resolution passed as hereinafter mentioned, and with the consent of the Education Department, re-transfer such school or such interest therein to a body of managers qualified to hold the same under the trusts of the school as they existed before such transfer to the school board, and upon such re-transfer may convey all the interest in the schoolhouse and in any endowment belonging to the school vested in the school board.

A resolution for the purpose of this section may be passed by a majority of not less than two thirds of those members of the school board who are present at a meeting duly convened for the purpose, and vote on the question.

The Education Department shall not give their consent to any such re-transfer unless they are satisfied that any money expended upon such school out of a loan raised by the school board of such district has been or will on the completion of the re-transfer be repaid to the school board.

Every school so re-transferred shall cease to be a school provided by a school board, and shall be held upon the same trusts on which it was held before it was transferred to the school board.

Miscellaneous Powers of School Board.-Payment of School Fees.

25. The school board may, if they think fit, from time to time, for a renewable period not exceeding six months, pay the whole or any part of the school fees payable at any public elementary school by any child resident in their district whose parent is in their opinion unable from poverty to pay the same; but no such payment shall be made or refused on condition of the child attending any public elementary school other than such as may be selected by the parent; and such payment shall not be deemed to be parochial relief given to such parent.1

1 As to the remission of fees in schools provided by school boards, see sec. 17; and the establishment of schools in which no fees are to be paid by the scholars, see sec. 26.

Establishment of Free School in special cases.

26. If a school board satisfy the Education Department that, on the ground of the poverty of the inhabitants of any place in their district, it is expedient for the interests of education to provide a school at which no fees shall be required from the scholars, the board may, subject to such rules and conditions as the Education Department may prescribe, provide such school, and may admit scholars to such school without requiring any fee.1

Contribution to Industrial Schools. 29 & 30 Vict. c. 118.

27. A school board shall have the same powers of contributing money in the case of an industrial school as is given to a prison authority by section twelve of "The Industrial Schools Act, 1866;" and upon the election of a school board in a borough the council of that borough shall cease to have power to contribute under that section.2

1 Having regard to the provisions in secs. 17 & 26 with reference to the remission or payment by the school board of school fees in respect of children whose parents are unable on the ground of poverty to pay the fees, the cases in which it will be requisite to establish free schools will be very exceptional.

Mr. Forster, with reference to this clause, said: "We give the school boards power to establish special free schools under special circumstances, which chiefly apply to large towns, when, from the exceeding poverty of the district, or for other very special reasons, they prove to the satisfaction of the Government that such a school is needed, and ought to be established. We require the approval of the Government to be obtained, upon the ground that it would not be fair to the existing schools to allow a free school to be set up unless on very special grounds."-Hansard's Debates, vol. 199, 455.

p.

2 Sec. 12 of the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, provides as follows: "In England a prison authority may from time to time contribute such sums of money, and on such conditions as they think fit, towards the alteration, enlargement, or rebuilding of a certified industrial school; or towards the support of the inmates of such a school; or towards the management of such a school; or towards the establishment or building of a school intended to be a certified industrial school; or towards the purchase of land required either for the use of an existing certified industrial school, or for the site of a school intended to be a certified industrial school; provided

"First. That not less than two months' previous notice of the intention of the prison authority to take into consideration the making of such contribution, at a time and place to be mentioned in such notice, be given by advertisement in some one or more

Establishment of Industrial School.

28. A school board may, with the consent of the Education Department, establish, build, and maintain a certified industrial school within the meaning of the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, and shall for that purpose have the same powers as they have for the purpose of providing sufficient school accommodation for their district: Provided that the school board, so far as regards any such industrial school, shall be subject to the jurisdiction of one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State in the same manner as the managers of any other industrial school are subject, and such school shall be subject to the provisions of the said Act, and not of this Act.1

public newspaper or newspapers circulated within the district of the county or borough, and also in the manner in which notices relating to business to be transacted by the prison authority are usually given.

66

Secondly. That where the prison authority is the council of a borough the order for the contribution be made at a special meeting of the council.

"Thirdly. That where the contribution is for alteration, enlargement, rebuilding, establishment, or building of a school or intended school, or for purchase of land, the approval of the Secretary of State be previously given for that alteration, enlargement, rebuilding, establishment, building or purchase.'

""

Under sec. 36 the school board may if they think fit appoint an officer to take the necessary steps for having sent to a certified industrial school children liable to be so sent.

By the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, an industrial school is defined as 66 a school in which children are lodged, clothed, and fed, as well as taught." It is requisite that the Secretary of State for the Home Department should certify that the school is fit for the reception of children under the Act referred to, in order to constitute it a certified industrial school."

The classes of children who may be sent to industrial schools are as follows:

Any child apparently under the age of fourteen years who is brought before two justices or a magistrate and comes within any of the following descriptions:-(1) that is found begging or receiving alms (whether actually or under the pretext of selling or offering for sale anything), or being in any street or public place for the purpose of so begging or receiving alms; or (2) that is found wandering and not having any home or settled place of abode or proper guardianship or visible means of support; or (3) that is found destitute, either being an orphan or having a surviving parent who is undergoing penal servitude or imprisonment; or (4) that frequents the company of thieves.

Any child apparently under the age of twelve years who is charged before two justices or a magistrate with an offence

Constitution of School Boards.-School Board.

29. The school board shall be elected in manner provided by this Act,-in a borough by the persons whose names are on the burgess roll of such borough for the time being in force and in a

punishable by imprisonment or a less punishment, but has not been convicted of felony.

Any child apparently under the age of fourteen years whose parent or step-parent or guardian represents to two justices or a magistrate that he is unable to control him, and that he desires that the child should be sent to an industrial school; and

Any child apparently under the age of fourteen years, maintained in a workhouse or pauper school, whom the board of guardians or board of management of the pauper school represent to two justices or a magistrate to be refractory, or to be the child of parents either of whom has been convicted of a crime or offence punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment.

In every case the order must be made by the two justices or magistrate before whom the child is brought, or before whom the representation with regard to the child is made, and it is necessary that the justices or magistrate as the case may be, should be satisfied that it is expedient to deal with the child by sending him to a certified industrial school.

As regards the powers of the Secretary of State, he may order the discharge of any child detained in a certified industrial school, or the transfer of any child from one school to another. The rules for the management and discipline of the school are subject to his sanction, and no substantial addition or alteration is to be made to or in the buildings without his approval. If dissatisfied with the condition of the school, he may withdraw his certificate. The Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury may from time to time contribute such sums as the Secretary of State may recommend towards the custody and maintenance of children detained in certified industrial schools, but the contributions are not to exceed two shillings per week for children detained on the application of their parents, step-parents, or guardians.

The powers of a school board with regard to providing school accommodation, and which under this section are applicable to the establishment and maintenance of a certified industrial school, are those set forth in secs. 18, 19, & 20.

The Education Department in a letter dated the 12th Oct., 1870, state, "No grant can be made in aid of the establishment of industrial schools under sec. 28, since the conditions of the revised code, under which applications for building grants will be entertained up to the close of this year, do not provide for the case of schools to be erected by a rate (i.e., by a school board), and those conditions cannot at this date be modified by a new minute." sec. 97 of the Act.)

(See

The school board are empowered by sec. 36 to appoint an officer to bring children who are liable to be sent to a certified industrial school before justices, in order to their being so sent.

1 The school board are to be elected in every borough with the exception of Oxford by the persons whose names are on the

parish not situate in the metropolis by the ratepayers.1

burgess roll of the borough for the time being in force. Special provision is made with regard to the Metropolis by sec. 37, and with regard to Oxford by sec. 93. The 32 & 33 Vict. c. 55, sec. 1, provides that " every person of full age who on the last day of July in any year shall have occupied any house, warehouse, countinghouse, shop, or other building within any borough during the whole of the preceding twelve calendar months, and also during the time of such occupation shall have resided within the said borough, or within seven miles of the said borough, shall, if duly enrolled in that year according to the provisions contained in the said Act of the session of the fifth and sixth years of King William the Fourth, chapter seventy-six, and the Acts amending the same, be a burgess of such borough and member of the body corporate of the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of such borough: Provided that no such person shall be so enrolled in any year unless he shall have been rated in respect of such premises so occupied by him within the borough to all rates made for the relief of the poor of the parish wherein such premises are situated during the time of his occupation as aforesaid, and unless he shall have paid on or before the twentieth day of July in such year all such rates, including therein all borough rates, if any, directed to be paid under the provisions of the said Acts, as shall have become payable by him in respect of the said premises up to the preceding fifth day of January: Provided also, that the premises in respect of the occupation of which any person shall have been so rated need not be the same premises or in the same parish, but may be different premises in the same parish or in different parishes: Provided also, that no person being an alien shall be so enrolled in any year, and that no person shall be so enrolled in any year, who, within twelve calendar months next before the said last day of July, shall have received parochial relief or other alms.

The Regulations of the Education Department as to the election of a school board for a borough will be found in the Appendix, p. 186-191.

1 In a parish not situated in the Metropolis or a municipal borough the school board are to be elected by the ratepayers.

The only definition of the term "ratepayer" is that contained in sec. 3, which provides that the term shall include every person who, under the provisions of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869, is deemed to be duly rated (see sec. 3, p. 43, note 1). The effect of sec. 19 of that Act is that the occupier of every rateable hereditament whose name appears in the occupiers' column of the Rate Book, or is improperly omitted from that column, is to be deemed to be duly rated for the purpose of qualifications and franchises, although the rate may be collected from the owner or the owner may be liable to the payment of the rate instead of the occupier.

By the Acts relating to voting at vestry meetings a person, though assessed to the poor rate is not entitled to vote at a vestry, unless he has paid any poor rate which has become due more than three calendar months immediately preceding the vestry meeting-the payment of the rate by an owner under the Poor Rate Assessment