On Tuesday under the Ten Minutes Rule Mr. McKenna brought
in his Bill to relieve local education authorities of the cost of special religious instruction in non-Provided schools. Under the Bill, which consists of but one clause, the duty of defraying the cost of this instruction is transferred from the authority to the managers, such cost being definitely fixed as one-fifteenth of the salary of any teacher giving religious lessons unauthorised by the Cowper-Temple Muse. If the managers failed to provide this one- fifteenth, their school would no longer be maintained as a public elementary school. By means of this Bill, which in principle confirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the West Riding case, he hoped to prevent disputes between local authorities and the managers, and to remedy the grievances of the "passive resisters."
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