(sec. 20), and of persons feeling aggrieved by a proposal to form or dissolve a united school district (secs. 41, 43), or by a proposal to make or revoke an order for contribution by one district to the expenses of providing or maintaining a school in another district (secs. 49, 51).

(2) As to mode of publishing the notice of deposit, see sec. 20 of the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, post.

ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL.

As to Attendance of Children at School.

74. Every school board may from time to time, with the approval of the Education Department, make bye-laws for all or any of the following purposes: (1)

(1.) Requiring the parents of children of such age, not less than five years nor more than thirteen years, as may be fixed by the bye-laws, to cause such children (unless there is some reasonable excuse) to attend school: (2)

(2.) Determining the time during which children are so to attend school; provided that no such bye-laws shall prevent the withdrawal of any child from any religious observance or instruction in religious subjects, or shall require any child to attend school on any day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which his parent belongs, or shall be contrary to anything contained in any Act for regulating the education of children employed in labour: (3)

(3.) Providing for the remission [or payment] of the whole or any part of the fees of any child where the parent satisfies the school board that he is unable from poverty to pay the same: (4)

(4.) Imposing penalties for the breach of any bye-laws: (5.) Revoking or altering any bye-law previously made; Provided that any bye-law under this section requiring a child between ten and thirteen years of age to attend school shall provide for the total or partial exemption of such child from the obligation to attend school if one of Her Majesty's Inspectors certifies that such child has reached a standard of education specified in such bye-law. (5) Any of the following reasons shall be a reasonable excuse (6); namely,

(1.) That the child is under efficient instruction in some other manner;

(2) That the child has been prevented from attending school by sickness or any unavoidable cause;

(3.) That there is no public elementary school open which the child can attend within such distance, not exceeding three miles, measured according to the nearest road, from the residence of such child, as the bye-laws may prescribe.

The school board, not less than one month before submitting any bye-law under this section for the approval of the Education Department, shall deposit a printed copy of the proposed bye-laws at their office for inspection by any ratepayer, and supply a printed copy thereof gratis to any ratepayer, and shall publish a notice of such deposit. (7)

The Education Department before approving of any byelaws shall be satisfied that such deposit has been made and notice published, and shall cause such inquiry to be made in the school district as they think requisite. (8)

Any proceeding to enforce any bye-law may be taken, and any penalty for the breach of any bye-law may be recovered, in a summary manner; but no penalty imposed for the breach of any bye-law shall exceed such amount as with the costs will amount to five shillings for each offence, and such byelaws shall not come into operation until they have been sanctioned by Her Majesty in Council. (9)

It shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by Order in Council, to sanction the said bye-laws, and thereupon the same shall have effect as if they were enacted in this Act.

All bye-laws sanctioned by Her Majesty in Council under this section shall be set out in an appendix to the annual report of the Education Department. (10)

(1) This section only applies to districts for which school boards have been formed. As to the powers of the school attendance committees to make byelaws in other districts, see 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, secs. 21, 22, and 23, post. It is optional with a school board whether or not they will make the bye-laws contemplated by this section, and no such bye-laws will come into operation until approved by the Education Department and sanctioned by an Order in Council.

It will be observed, however, from sec. 11 of the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, post, that proceedings may be taken in certain cases to secure the attendance of children at school, although there may be no bye-laws in force in the district.

(2) The Bill as originally framed allowed the school boards no discretion as to the age at which children might be compelled to attend school. The byelaws, if enforced at all, would have embraced all between the ages of five and twelve years. It now rests with the school boards, subject to the approval of the Education Department, to determine the age, within certain limits, at which attendance at school shall be enforced.

The limits specified in this section have been generally adopted. In some few instances, however, the limits have been fixed at from five to ten years, in

others at from five to eleven, or from five to twelve, and in others from six to thirteen. The 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, by secs. 25 and 26, post, affords facilities for obtaining certificates of births of children for school board purposes.

The number of days of attendance will also be regulated by the bye-laws in accordance with the circumstances of the district.

The bye-laws may require the parents of children "to cause such children to attend school." Attendance at a "public elementary school" cannot be required if the child is under efficient instruction elsewhere.

The school board have no power, under the Act, to prevent a parent from transferring his child from one school to another; and the Education Department have disallowed as ultra vires a bye-law to the effect that, when a parent has selected and sent to an elementary school any child between five and thirteen years of age, he shall not be allowed to transfer the child to any other elementary school until the child has been presented for examination to one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools at the next examination in the school selected, unless the parent shall have received the consent of the board to the transfer of the child, or has ceased to reside within the distance of one mile.

A proposal to make a bye-law that "any school in which there may be sufficient accommodation may be selected by the parent," was also objected to by the Education Department as ultra vires, the school board not being empowered in any way to limit the parent's selection of a public elementary school.

Some of the earlier bye-laws contain provisions as to the duties of the officers of the school board with regard to notices to be given to parents whose children are not attending school, and the form of notice. These the Education Department, in consequence of difficulties which have arisen in carrying the bye-laws into effect, recommend should be omitted. They observe that they are instructions for the officers of the board which the board should have power to alter from time to time, and which therefore it is inconvenient to fix by enacting them in bye-laws.

(3) The provisions with regard to the withdrawal of children from religious observances and instruction, and the attendance of children at school on a day expressly set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the parent belongs, are contained in secs. 7, 14, and 76. The character of the religious instruction to be given in schools of a school board is not one of the purposes for which school boards are empowered to make bye-laws, and the Education Department have declined to sanction bye-laws on this subject. With regard to the provision that the bye-laws shall not be contrary to anything contained in any Act for regulating the education of children employed in labour, the case of Bury (App.) v. Cherryholme (Resp.) L. R. 1 Ex. D. 457 may be referred to. In that case it appeared, from the case stated for the opinion of the High Court of Justice, that the appellant Reginald Bury, on behalf of the school board of Barnsley, laid an information against Joseph Cherryholme, for that he, the said Joseph Cherryholme, residing within the said district of the said school board, and within the said borough of Barnsley, being the parent of a certain child, called John Cherryholme, residing with him within the said district, and being not less than five nor more than thirteen years of age, did within six months last past-to wit, on the 18th of February instant-unlawfully neglect and omit to cause the said child to attend school as required by the bye-laws of the said school board, made and confirmed in pursuance of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, there being no reasonable cause for such non-attendance, contrary

to the said bye-laws. At the hearing at Barnsley, before two justices for the West Riding of York, Benjamin Clegg, the school warden of the school board, proved the non-attendance of the child at school on the day named, and that the child was twelve years of age on the 11th May, 1875, and was in the third standard of the Code of the Education Department. It was, however, proved by the wife of the defendant, and admitted by the informant, that the child was employed in a boot manufactory and attended school regularly half-time, pursuant to the Workshop Regulation Act, 1860. For the appellant, it was argued that by virtue of the bye-laws of the school board made under the 74th section of the Education Act, 1870, the school board might, if they thought fit, compel children to attend school full time, notwithstanding they were working at a workshop, and attending school in conformity with the provisions of the Workshop Regulation Act. That there was nothing in the Workshop Regulation Act restraining the compulsory powers conferred on the school board by the Education Act, as the former Act merely provided that children should not work except on certain conditions as to time and education, and that there was nothing in the bye-laws contrary to anything contained in any Act for regulating the education of children employed in labour, and that the Education Act overrode the Workshop Act. The justices, however, came to the conclusion that as the child was fulfilling the conditions and provisions of the Workshop Regulation Act, the school board could not compel him to attend school full time under the bye-laws. The Court held that the school board were able to enforce their bye-laws against children under thirteen years of age who, although not obeying such bye-laws, attended school and otherwise observed the conditions of the Workshop Regulation Act; and that the Education Act, 1870, overrode this and other Acts regulating the education of children employed in labour. Baron Bramwell said: The immediate primary object of the Workshop Act was not the education of the child, but the restraining of the child being sent to work. Amongst the restrictions was one that children should not be sent to work under the age of thirteen unless they were sent to school for ten hours a week. The statute of 1870 was a statute with an entirely different object: it was a statute not aiming at any regulation of the working of children, but aiming at providing for their education. I think what was intended was that, although a school board may require the parents of children not less than five nor more than thirteen years of age to cause such children to attend school, determining the time during which they are to attend, they shall not determine that time to be less in the case of children who attend workshops than in the Workshop Act it is said it shall be.

See also the provisions contained in sec. 50 of the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, post.

With reference to the education of children dwelling on board canal boats, the Canal Boats Act, 1877 (40 & 41 Vict., c. 60), contains the following provisions:

Sec. 6. "A child in a canal boat registered in pursuance of this Act, and his parent, shall for the purposes of the Elementary Education Acts, 1870, 1873, and 1876, be deemed, subject as hereinafter mentioned, to be resident in the place to which the boat is registered as belonging, and shall be subject accordingly to any bye-law in force under the said Acts in that place.

"Provided that if the parent satisfies the school board or school attendance committee having authority in that place, that the child is actually attending

school, or is under efficient instruction in accordance with the said Acts, in some other school district, the said board or committee shall grant him without charge a certificate to that effect, and thereupon he and his child shall be deemed for the purposes aforesaid to be resident in the school district in which the child is so attending school, or under efficient instruction, and shall be subject to any bye-law in force therein.

"The said certificate may on application by the parent be rescinded or varied by the school board or school attendance committee for the place to which the boat is registered as belonging, and may be rescinded without application by any such board or committee, if they are satisfied, after due notice to the parent, that his child is not properly attending school or under efficient instruction in the school district mentioned in the certificate."

Sec. 7. "For the purpose of the registration of canal boats the registration authority shall be such one or more of the sanitary authorities having districts abutting on a canal as may from time to time be prescribed by regulation of the Local Government Board.

"A canal boat shall be registered with some registration authority having a district abutting on the canal on which such boat is accustomed or intended to ply.

"With a view of determining the place to which a canal boat belongs, for the purpose of the Elementary Education Acts, 1870, 1873, and 1876, the registration authority shall register any canal boat in respect of which an application is made for registration as belonging to some place which is either a school district or is part of a school district, and is situate wholly or partly within the jurisdiction of the registration authority with which it is registered."

It may be observed that the Canal Boats Act, 1877, also contains the following provision empowering companies being the owners of canal boats and canal companies to establish schools: Any company or association, corporate or unincorporate, being the owners of any canal boats, or being the owners, lessees or undertakers of any canal, may, with the assent of a special resolution of their members, and notwithstanding any Act of Parliament, charter, or document regulating the funds of the company or association, appropriate any portion of their funds to the establishment and maintenance, or establishment or maintenance, of a school or schools, wherein the children employed in canal boats may be lodged, maintained and educated, or educated only; with this restriction that the children shall not be maintained gratuitously, but the lodging or education may be wholly or partially gratuitous. A "special resolution" shall, for the purposes of this Act, mean a resolution passed in manner provided by the 51st section of the Companies Act, 1862.

The Regulations of the Local Government Board as to the registration of canal boats may be obtained of Knight & Co., 90 Fleet Street, E.C.

(4) Sec. 25 of this Act, which provides for the payment by school boards of the school fees of children of poor parents, is repealed from the 1st of January, 1877, by the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 10, post, and by sec. 52 of that Act, "so much of section 74, and of any bye-law made thereunder, as is affected by the repeal of sec. 25" is also repealed.

From the 1st of January, 1877, the guardians alone are enabled to pay the school fees of children of poor parents, whether paupers or not (see secs. 10 and 40 of the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, post).

A school board will, however, retain the power, under sec. 17 of this Act, of remitting the fees of poor children attending the schools provided by the