gained the School-Board election, have pro- ceeded to take absolute possession of the schools, no doubt con- sidering that having won the game, they were entitled to pocket the stakes.
Those, however, who do not care to see education regulated on the principles of pitch-and-toss, and who regard such arrange- ments as cumulative voting and the Cowper-Temple clause as expressing the purpose of the nation to protect minorities, will be little disposed to acquiesce in the Newmarket proceedings. and all the less so, when they learn that it is contemplated to imitate them in other places where School Boards are to be formed. The plan is quite simple. Get a Church majority on the School Board, and make a proper agreement for the transfer of the National-School buildings ; then you may keep your Church Schools as they were, creeds, catechism, and all, and the Education Department will back you in setting at defiance the intention of the Education Act. Of course, in many towns the Dissenters are strong enough to resist, and they will everywhere be aided by the great body of Churchmen who are also statesmen, who will not look forward with comfort to the prospect of levying an unfair rate, and selling Dissenters' goods by auction in the street, after the manner of Newmarket. But it is certain that the safeguards by which Par- liament believed itself to have secured a certain ddgree of unsec- tarian fairness in Board Schools have proved defective in an important point, and unless there is an alteration either in the Act or in its mode of administration, the Newmarket precedent will be worked in scores of country towns and villages, and always with harm to public feeling.—I am, Sir, &c., J. P. [We cannot believe that the Education Department approve the policy described by our correspondent.—ED. Spectator.]
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