The following table shows the advantage of such an arrangement both to the Adminis-
tration and the church bodies: — tom
Loan of £100.
For 40 years ... ... ...
For 30 years ... ... ...
For 25 years ... ... ...
For 20 years ... ... ...
Gross annual Annual amount| Net annual Total cost
Aan ; eh repayable by cost to to the
as ° Churches. |Administration.| Churches.
£
40 )
45 |
56; |
60
6
7
719 -
As the Administration under the existing law pays five per cent. per annum on the
cost of erection of the buildings, in perpetuity, there would be a saving of 8s. 10d., 6d.,
4s., and 8d. per cent. per annum on forty-year, thirty-year, twenty-five-year, and twenty-
year loans respectively, and the payments would cease at maturity.
The church bodies would derive the benefit of having the greater portion of their
payments indirectly invested in a sinking fund administered by the Government, and being
consequently released from a considerable portion of their debt.
(22) The Commission further suggests that, if the loan fund referred to in the previous
sections be created, it should be optional for church bodies to borrow from the fund so created
or to raise private loans as at present and to receive the five per cent. on the cost of the
buildings, as provided in Section 10 of Ordinance 23, 1925.
(23) The Commission also recommends that some annual grant should be paid to the
church and missionary bodies in respect of buildings erected or acquired prior to the 1st
April, 1918.
(24) Further, the Commission recommends that aid towards the cost of erection of
buildings paid under Ordinance 23, 1925, should be paid from the date úpon which expense
is incurred by the church authority and not, as at present. from the date of occupation
of the buildings.
CoMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
(25) With the introduction of the new financial relations between the Union and
the Province, the question of compulsory school attendance for coloured children has entered
on a new phase. Every additional child in attendance at school is now the earner of a subsidy
of £5 5s. per annum from the Union Exchequer. It is, therefore, an important point
that additional pupils enrolled in the schools no longer represent an additional financial
burden.
Consequently, the Commission considers that legislation should be introduced which
shall make it competent for the Administration, at the request of the appropriate local
authority, to declare education for coloured children compulsory within the boundaries of
a municipality (which shall be taken to include a village management board area or a local
board area) or a divisional council area.
(26) The Commission further suggests that the lower limit of compulsion should be the
age of seven, and the upper limit the completion by the child of its thirteenth year of age
or the passing of the fourth standard, whichever comes first.
(27) The Commission is of opinion that, in any area where a school board may have
been made the co-ordinating body for coloured education, a request for such declaration shall
emanate from the school board, and the school board should he the body responsible for
seeing that compulsion is enforced.
In any other area where compulsion shall appear to the Administration to be desirable,
‘he Department should take the steps necessary to enforce comnDtulsion.
RURAL SCHOOLS. .
(28) With a view to facilitating the more general establishment of rural: primary
schools with a minimum enrolment of 20-pupils, the Commission recommends that convey-
ance grants at a rate to be determined by regulation should be provided.
(29) To meet the needs of the coloured population, and, incidentally, to provide the
means for securing more settled labour conditions on the farms, the Commission also
recommends the establishment of a special type of smaller rural school with a minimum
enrolment of five pupils.
The initiative in the establishment of such schools should be taken by a recognised
church authority, acting in conjunction with the circuit inspector and the farmers con-
cerned.
r¢.pP. 1-—27.7
