PART II.

LOCAL AUTHORITIES UNDER THE EDUCATION ACT, 1876, AND PROVISIONS AS TO SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

The leading provisions of the Education Acts with regard to school boards, with the exception of those which apply to them as local authorities under the Education Act of 1876, have now been referred to, and the new enactments in that statute with respect to the constitution of local authorities, and the clauses as to restrictions on the employment of children and as to the attendance of children at school, remain to be noticed.

Local Authorities.

The local authorities for the purposes of the Education Act, 1876, from and after the 1st of January, 1877, are the school boards in districts for which school boards have been elected, and in other districts school attendance committees.

In a borough not under the jurisdiction of a school board the school attendance committee are to be elected by the council of the borough, and in a parish not included in a school board district or a borough, the committee are to be elected by the guardians of the union in which the parish is comprised.

These committees will be appointed annually, and are to consist of not less than six nor more than twelve members of the council or board of guardians by which the committee are appointed. In the case, however, of a committee appointed by guardians, it is required that one-third at least of the members shall, when the circumstances admit of it, be ex-officio guardians (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 6).

To these rules as to the school attendance committees there are two exceptions applying to urban sanitary districts which are not and do not comprise boroughs.

In the case of any such urban sanitary district, which is

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co-extensive with any parish or parishes not within the jurisdiction of a school board, and which contains a population according to the last census of not less than 5000 persons, the Education Department, on the application of the sanitary authority of the district, may empower such authority to appoint a school attendance committee in like manner as if they were a council of a borough, and a committee so appointed by the sanitary authority will be the local authority for the purposes of the Act, to the exclusion of the school attendance committee appointed by the guardians.

The second exception refers to the case of an urban sanitary district which is not and does not comprise a borough, and which is not wholly within the jurisdiction of a school board, and does not satisfy the conditions necessary to enable the sanitary authority under the foregoing provision to appoint a separate school attendance committee for the district. In such cases the sanitary authority may appoint such number of members of the authority, not exceeding three, as the Education Department may allow, to be members of the school attendance committee for the union in which the district or the part of the district, which is not within the jurisdiction of a school board, is situate; and the members thus appointed by the sanitary authority will be entitled to continue in office so long as they are members of the sanitary authority, and their appointment is not revoked by that authority, and to act in like manner as if they were appointed by the guardians (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 33).

The council or guardians, subject to the limitation of the number of members prescribed by the Act, will be empowered from time to time to add to or diminish the number of members of a school attendance committee appointed by them.

A school attendance committee appointed by guardians will act for every parish in the union which is not for the time being under any other "local authority" within the meaning of the Act (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 32).

Appointment of Local Committees by School Attendance
Committees.

With the view of enabling the School Attendance Committees to obtain aid and information in the execution of the Act, these committees are to be empowered, if they think fit, to appoint "local committees" for different parishes or other areas in their district. A local committee may consist of not less than three persons, either wholly members of the council, guardians, or authority by whom the committee are appointed or partly of such members and partly of other persons (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 32).

Appointment of Officers.

The local authority are to direct one or more of their officers, or the officers of the council or the guardians by whom the committee were appointed, to act in the execution of the Act and of any bye-laws in force within the jurisdiction of the authority, and they may, if they think fit, pay him or them for so doing, or they may, when necessary, appoint and pay officers for the purpose. When, however, the local authority are a school attendance committee appointed by the council of a borough, they are not to appoint, employ, or pay an officer without the consent of the council, and when the committee are appointed by the guardians, not only the consent of the guardians, but also that of the Local Government Board, is to be obtained to any such appointment or payment (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, secs. 28, 31).

In the case of a school attendance committee appointed by guardians, the clerk to the guardians is to act as the clerk to the committee (sec. 34).

Attendance at School.

The statute declares that it shall be the duty of the parent of every child to cause such child to receive efficient elementary instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the Act contemplates that the attendance of children at

school should be secured by direct or indirect compulsion. On the local authorities constituted by the Act will devolve the enforcement of the provisions for this purpose. The direct compulsion will be by bye-laws and school attendance orders.

Attendance at School.-Direct Compulsion.-Bye-laws.

With regard to bye-laws, the Education Act, 1870, as has been already stated, empowered school boards, with the approval of the Education Department, to make bye-laws for all or any of the following purposes: (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 (unless there is some reasonable excuse) to cause such children to attend school; (2) determining the time during which children are so to attend school, provided that no such bye-law 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; and (3) imposing penalties for the breach of any bye-laws subject to the condition that no penalty for the breach of a bye-law with the costs shall exceed such amount as with the costs will amount to five shillings.

There is a further proviso that a bye-law 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 the child has reached a standard of education specified in the bye-law. For the purposes of the Act anyone of the following reasons is to be deemed a "reasonable excuse" for the non-attendance of a child at school: (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 the child, as the bye-laws may prescribe.

Bye-laws made by a school board under this Act are to be sanctioned by an order in council, and when thus sanctioned they come into operation and have effect as if they were statutory enactments.

The power of making bye-laws for enforcing the attendance of children at school was limited by the Act referred to to school boards, but by the Act of 1876 the necessary authority for this purpose is given, subject to certain conditions, to the school attendance committees in districts not under the jurisdiction of school boards.

When the school attendance committee are appointed by the council of a borough or the sanitary authority of an urban sanitary district, the committee may make bye-laws for the attendance of children at school in like manner as a school board, "if they think fit;" and it is therefore optional with them whether or not they will do so.

In the case of a parish under the jurisdiction of a school attendance committee appointed by the guardians, the ratepayers may, by a resolution passed in the same manner and subject to the same regulations as a resolution for an application to the Education Department for a school board, request the school attendance committee to make bye-laws as to school attendance, and on such requisition it will be the duty of the committee to make bye-laws accordingly. The ratepayers of the parish may also by a similar resolution specify the nature of the bye-laws which are desired by them, and in that case the school attendance committee and the Education Department, in making and approving the bye-laws, are to consider and have due regard to such representations. In the absence of a requisition from the ratepayers, the school attendance committee will have no authority to make byelaws, although they may be satisfied that it is desirable that bye-laws should be made (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, secs. 21—23).

It will be observed that school boards and school attendcommittees alone will be empowered to make bye-laws, and