Council, assisted by a member of the Privy Council, who is called the VicePresident of the Committee on Education, and who acts under the direction of the Lord President, and for him in his absence (Order in Council, 25th February, 1856; 19 & 20 Vict., c. 116).

(5) Any persons desirous of establishing a public elementary school are also to be deemed to be "managers" for the purpose of sec. 21, relating to the purchase of a schoolhouse or a site for a schoolhouse, when the approval of the Education Department to the establishment of the school has been obtained.

(6) This definition includes the father and grandfather, and the mother and grandmother, of a child, as by the 43 Eliz., c. 2, sec. 7, they are liable to maintain the child.

(7) To render an "elementary school" a "public elementary school" within the meaning of the Act, it must be conducted in accordance with the regulations prescribed by sec. 7.

(8) The Act for the Regulation of Parish Vestries (58 Geo. III., c. 69) provides that "no vestry or meeting of the inhabitants in vestry of or for any parish shall be holden until public notice shall have been given of such vestry, and of the place and hour of holding the same and the special purpose thereof, three days at the least before the day to be appointed for holding such vestry." By operation of the 58 Geo. III., c. 69, and the Parish Vestries Act (1 Vict., c. 45) it is necessary that the "public notice" of the vestry, either in writing or in print, or partly in writing and partly in print, shall, previously to the commencement of divine service, on a Sunday previous to the day of holding the meeting, be affixed on or near to the principal doors of all the churches and chapels within the parish or place. As the notice must be published three clear days before the vestry meeting is held, it follows that the meeting cannot take place on an earlier day than the Thursday following the Sunday on which the notice is given. The notice must be signed by a churchwarden of the church or chapel, or by the rector, vicar or curate of the parish, or by an overseer of the poor of the parish (1 Vict., c. 45, sec. 3).

As regards the voting at a vestry meeting, see 58 Geo. III., c. 69; 59 Geo. III., c. 85; 16 & 17 Vict., c. 65; and 32 & 33 Vict., c. 41. Any person present at a vestry who was assessed by the last rate for the relief of the poor in respect of any annual value not amounting to 50l., has one vote; when the assessment, whether in one or more than one sum, amounts to 50l. and is under 75l., he has two votes; when it is 751. and under 1007., three votes; when it is 100l. and under 125l., four votes; when it is 125l. and under 150l., five votes; and when it is 1507. or above that amount, six votes. No person can give more than six votes. Any person who has become an inhabitant of the parish, or become liable to be rated therein since the making of the last poor rate, is entitled to vote in respect of the property for which he has become liable to be rated, and shall consent to be rated, in like manner as if he had been actually rated for the same. The occupier of a hereditament in respect of which the owner is rated under the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869, is to be deemed to be rated for the purpose of voting in vestry. See note 9, post. In cases where two or more persons are jointly rated, each of them is entitled to vote according to the proportion borne by him of the joint charge; and when only one of the persons jointly rated attends, he is entitled to vote in respect of the whole of the joint charge. Where any corporation or company is rated, either in the name of the corporation or of any officer of the corporation, the clerk, secretary, or steward, or other agent duly authorised for that

purpose, is entitled to as many votes as a ratepayer in respect of the value of the property assessed. To entitle a person, however, to the votes abovementioned, he must have paid any rate for the relief of the poor which has been made or become due more than three calendar months immediately preceding the vestry meeting. When the rate is paid by the owner under the provisions of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act it is to be deemed a personal payment by the occupier.

In the case of an equality of votes at a vestry meeting the chairman has a casting vote in addition to the vote or votes in respect of the property for which he is assessed. Any voter has a right to demand a poll. The chairman may, if he thinks proper, direct an adjournment for the purpose of taking the poll. (R. v. D'Oyley, 12 A. & E. 139.)

With regard to meetings of vestries in the metropolis, see 19 & 20 Vict., c. 112. It is to be borne in mind that the provisions above referred to do not apply to meetings of ratepayers for the purpose of considering resolutions in favour of the formation of school boards. The proceedings in connection with such meetings must be in accordance with the regulations which the Education Department have issued on the subject (see Appendix, p. 340).

(9) The Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act (32 & 33 Vict., c. 41), by sec. 19, enacts that the overseers in making out the poor rate shall in every case, whether the rate is collected from the owner or occupier, or the owner is liable to the payment of the rate instead of the occupier, enter in the occupier's column of the rate book the name of the occupier of every rateable hereditament, and such occupier shall be deemed to be duly rated, . . . . provided that any occupier whose name has been omitted shall, notwithstanding such omission and that no claim to be rated has been made by him, be entitled to every qualification and franchise depending upon rating in the same manner as if his name had not been so omitted.

From the decision of the Court of Common Pleas in Cross v. Alsop, Law Rep., 6 C. P. 315; 40 L. J., 53 C. P.; 23 L. T., N. 8., 589, it would appear that the section quoted only applies to the occupiers of rateable hereditaments, in respect of which the owners have entered into agreements with the overseers to pay the rates instead of the occupiers, under sec. 3 of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, or in respect of which the owners are rated under an order of the vestry, under sec. 4 of that Act. But in a later case (Smith v. Overseers of Seghill, Law Rep., 10 Q. B. 422; 44 L. J. M. C. 114; 32 L. T., N. s., 859), the Court of Queen's Bench held that the section applied to every case whether the rate was collected from the owner or occupier, and whether the owner or occupier was liable for the rate-remarking that the object of the section was to secure that voters should not be in jeopardy of being deprived of the franchise by the negligence of the overseers.

The question as to the persons who are entitled to vote in the election of members of school boards, where the members are elected by the ratepayers, is now, however, determined by the provision in the Second Schedule of the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, post, which is to the effect that every ratepayer whose name appears in the book containing the last rate made for the parish more than one month previously to any date, shall be entitled to vote at that date, unless he is disqualified for voting, and that no person shall be entitled to vote whose name does not so appear. The order of the Education Department with reference to the voting on a resolution for an application for a school board contains a similar provision as to the rate book being the register of voters (see Appendix, p. 342).

With regard to the entry in the rate book of the names of persons who become occupiers of tenements which were unoccupied at the time of the making of the rate, or who succeed other occupiers before the rate is wholly discharged, sec. 16 of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act enacts as follows:-"If the occupier assessed in the rate when made shall cease to occupy before the rate shall have been wholly discharged, or if the hereditaments being unoccupied at the time of the making of the rate become occupied during the period for which the rate is made, the overseers shall enter in the rate book the name of the person who succeeds or comes into the occupation, as the case may be, and the date when such occupation commences, as far as the same shall be known to them; and such occupier shall thenceforth be deemed to have been actually rated from the date so entered by the overseers, and shall be liable to pay so much of the rate as shall be proportionate to the time between the commencement of his occupation and the expiration of the period for which the rate was made, in like manner and with the like remedy of appeal, as if he had been rated when the rate was made.”

There is also in the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vict., c. 122), the following provision to meet the cases of new houses or buildings:

"When any person shall occupy any new house or other building in any parish where the poor rate is not made under the provisions of a local Act, which house or building was incomplete, or not fit for occupation (or was not entered as such in the valuation list in force in the parish at the time when the current rate for the time being was made), the overseers may enter such house or building with the name of the occupier thereof and the date of the entry in the rate book, and require the occupier to pay such amount as according to their judgment shall be the proper sum, having due regard to the rateable value of such house or building, and the time which shall have elapsed from the making of the current rate to the date of such entry, and the person so charged shall be considered as actually rated from such date, and shall be liable to pay the sum assessed in like manner and subject to the like penalty of distress, and with the like power of appeal, as if he had been assessed for the same when the rate was made: provided that when the said overseers shall so enter the said house or building in the rate book they shall forward to the assessment committee of the union comprising such parish, if any such there be, a supplemental list with reference to such house or building, and the same shall be dealt with in all respects, and with the like incidents and consequences, as a supplemental list made by the overseers under section 25 of the Union Assessment Committee Act, 1862."

(10) For the provisions of the New Code as to the Parliamentary Grant, see Appendix, p. 363.

(1.) LOCAL PROVISION FOR SCHOOLS.

School Districts, &c., in Schedule.

4. For the purposes of this Act the respective districts, boards, rates and funds, and authorities described in the first schedule to this Act shall be the school district, the school board, the local rate, and the rating authority.

The school districts constituted by this Act are the metropolis; every borough, subject to the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835; and every "parish" (as defined by secs. 3 and 77 and the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, sec. 12, post) in England and Wales not included in any of those districts. There are special provisions as to the City of Oxford and the Borough of Wenlock. As to the formation of united school districts, see sec. 40 and the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, sec. 11, post.

With regard to the constitution of a school board in the metropolis, see sec. 37; in a municipal borough, excepting Oxford and Wenlock, sec. 29; in Oxford, sec. 93; in a parish not included in the metropolis or a municipal borough, sec. 29; and in a united school district, sec. 45. The case of the Borough of Wenlock is provided for by the 37 & 38 Vict., c. 39, post. As to the local rate and rating authority in the school districts, see sec. 54 (note).

SUPPLY OF SCHOOLS.

School District to have sufficient Public Schools.

5. There shall be provided for every school district a sufficient amount of accommodation in public elementary schools (as hereinafter defined) (1), available for all the children resident in such district for whose elementary education efficient and suitable provision is not otherwise made; and where there is an insufficient amount of such accommodation, in this Act referred to as "public school accommodation," the deficiency shall be supplied in manner provided by this Act. (2)

(1) The term "public elementary schools" is defined by sec. 7.

(2) The question whether or not the accommodation in public elementary schools in a school district is "sufficient," is to be determined by the Education Department. As to the proceedings for this purpose see sec. 8.

Mr. Forster, on moving the first reading of the Bill, said: "I may at once state that if in any one of these (school) districts we find the elementary education to be sufficient, efficient, and suitable, we leave that district alone. By sufficient, I mean if we find that there are enough schools; by efficient, I mean schools which give a reasonable amount of secular education; and by suitable, I mean schools to which, from the absence of religious or other restriction, parents cannot reasonably object; and I may add that, for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of these districts, we count all schools that will receive our inspectors, whether private or public, whether aided or unaided by Government assistance, whether secular or denominational."Hansard's Debates, vol. 199, p. 445.

Efficient and suitable provision will be held to be made when there is efficient elementary school education within a reasonable distance of the house of every child who requires elementary instruction, of which he can avail himself on payment of a reasonable fee without being required to attend any religious instruction to which the parent objects. There is nothing in the Act to preclude a school from being recognised as giving such efficient and suitable provision because the teacher is not certificated, although no day

school, the principal teacher of which is not certificated, will satisfy the conditions to be fulfilled for obtaining an annual Parliamentary Grant.

The Education Department in a circular letter state that "if the circumstances of the parents require protection to their religious feelings a school will not be considered as giving suitable provision without such protection. So far as such school is concerned, therefore, deficiency will be declared if the necessary protection be not found to exist at the first inquiry, or be afterwards discontinued."

In the case of a school giving efficient elementary education but not a "public elementary school," no part of the accommodation afforded by the school can be properly excluded from the estimate of the available school provision of the district, unless it can be shown that the accommodation is in excess of the wants of the denomination to which the school belongs. The 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, post, by sec. 48, provides for schools being certified by the Education Department as 'efficient," although they may not be "public elementary schools."

It will be observed that it is not requisite that the school accommodation should be within the district, provided it is "available" for the children resident in the district. The Act contemplates that arrangements may be made for the education of the children of one school district in the school of an adjoining district, and provides in that case for a division between the two districts of the expenses of providing and maintaining the school (see secs. 49 and 52).

With respect to the proportion of the population of a parish for which school accommodation should be provided, it is estimated as a general rule that the children of the class for which elementary school accommodation is required constitute one-sixth of the population. That rule was acted upon for many years in cases where building grants were made by the Education Department," and has generally been found not only theoretically but practically accurate. The rule is of course subject to modifications in districts where the circumstances are exceptional and the Education Department, in determining whether there is "efficient and suitable provision" in a particular district within the meaning of this section, are guided by the returns rendered under sec. 67 and the reports of their inspectors.

When the actual population between the ages of three and thirteen has been ascertained, it is usual in determining the amount of school accommodation required to make a deduction of one-seventh, that being the estimated proportion of children of the middle and upper classes, and a further deduction of from 10 to 15 per cent., say 12 per cent. or one-eighth, in respect of children who will be absent from school from unavoidable causes.

It is usually estimated that the school accommodation should be in the proportion of three-fifths for children of above seven years of age and twofifths for children less than that age.

The accommodation that will be afforded by any particular school is determined upon the report made by the inspector upon the school. The capacity of a schoolroom, and the number of children it can accommodate, depend not merely upon its area, but also on its shape, on the nature and arrangement of the school furniture, and on the positions of the doors and fireplaces.

Article 17 of the New Code bears upon the question as to the superficial or cubical area that will be accepted as sufficient for any child or number of children. It provides that no school shall receive annual aid from the