cations and franchises in respect of the rating and payment of rates. It appears, however, from a circular letter of the Education Department, dated the 14th of November, 1870, addressed to the deputy returning-officers for the divisions of the metropolis, as to the persons who were to be deemed to be "ratepayers" in the election of the School Board for London, that the Education Department considered that the owners of tenements who were rated under an order of vestry under sec. 4 of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, as well as the occupiers of the tenements, were entitled to vote in the election. But the subsequent provision in the second schedule of the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, renders it necessary in order to entitle either the owner or the occupier to vote that his name should appear in the rate book which forms the register. The rate book distinguishes the owners who are thus rated, as it is in these cases only that the column of the rate book headed " Amount of rate assessed upon and payable by the owner instead of the occupier, by virtue of the statute or statutes in that behalf," will be filled up. In the cases where owners have voluntarily agreed to pay the rates instead of the occupiers, and are not rated under an order of vestry, the occupiers and not the owners are assessed, and it would seem to follow that the occupiers alone can be regarded as "ratepayers."

As to the number of members to be elected as a school board of a parish, see sec. 31.

Provisions are contained in secs. 46 and 48 with regard to the election of a school board for a united school district, and in sec. 77 for a parish divided by the boundaries of a borough. Sec. 50 provides for the election of members to represent a contributing district at the school board of the district to which it contributes.

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

(3) At an ordinary vestry meeting the number of votes to which the persons present at the meeting are entitled varies according to the amount of their assessment (see note to sec. 3), but in the election of a school board each voter is to have the same number of votes, namely, a number equal to the number of members of the school board to be elected.

Every voter may distribute his votes among the candidates as he may think fit. For instance, if there are fifteen members to be elected, each voter will have fifteen votes, and the voter may give the fifteen votes to one candidate, or give three each to any five of the number, or distribute them unequally amongst the candidates according to his inclination.

Mr. Dixon, in April 1871, brought in a Bill, by which it was proposed to repeal the words "and may give all such votes to one candidate, or may distribute them among the candidates as he thinks fit;" and to provide that in any future election of a school board every voter may vote for as many candidates as he thinks fit, not exceeding the number of members to be elected, but in no case shall he give more than one vote to any candidate. The Bill, however, was negatived on the second reading.

It will be observed that no qualification whatever is prescribed by the Act for a candidate for election as a member of a school board. Females, as well as males, lodgers as well as householders, and non-residents as well as residents, are eligible for election. The orders of the Education Department with regard to elections, however, require that a candidate shall be of "full age." See also sec. 34 as to certain disqualifications; and the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, sec. 8, post, as to disqualification by conviction for corrupt practices.

There is a provision in Schedule 2, first part, clause 14, to the effect that if a "member of the school board is punished with imprisonment for any crime, or is adjudged bankrupt, or enters into a composition or agreement with his creditors, he shall cease to be a member of the school board, and his office shall be vacant." If, however, the imprisonment or the bankruptcy occurred previous to the election, it would not appear to be a disqualification for election: but when a member has ceased to hold office by reason of imprisonment, bankruptcy, or composition with creditors, or absence for six successive months from the meetings of the board, clause 12 of the schedule referred to con templates that he shall not be re-eligible.

A relieving officer is bound by the terms of his appointment to devote his whole time to the duties of his office, unless the Local Government Board dispense with a compliance with the requirement. They have declined to assent to a relieving officer acting also as a member of a school board.

In a case which came before the Court of Session in Scotland, it appeared that an inspector of the poor, whose duties are similar to those of a relieving officer in England, having been elected a member of a school board, was required by the Board of Supervision either to resign that office or his office as inspector of the poor, on the ground that the Board considered it undesirable that the two offices should be held by the same person. The officer, however, declined to resign either position, and the Board thereupon threatened to remove him from his office of inspector of the poor. The contention of the inspector was that the fact of his holding the office of member of the school board did not render him unfit or incompetent to discharge the duties of inspector of the poor; but the Lord Ordinary held that the Court could not over-rule the Board of Supervision in the matter, and on appeal his decision was confirmed.

Art. 15 (b) of the code (of 1876) of the Education Department provided as follows:-Teachers of public elementary schools "cannot be recognised as members of school boards." With reference to this clause, Lord Sandon, VicePresident of the Council, stated in the House of Commons on the 26th April, 1875:-"It was never our intention to require a teacher already a member of a school board to resign his seat before the end of the term for which the board was elected; but if, whilst the present code is in force, a teacher is elected upon and joins a school board, such an act would rank with any other infringement of the conditions of the code, and disqualify the school to which the teacher belonged from receiving a Government grant." The code of 1878 contains a similar clause.

(4) As to elections in the metropolis, see sec. 37.

Constitution of School Board.

30. With respect to the constitution of a school board the following provisions shall have effect:

(1.) The school board shall be a body corporate, by the name of the school board of the district to which they belong, having a perpetual succession and a common seal (1), with power to acquire and hold

land for the purposes of this Act without any licence in mortmain: (2)

(2.) No act or proceeding of the school board shall be questioned on account of any vacancy or vacancies in their body: (3)

(3.) No disqualification of or defect in the election of any persons or person acting as members or member of the school board shall be deemed to vitiate any proceedings of such board in which they or he have taken part, in cases where the majority of members parties to such proceedings were duly entitled to

act:

(4.) Any minute made of proceedings at meetings of the school board, if signed by any person purporting to be the chairman of the board, either at the meeting of the board at which such proceedings took place or at the next ensuing meeting of the board, shall be receivable in evidence in all legal proceedings without further proof, and until the contrary is proved every meeting of the school board, in respect of the proceedings of which minutes have been so made, shall be deemed to have been duly convened and held, and all the members thereof to have been duly qualified to act: (4)

(5.) The members of a school board may apply any money in their hands for the purpose of indemnifying themselves against any law costs or damages which they may incur in or in consequence of the execution of the powers granted to them:

(6.) The rules contained in the third schedule to this Act with respect to the proceedings of school boards, and the other matters therein contained, shall be observed. (5)

(1) The school board of a district are by this provision constituted a corporation, and have a common seal. In Austin v. The Guardians of Bethnal Green, L. R. 9 C. P. 92, Coleridge, C. J., said:-The rule of law is clear that, prima facie and for general purposes, a corporation can only contract under seal; for the proper legal mode of authenticating the act of a corporation is by means of its seal. On this rule, however, certain exceptions have been granted. The principle that governs these exceptions is conveniently stated in the case of Church v. Imperial Gas-light Company, 6 A. and E. 846, by the Court of Queen's Bench, which statement is adopted by the Court of Exchequer in the case of Mayor of Ludlow v. Charlton, 6 M. and W. 815. It is there stated that, "wherever to hold the rule applicable would occasion very great inconvenience, or tend to defeat the very object for which the corporation was formed, the exception has prevailed-hence the retainer by

parol of an inferior servant, the doing of acts very frequently recurring or too insignificant to be worth the trouble of affixing the common seal are established exceptions."

As regards appointments of officers of the school board, it will be observed that it is expressly provided by Rule 7 of the Third Schedule, that the appointment of an officer may be made by a minute of the board, signed by the chairman of the board, and countersigned by the clerk (if any) of the board, and that any appointment so made shall be as valid as if it were made under the seal of the board.

In the case of a united school district the name is to be such as may be prescribed by the Education Department (sec. 45).

(2) The Public Parks, Schools, and Museums Act, 1871, exempts gifts and bequests of land or of money to be laid out in land for an elementary school from the Mortmain Acts. The provisions of the Act, so far as they relate to

public schools, are as follows:

"From and after the passing of this Act (25th May, 1871), all gifts and assurances of land of any tenure, and whether made by deed or by will or codicil, for the purposes only of a.... schoolhouse for an elementary school, and all bequests of personal estate to be applied in or towards the purchase of land for all or any of the same purposes only, shall be valid, notwithstanding the statute of the 9th Geo. II., c. 36, and other statutes, commonly known as the Statutes of Mortmain:

"Provided that every will or codicil containing any such gift or assurance, and every deed containing any such gift or assurance, and made otherwise than for full and valuable consideration, shall, in order to enable such gift or assurance to take effect under this Act, be made twelve calendar months at least before the death of the testator or grantor, and shall be enrolled in the books of the Charity Commissioners within six calendar months next after the time when the same will, codicil, or deed shall come into operation.

"Nothing in this Act shall authorise any gift by will or codicil of more than.... one acre of land for any one schoolhouse.

"Nothing in this Act contained shall invalidate or impose any restriction or condition upon any gift or assurance which would have been valid and free from such restriction or condition if this Act had not passed."

By the interpretation clause it is provided that the words "6. ""elementary school' shall mean a school or department of a school at which elementary education is the principal part of the education there given, and shall not include any school or department of a school at which the ordinary payments in respect of the instruction from each scholar exceed ninepence a week; and the word 'schoolhouse' shall include the teacher's dwelling-house, and the playground (if any) and the offices, and all premises belonging to or required for a school."

(3) There must, however, be a quorum of the members present. See Schedule 3, No. 1 (d).

(4) The names of the members present at each meeting, and in the case of a division the names of those voting upon each question, are to be recorded. See 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, Third Schedule (ƒ), post.

In a case in which the district auditor disallowed a sum charged in the accounts of a school board for printing the minutes of the board, on the ground that the printing of the minutes was not required for the transaction of the business of the board, and therefore unnecessary, and that the school board had no legal authority to make the payment out of the funds in their posses

sion, the Local Government Board, on an appeal against the decision of the auditor, stated that they considered that the printing of the minutes was a matter within the discretion of the school board, and that if they deemed it advisable to print the minutes, the expense of so doing was not unlawful.

(5) Schedule 3 of this Act, and Schedule 3 of the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, post, contain regulations with regard to the ordinary and extraordinary meetings of the school board; the notice to be given of business to be transacted; the quorum and the voting at meetings of the 'board; the election of chairman and vice-chairman; the signing of orders of the board for payment of money ; the form and signing of precepts; and the minutes as to the appointment of officers, &c. The school board may, subject to the regulations contained in the schedule referred to, from time to time make further regulations with regard to the transaction and management of business.

Election of School Board.

31. With respect to the election under this Act of a school board, except in the metropolis (1), the following provisions shall have effect:

(1.) The number of members of a school board shall be

such number, not less than five nor more than fifteen, as may be determined in the first instance by the Education Department, and afterwards from time to time by a resolution of the school board approved by the Education Department: (2) (2.) The regulations contained in the second schedule to this Act with respect to the election and retirement of the members of the school board, and the other matters therein contained, shall be of the same force as if they were enacted as part of this section: (3)

(3.) The Education Department may, at any time after the date at which they are authorised under this Act to cause a school board to be formed, send a requisition to the mayor or other officer or officers who have power to take proceedings for holding the election requiring him or them to take such proceedings, and the mayor or other officer or officers shall comply with such requisition; and in case of default some person appointed by the Education Department may take such proceedings and shall have for that purpose the same powers as the person in default. (4)

(1) With regard to the election of a school board in the metropolis, see

sec. 37.