The Elementary Education Acts, 1870, 1873, 1874 & 1876

the chairman at the meeting or to the summoning officer after the meeting who shall publish notice thereof.1

8. If a poll be taken, the summoning officer shall fix the day of taking the poll, which shall be not less than ten clear days after the day fixed for such meeting as aforesaid, and the said officer shall publish notice thereof.

9. The summoning officer shall determine the number and situation of the polling stations, and for this purpose may cause any parish to be divided into polling districts. The said officer shall cause the boundaries of such districts and the number and situation of the polling stations to be published not less than three clear days before the day fixed for the polling.

The summoning officer shall provide everything which in the case of a municipal election is required to be provided by the mayor for the purpose of a poll.2

No public-house shall be used as a polling place.

10. If the parish is divided into polling districts, each voter shall give his vote in the polling district in which the property in respect of which he is entitled to vote is situate, and if such property is situate in more than one district, in any one of the districts in which it is situate.

11. The summoning officer, or some person or persons appointed by him, shall preside at each polling station, provided that only one person shall preside at the same time.

12. The poll shall commence at such an hour, not earlier than 8 A.M, and close at such an hour, not later than 8 P.M., as shall be fixed by the summoning officer, but the poll shall be open for seven hours and no more.

13. Subject to the provisions of this order, the poll shall be conducted in like manner, so far as circumstances admit, as a poll at a contested municipal election is directed by the Ballot Act, 1872, to be conducted; and subject, as aforesaid, the provisions of that Act shall apply to the voting for or against the resolution: Provided that 3

(a.) The ballot paper shall be in the form annexed to this order, and the cross indicating assent to, or dissent from, the resolution shall be placed opposite the word "For," or the word "Against," as the case may be, and the form of directions, for the guidance of the voter in voting, shall be altered accordingly.

(b.) Every voter shall be entitled to one vote.

(c.) The

returning officer" shall mean the summoning officer hereinbefore mentioned.

(d.) The expression "register of voters" means the book containing the last rate made for the parish, more than one month previously to the date of the requisition herein before mentioned.*

Any ten ratepayers entitled to vote in the election of a school board for the parish may, at the meeting, demand a poll whether the resolution is carried or negatived.

It will devolve on the summoning officer to provide ballot boxes, ballot papers, materials for marking ballot papers, stamping instruments, &c. These, with all the necessary forms, may be obtained of Knight & Co., 90 Fleet Street, E.C. 3 See notes, p. 223.

As to the register of voters, see p. 226.

(e.) The provisions of secs. 3, 4, 11, and 24 of the Ballot Act, 1872, shall be deemed to be regulations contained in this order, which involve a penalty within the meaning of sect. 90 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870.1

14. The person presiding at the poll may, and if required by any two voters shall, put to any voter at the time of his applying for a ballot paper, but not afterwards, the following questions, or one of them, but no other :

(1.) Are you the person whose name appears as A. B. in the book containing the rate made on the

day of

and rated therein for the property described as [specify date and property in rate book] ?

(2.) Have you already voted on this occasion?

The sections of the Ballot Act referred to will be found in the note to sec. 90 of the 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75, ante.

This Regulation (article 13e) has, however, been held by the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice to be ultra vires. In Re George Metcalfe, which came before the Court on the 7th of March, 1878, it appeared that Metcalfe was convicted by two justices of Flintshire for knowingly personating and falsely assuming to vote in the name of his father, and was ordered to pay a penalty of 408. with the alternative of fourteen days' imprisonment. The voting was on a resolution for an application for a school board, and the case turned on the question whether, having regard to this Regulation taken in connection with sec. 90 of the 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75, the conviction could be sustained. It was contended that sec. 90 of that Act applied only to an election of a school board, and that as the voting on a resolution for an application for a school board was a totally different matter, the Regulation as regards the offence in question had no statutory authority, and was consequently void. For the justices, sec. 12 of the 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75, the second part of the second schedule to that Act, sec. 6 of the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, and the second schedule to that Act were referred to, and it was argued that the effect of these provisions was that the resolution for the application for a school board was to be made in like manner as a school board election, a school board election being conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Ballot Act, subject to any exceptions and modifications contained in an Order of the Education Department, and that the Regulation was within the powers of the Department. It was also contended that sec. 84 of the 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75, precluded any objection being taken to the legality of the Order, as three months had elapsed since the date of the Order. Mr. Justice Mellor said: "The Education Department are empowered to regulate the mode, the time, the circumstances, and the conditions of passing a resolution for an application for a school board, but they cannot go beyond that. The statutory provisions relied on in support of the conviction are entirely satisfied by that view of the case. We should be proceeding against the recognised principles of construction if we were so to extend the powers of the Department as to make personation on the voting on a resolution for an application for a school board an offence, without a direct statutory authority. As to sec. 84 of the Act 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75, time never would pass to enlarge a jurisdiction that was not given." Mr. Justice Lush concurred. With regard to the provision in sec. 84 he said: "I think that it only applies to orders which may be irregular to a given extent. They may prescribe things which they have no right to prescribe. I cannot think that it was intended that it should validate an Order (which really amounts to a legislative enactment creating a new offence) after the expiration of three months from the date of the Order. It must be taken that the Order in this case is a legislative provision without authority given for it by the Act, and it cannot be that this is a matter which was intended to be cured by three months elapsing without objection being taken to the Order." The conviction was accordingly quashed by consent.

And no person required to answer any of the said questions shall be permitted or qualified to vote until he has answered the same.

15. Any two persons on behalf of the supporters and any two persons on behalf of the opponents of the resolution may be present at each polling station and at the counting of the votes.

If any dispute arises as to the persons who should be present, the summoning officer shall appoint two persons from among such supporters and two persons from among such opponents, and his decision shall be final.

16. In case of an equality of votes, the resolution shall be deemed to be rejected.

17. The result of the poll shall be published by the summoning officer.

18. The summoning officer shall keep the ballot papers and all other documents connected with the poll for six months subject to the directions of the Education Department, and shall then, unless otherwise ordered by the said Department, cause them to be destroyed.

19. Notices and other matters directed by this order to be published shall be published in like manner as public notices are usually published in the parish to which they relate.

20. The summoning officer shall be entitled to such reasonable expenses as may have been incurred by him, and to a reasonable remuneration for his services, to be paid by the overseers. Provided that if any question should arise between the said officer and the overseers as to such expenses or remuneration, such question shall be referred to the Education Department, whose decision thereon shall be final and conclusive.1

21. Words used in this order shall, so far as is consistent with the context, have the same meaning as the same words used in the Elementary Education Acts, 1870, 1873.

NOTE.--The number on the Ballot paper is to correspond with that on the counterfoil.

It will be observed that the following Regulation, No. II., refers to the cases

1 As to expenses of summoning officer, see p. 219.

covered by sec. 11 of the Elementary Education Amendment Act, 1873, when it is desired to have one school board for several parishes united into one school district. In this case the requisition must be presented, and a resolution, such as that described in paragraph 2 of No. II., must be passed by the ratepayers of each of the parishes which it is proposed to unite.

II.-Their Lordships also read and approved the following

General Regulations as to passing Resolutions "for Application for School Boards" in Parishes proposed to be united and not situate within Municipal Boroughs or within the Metropolis.

WHEREAS, by the 12th section of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, and the 11th section of the Elementary Education Amendment Act, 1873, application may be made to the Education Department, in certain cases, for leave to form a school board:

And whereas such application must be made by a resolution passed in accordance with the provisions of the said 11th section and the second part of the second schedule to the Elementary Education Act, 1870:

And whereas the passing of such resolution must be in accordance with such regulations as the Education Department may by order prescribe :

Now, therefore, the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, by virtue and in exercise of the powers in them vested under the Elementary Education Acts, 1870 and 1873, and of every other power enabling them in this behalf, do order, and it is hereby ordered as follows:

The following regulations as to passing any such resolution as aforesaid shall be observed in any parish not situate within a municipal borough, or within the metropolis:

1. Upon requisition in writing, signed by fifty ratepayers entitled to vote in pursuance of the Elementary Education Act, 1873, or by one-third of the persons who are ratepayers of any parish and so entitled to vote, the summoning officer shall, within fourteen clear days after receiving such requisition, convene a meeting of such ratepayers as aforesaid, for the purpose of considering such resolution as hereinafter mentioned.1

The summoning officer shall be the clerk of the union of which any parish forms part, or the person for the time being discharging the duties of such clerk.

2. Seven clear days, at least, before the day of the meeting, the summoning officer shall publish a notice, stating that a requisition has been received by him requiring him to call a meeting of the ratepayers of the parish of [name it] for the purpose of passing a resolution that it is expedient that a school board should be formed for the united parishes of [name them] and that the said parishes should be united

accordingly, and that a meeting of the ratepayers of the parish of

The Education Department state that the word "convene is to be read as meaning "issue the summons for."

will, accordingly, be held at some convenient time and place (to be specified in such notice), for the purpose of considering such resolution.

3. Every person who, at the time of the meeting, is entitled to vote in the election of members of a school board for the parish shall be entitled to be present and to vote at such meeting, and every such ratepayer shall have one vote only.1

4. At the time and place so specified, some person chosen at the meeting shall take the chair, and any such ratepayer, as aforesaid, may propose such resolution as aforesaid to be seconded by some other such ratepayer as aforesaid.

5. If no such resolution is proposed and seconded at the time and place aforesaid, or if the same is withdrawn or negatived, the chairman shall declare the resolution to have been negatived, and shall publish notice thereof. The resolution may, at any time before the taking of the poll, be withdrawn by the two ratepayers who proposed and seconded the same; and, in such case, no further proceedings shall be taken in respect of the poll.2

6. If the resolution, duly proposed and seconded, is carried, and no demand for a poll is made, the chairman shall declare the resolution to have been passed, and shall publish notice thereof.

7. Any ten of such ratepayers as aforesaid may make demand in writing, to be delivered to the said chairman at the meeting, that a poll be taken on such resolution, and the same shall be taken, unless the major part of such ratepayers so signing the writing withdraw the same by notice in writing to the chairman at the meeting or to the summoning officer after the meeting, who shall publish notice thereof.2

The summoning officer shall provide everything which in the case of a municipal election is required to be provided by the mayor for the purpose of a poll.3

No public-house shall be used as a polling place.

11. The summoning officer, or some person or persons appointed by him,

1 As to persons entitled to vote in elections of school boards in parishes, see pp. 107, 226.

2 See notes on similar provisions in order as to applications for school boards in parishes, p. 342.

3 See note 2, p. 342.

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The Elementary Education Acts, 1870, 1873, 1874 & 1876: With Introduction ...