Conditions of Annual Parliamentary Grant. 97. The conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in order to obtain an annual parliamentary grant shall be those contained in the minutes of the Education Department in force for the time being (1), and shall amongst other mattters provide that after the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one (1.) Such grant shall not be made in respect of any instruction in religious subjects: (2.) Such grant shall not for any year exceed the income of the school for that year which was derived from voluntary contributions, and from school fees, and from any sources other than the parliamentary grant; (2) but such conditions shall not require that the school shall be in connection with a religious denomination, or that religious instruction shall be given in the school, and shall not give any preference or advantage to any school on the ground that it is or is not provided by a school board: (3) Provided that where the school board satisfy the Education Department that in any year ending the twenty-ninth of September the sum required for the purpose of the annual expenses of the school board of any school district, and actually paid to the treasurer of such board by the rating authority, amounted to a sum which would have been raised by a rate of threepence in the pound on the rateable value of such district, and any such rate would have produced less than twenty pounds, or less than seven shillings and sixpence per child of the number of children in average attendance at the public elementary schools provided by such school board, such school board shall be entitled, in addition to the annual parliamentary grant in aid of the public elementary schools provided by them, to such further sum out of moneys provided by Parliament as, when added to the sum actually so paid by the rating authority, would, as the case may be, make up the sum of twenty pounds, or the sum of seven shillings and sixpence for each such child, but no attendance shall be reckoned for the purpose of calculating such average attendance unless it is an attendance as defined in the said minutes: (4) Provided that no such minute of the Education Department not in force at the time of the passing of this Act shall be deemed to be in force until it has lain for not less than one month on the table of both Houses of Parliament. (1) The conditions required to be fulfilled in order to obtain an annual parliamentary grant are set forth in Art. 17 of the New Code (see p. 363). By a clause in the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 75, post (sec. 20), it is provided that the conditions to be fulfilled by schools in order to obtain annual parliamentary grants shall provide that the income of the schools shall be applied only for the purpose of public elementary schools. (2) So much of this section as is in italics is repealed by the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec 19, post, as and from the 31st of March 1877, and the following provision is substituted:-"Such grant shall not in any year be reduced by reason of its excess above the income of the school if the grant do not exceed the amount of seventeen shillings and sixpence per child in average attendance at the school during that year, but shall not exceed that amount per child, except by the same sum by which the income of the school, derived from voluntary contributions, rates, school fees, endowments, and any source whatever other than the parliamentary grant, exceeds the said amount per child." (3) School boards have the advantage, which the managers of public elementary schools have not, of obtaining loans from the Public Works Loan Commissioners for expenses incurred in providing or enlarging schoolhouses at 34 per cent. interest, the loans to be repaid within a period not exceeding fifty years. (4) The object of this provision is to give exceptional aid from the parliamentary grant to districts where exceptional poverty prevails. The effect of it appears to be that, when the sum required by the school board in respect of their annual expenses, in any year ending the 29th of September, and actually paid by the rating authority amounts to a sum equal to that which would be raised by a rate of 3d. in the pound on the rateable value of the district, and that sum is less than 201., a grant will be made by the Education Department, in addition to the ordinary parliamentary grant, of such amount as will, when added to the sum actually paid by the rating authority, make up the sum of 201. For instance, when a sum of 201. has been required during the year, and a rate of 3d. in the pound on the rateable value of the district would only realise 147., and that amount has been actually paid by the rating authority, an additional grant of 67. will be made. Again, if the sum required by the school board in respect of their annual expenses in any year ending on the 29th of September and actually paid by the rating authority is equal to a sum which would be raised by a rate of 3d. in the pound on the rateable value of the district, and that sum is less than 78. 6d. per head on the average number of children in attendance at the public elementary schools in the district provided by the school board, a grant in addition to the ordinary parliamentary grant is to be made by the Education Department of such amount as will make up the sum of 78. 6d. per head. For instance, when a sum of 78. 6d. per head has been required, and a sum at the rate of 4s. 6d. has been all that a rate of 3d. in the pound would realise, and that amount has been paid, a sum at the rate of 3s. per head on the average number of children in attendance will be allowed as an extra grant. As regards the attendances which are to be reckoned for the purpose of N calculating the average attendance, see the provisions of the New Code in Appendix, p. 369. It will be observed that this section does not limit the sum which the rating authority are liable to be called upon to pay in any given case to a sum which would be raised by a rate of 3d. in the pound in the school district, but fixes that sum as the minimum to be paid by the rating authority before the school board will be entitled to claim an additional grant under this section. If in the cases provided for a sum exceeding 201., or exceeding the rate of 78. 6d. per head, is required, the excess must be borne by the district, notwithstanding the payments would exceed the sum that a 3d. rate would realise. It has been suggested that the section would perhaps only entitle the school board, when the rating authority had actually paid a sum in excess of the minimum which would enable the Board to claim an additional grant, to the difference between the sum actually paid and the 201., or the rate of 7s. 6d. per head, as the case might be. But this construction would have the effect of depriving a school board, when the sum actually paid by a rating authority was equal to 201., or the rate of 78. 6d. per head, although a rate of 3d. in the pound would not have realised that sum, of all benefit under this section, and the section would fail in its object. This construction, therefore, is not likely to be adopted by the Education Department. See also the provisions of sec. 19 of the 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, post, as to special parliamentary grants in certain cases where the population of the school district in which the school is situate, or the population within two miles, measured according to the nearest road, from the school, is less than three hundred. Sec. 18 of that Act also contains provisions as to the payment from the parliamentary grant of the school fees of children possessing certain certificates of proficiency in reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic, and of previous due attendance at school. See also secs. 16 and 17 of that Act as to grants to industrial schools. Refusal of Grant to unnecessary Schools. 98. If the managers of any school which is situate in the district of a school board acting under this Act, and is not previously in receipt of an annual parliamentary grant, whether such managers are a school board or not, apply to the Education Department for a parliamentary grant, the Education Department may, if they think that such school is unnecessary, refuse such application. The Education Department shall cause to be laid before both Houses of Parliament in every year a special report stating the cases in which they have refused a grant under this section during the preceding year, and their reasons for each such refusal. This section, it will be observed, only refers to schools situate in the districts of school boards. But a minute of the Education Department, bearing date the 7th of August, 1876, is as follows:-"Resolved, that with a view to remove any doubt as to the discretion which may be exercised by the Education Department in administering the parliamentary grant so as to prevent the multiplication of unnecessary schools, and to secure uniformity, economy, and efficiency in the distribution of the grant, it is expedient to provide by the New Code that 'No annual grants shall be made for or in respect of any school to which such grants have not previously been made, if the Education Department think that the school is unnecessary." The Code of 1878 (see p. 360) contained a similar provision. By a subsequent minute of the Committee of Council on Education, dated the 21st of June, 1878, it is provided as follows: "1. A school situated in a district which is not under a school board shall not be deemed to be unnecessary if it has, for the previous twelve months, been recognised by the Department as a "certified efficient school" (Elementary Education Act, 1876, sec. 48), and has had, during that period, an average attendance (Article 26) of not less than 30 scholars. "2. No grant will be made to any such school as aforesaid- (b.) For any period before the appointment of a certificated teacher; or Power of Schools to take Parliamentary Grants. 99. The managers of every elementary school shall have power to fulfil the conditions required in pursuance of this Act to be fulfilled in order to obtain a parliamentary grant, notwithstanding any provision contained in any instrument regulating the trusts or management of their school, and to apply such grant accordingly. As to the conditions to be fulfilled in order to obtain a parliamentary grant, see New Code, Art. 17, p. 363, and 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, s. 20, post. REPORT. Annual Report of Education Department. 100. The Education Department shall in every year cause to be laid before both Houses of Parliament a report of their proceedings under this Act during the preceding year. |