certified industrial schools, and certified day industrial schools, see sec. 28, and 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 15, post.

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.

See also sec. 13 of the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, post, as to the duty of school boards and school attendance committees with regard to taking proceedings for sending children to industrial schools.

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.

For definition of the term "certified industrial school," see sec. 27, note.

The power of school boards to establish certified industrial schools is extended to certified day industrial schools (see 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 15, post). That section further provides that the consent of one of Her Majesty's Secretaries of State, and not of the Education Department, shall be required for the establishing of an industrial school by a school board. It also empowers a school board to borrow for the purpose of establishing an industrial school.

The classes of children who may under the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, be sent to certified 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 subsistence; 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 reputed thieves.

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

The Prevention of Crime Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict., c. 112), further provides that: Where any woman is convicted of crime, and a previous conviction of a crime is proved against her, any children of such woman under the age of fourteen years who may be under her care and control at the time of her conviction for the last of such crimes, and who have no visible means of subsistence, or are without proper guardianship, shall be deemed to be children to whom in Great Britain the provisions of the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, apply, and the court by whom such woman is convicted, or two justices or a magistrate, shall have the power of ordering such children to be sent to a certified industrial school.

See also the provisions in secs. 12, 13, and 16 of the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 15, post, as to the children who, under that Act, may be sent to certified industrial schools, or certified day industrial schools.

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

See also provisions in secs. 12, 13, 14, 16, and 17 of the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, post, with regard to certified industrial schools and certified day industrial schools.

In reference to a proposal of a school board to establish a school for truant children as a certified industrial school, to which truant children could be sent for short periods, and in which the children would be placed in separate confinement for a time on their first reception, the law officers of the Crown advised that an order for the detention of a child for a period so short as a month or six weeks is at variance with the spirit although not with the letter of the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, and that although, when an order is made by a magistrate for the detention of a child for a longer period than a month, the managers of the school may, under the 14th section of the Elementary Education Act, 1876, at the expiration of a month grant a licence to a child to live out of school, a practice of making orders for long periods, with the intention of having such order virtually rescinded at the expiration of a month by a licence, would constitute such an evasion of the law as they could not recommend. They considered also that rules which provide for the

separate confinement of children for a time on their first reception, exceed in severity what may be taken to have been contemplated for a certified industrial school under the Industrial Schools or Elementary Education Acts, and that children should not be committed to what would virtually be a prison without the distinct authority of parliament.

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 (1), and in a parish not situate in the metropolis by the ratepayers. (2)

At every such election every voter shall be entitled to a number of votes equal to the number of the members of the school board to be elected, and may give all such votes to one candidate, or may distribute them among the candidates, as he thinks fit. (3)

The school board in the metropolis shall be elected in manner hereinafter provided by this Act. (4)

(1) The school board are to be elected in every borough, with the exception of Oxford and Wenlock, by the persons whose names are on the burgess roll of the borough for the time being in force. Special provision is made with regard to the metropolis by sec. 37, as to Oxford by sec. 93, and as to Wenlock by the 37 & 38 Vict. c. 39, post. The 32 & 33 Vict., c. 55, sec. 1, provides that "every person (whether male or female) of full age who on the last day of July in any year shall have occupied any house, warehouse, counting-house, 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 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."

Applying the principle laid down by the Court of Common Pleas, in June, 1874, in the case of the Petersfield parliamentary election petition (Stowe v. Jolliffe, Law Rep. 9 C. P. 734; 43 L. J., N. s., C. P. 265; 30 L. T., N. s., 795), it would appear that the burgess roll must be considered as conclusive on the returning officer, even so far as regards persons who, by reason of any failure in the incidents or elements of the franchise, such as non-residence within the prescribed distance, non-occupation, or non-payment of rates, could have been successfully objected to on the revision of the burgess roll. At the same time, it would seem that persons who, although on the burgess roll, have not the status of electors, either by prohibition of statute or at common law, would not be entitled to vote.

As regards voting by paupers the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1876 (39 & 40 Vict., c. 61), provides that "no person shall be entitled to vote in the election of a guardian, or in the election to an office under the provisions of any statute, who shall be in receipt of relief given to himself, or his wife, or child, or who shall have been in receipt of such relief on any day during the year last preceding such election. In the case of any person objected to on this ground, a certificate from the clerk of the guardians under his hand shall be sufficient evidence of such person having received relief.”

As to the disqualification of voters by corrupt practices, see sec. 91. With regard to common law disqualifications, the case of R. v. Harrald (Law Rep. 7 Q. B. 361), may be referred to. In that case, at the election of town councillors for one of the wards of the borough of Sunderland, a Mr. Harrald was returned as elected by a majority of one vote. The majority included the votes of two married women. One of these women, Anne Thompson, at the time she was put upon the burgess roll was married, but was living apart from her husband, and was occupying a house and paying rates as a single woman. The other, Nancy Storey, was a single woman when placed upon the burgess roll, but had married a few days before the election. For the defendant it was argued that sec. 9 of the 32 & 33 Vict., c. 55, conferred upon women the right of voting in municipal elections; and that as the Act contained no exception with regard to married women, they were entitled to vote, if otherwise qualified. It was also contended that the burgess roll was conclusive as to the persons entitled to vote. On the other hand, it was argued that coverture was a personal disability, and that a married woman was not a person in the eye of the law. The Lord Chief Justice (Cockburn) said that it was impossible to hold that the vote of Anne Thompson, who was a married woman when she was placed on the burgess roll, was a good vote. "By the common law a married woman's status was so entirely merged in that of her husband that she was incapable of exercising almost all public functions. It was thought to be a hardship that when women bore their share of the public burthens in respect of the occupation of property, they should not also share the right to the municipal franchise and be represented; and it was thought that spinsters and unmarried women ought to be allowed to exercise these rights. The 32 & 33 Vict., c. 55, accordingly gave effect to these views, and enacted that wherever men were entitled to vote, women, being in the same situation, should thereafter be entitled: but this only referred to women possessed of the necessary

qualification in respect of property and the payment of rates, and I cannot believe that it was intended to alter the status of married women. It seems quite clear that this statute had not married women in its contemplation. Nor can it be supposed that the subsequent statute (the Married Women's Property Act), by which the status of married women with regard to the power to hold property has been recognised and established, has by a sidewind given them political or municipal rights. As regards the case of Nancy Storey, the circumstances are different. Although she was a single woman when placed on the burgess roll, she was at the time of the election married. There is in the case of this vote, therefore, sufficient doubt as to the validity of the vote to call for further inquiry, and the rule for a quo warranto must be made absolute."

Questions of considerable difficulty with regard to elections and other matters have arisen in cases where a borough, constituted a school district by this Act, has been extended by a local Act so as to include an area comprised in another school district, without any express provisions as to the school district affected. It is important that in any future cases the arrangements contemplated with respect to the school districts should be clearly provided for by the Act for the extension of the borough boundaries. With regard to new boroughs it is to be observed that a school board is not a "local authority" for the purpose of sec. 6 of the Municipal Corporations (New Charters) Act, 40 & 41 Vict., c. 69.

The regulations of the Education Department as to the election of a school board for a borough will be found in the Appendix, pp. 330–339.

Casual vacancies in a school board may be filled up by the school board. See 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, Schedule 3, post.

(2) In a parish not situated in the metropolis or a municipal borough the school board are to be elected by the ratepayers. Special provision is made by the 37 & 38 Vict., c. 39, post, with regard to the Borough of Wenlock.

The regulations of the Education Department as to the election of a school board in any such parish, are given in the Appendix, pp. 348–358.

As to the persons entitled to vote as "ratepayers," see sec. 3 and the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, Schedule 2, No. 1 (c), post, which constitutes the last rate made for the parish more than one month previously to any date the register of the persons entitled to vote at that date.

The rate book, as the register of ratepayers, is intended to be conclusive on the returning officer, subject to the disqualifications for voting referred to in the last-mentioned clause. These disqualifications, as in the case of the election of a school board for a borough, are those which arise from statutory prohibition or the common law; see p. 106.

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 and Collection Act, 1869, being deemed a personal payment by the occupier. In school board elections, however, a ratepayer whose name appears in the rate book which forms the register, will be entitled to vote, notwithstanding the non-payment of any rate.

Much difference of opinion has existed as to whether when the owner of a hereditament is rated, and actually pays the rate instead of the occupier, the owner as well as the occupier, or the occupier alone, is entitled to the qualifi