SECTION II. Districts Boards for Schools. What unions or parishes may | Children from other parishes, be united into a district, 397. 397. Expenses, how contributed, 398. What unions or parishes may be united into a district.] It shall be lawful for the poor law commissioners, as and when they may see fit, by order under their hands and seal, to combine unions, or parishes not in union, or such parishes and unions, into school districts, for the management of any class or classes of infant poor not above the age of sixteen years, being chargeable to any such parish or union, who are orphans, or are deserted by their parents, or whose parents or surviving parent or guardians are consenting to the placing of such children in the school of such district: provided always, that when the relief of the poor has been hitherto administered in any parish or united parishes by guardians appointed under a local Act, and not by overseers of the poor, if such parish or united parishes, according to the last enumeration of the population published by authority of parliament, contain more than twenty thousand persons, it shall not be lawful for the said commissioners, without the consent in writing of the majority of such guardians, to include such parish or united parishes in a school district (a). And by sect. 52, the provisions in stats. 2 G. 3, c. 22, and 7 G. 3, c. 39, as to the regulation of the parish poor children within the bills of mortality, are repealed. Children from other parishes.] Also, in any case where a parish or union is not combined in a school district, and where any part of such parish or union is not more than twenty miles from a district school, the board of guardians of such parish or union may, with the consent of the board of such district, send to such district school any infant poor not above the age of sixteen years, being chargeable to any such parish or union, who are orphans, or are deserted by their parents, or whose parents or surviving parent or guardians are consenting thereto; and the cost of the maintenance, employ (a) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 40; and see 11 & 12 Vict. c. 82. ment, and instruction of such infant poor in such district schools shall be paid by such board of guardians to such district board, according to such rates and at such times and in such manner as may be agreed upon by the said boards, with the approbation of the said commissioners; and such infant poor while at such district school shall be subject to the control and management of such district board and their officers, in like manner as if the said parish or union were combined in such school district by virtue of this Act (b). Expenses, how contributed.] The expenses incurred by any district board in the purchase or hire of any building or buildings to be used as a school, or in erecting, repairing, adding to, or fitting up any building, and in the purchase of utensils and materials for the employment of the inmates of such school, or of books and other objects and things necessary for the instruction of such inmates, and the salaries of the officers and servants of the establishment, and all other expenses incurred on the common account of the parishes or unions, or parishes and unions, so united for the management of any class of infant poor, or incidental to the discharge of the duties of such district board, shall be paid by such unions in the proportion of the averages last declared for every such union, and by such parishes in the proportion of the average expenditure of every such parish for the like period and purposes as those to which the declared averages of such unions shall relate; and the said commissioners shall from time to time, by order under their hands and seal, ascertain and declare the proportion and rates of contribution in the above respects of every such parish and union; and that all other expenses incurred in the relief of the children under the management of such district board, shall be separately charged by such district board to the parish or union from which each such child may be sent (c). Several statutes (d) have been passed, enabling persons to make grants of land, for the sites of schools for the poor generally. (b) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 51. (c) Id. s. 47. (d) 4 & 5 Vict. c. 38, s. 9; 7 & 8 Vict. c. 37; 12 & 13 Vict. c. 49, s. 3; 13 & 14 Vict. c. 28; 14 & 15 Vict. c. 24; and see 15 & 16 Vict. c. 49. Boards, how constituted.] A board shall be constituted for every district formed under this Act for the maintenance of a school or of an asylum: and every district board so constituted shall respectively consist of members to be elected from amongst the persons rated within the district to the relief of the poor; and the said commissioners shall fix the qualification of such members, such qualification to consist in being rated within the district to the relief of the poor, but not so as to require a qualification exceeding the net annual value of forty pounds; and such members shall be elected at such periods, not exceeding three years, and in such proportions and in such manner, as the said commissioners may from time to time direct, by the guardians of every parish or union governed by a board of guardians under the provisions of the said first-recited Act or of any local Act, and if there be no such guardians, then by the overseers of a parish not governed by such guardians; and the chairman of every board of guardians constituted under the provisions of the said first-recited Act shall, if he consent thereto, be ex officio a member of any district board constituted under the provisions of this Act (a). Their powers and duties.] And every such district board shall have such of the powers of guardians for the relief and management of the poor, within any school or asylum, and for the appointment, payment, and control of paid officers, as the said commissioners may direct; and the legal and reasonable orders of such district board shall be obeyed and obedience thereto enforced in the same manner, and by the same remedies and penalties, as the legal and reasonable orders of guar (a) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 42. dians; and it shall be lawful for the said commissioners, with the consent in writing of a majority of any district board, to direct such district board to purchase or hire or build, and to fit up and furnish, a building or buildings, of such size and description, and according to such plan, and in such manner, as the said commissioners may deem most proper, for the purpose of being used or rendered suitable for the relief and management of the poor to be received into such school or asylum; and the said commissioners may, with the like consent, alter the district for which such district board was originally constituted, by adding thereto or taking therefrom any parish or parishes, union or unions, as aforesaid; and the said commissioners shall have the same powers for regulating the proceedings of any district board or of any committee thereof, and for directing and regulating the appointment, duties, remuneration, and removal of paid officers to be appointed by any district board, as they have with respect to the proceedings of boards of guardians, or with respect to paid officers to be appointed by any board of guardians; and every such board for a school district shall appoint, with the consent of the bishop of the diocese, at least one chaplain of the established church as one of the paid officers aforesaid, who shall be empowered to superintend the religious instruction of all the infant poor being under the control of such district board; and it shall be lawful for the said commissioners to issue rules and regulations for the government of any such school or asylum, and the inmates thereof, as if such school or asylum were a workhouse; and any orders or regulations of the said commissioners made in pursuance of this Act shall be enforced in the same manner and by the same penalties as if the same were an order or regulation made in pursuance of the said first-recited Act: provided always, that no rules, orders, or regulations of the said commissioners, nor any regulations made by such district board, shall oblige any inmate of any such school or asylum to attend any religious service which may be celebrated in a mode contrary to the religious principles of such inmate, nor shall authorize the education of any child in any religious creed other than that professed by the parents or surviving parent of such child, and to which such parents or surviving parent may object, or, in the case of an orphan or deserted child, to which his next of kin may object: provided also, that it shall be lawful at all reasonable times of the day, according to rules and regulations to be made for this purpose by the said board, for any minister of the religious persuasion professed by an adult inmate, or of the religious persuasion in which any child has been brought up,-or in which the parents, or surviving parent, or next of kin, as the case may be, may desire such child to be instructed,-to visit the school or asylum, at the request of such adult inmate, for the purpose of affording to him religious assistance; or to visit such child for the purpose of instructing such child in the principles of his religion: provided also, that it shall be lawful at all times for any inspector of schools, appointed by Her Majesty in council, to visit such schools, and to examine into the proficiency of the scholars therein (b). Purchase or hire of lands, &c.] And for the purpose of providing a building for such school or asylum, it shall be lawful for such district board, subject to the order of the said commissioners, to exercise the powers given to boards of guardians by the said first-recited Act or any other Act or Acts for the purchase and hire of lands and buildings, and to borrow, in like manner as is provided in the said first-recited Act or in any other Act or Acts, such sum or sums of money as may be necessary for the purpose of purchasing any site, or purchasing, hiring, or building, and of fitting up and furnishing, such building or buildings as aforesaid; and to charge the future poor rates of the parishes or unions, or parishes and unions, so combined as aforesaid, with the payment of such sum or sums of money, and interest thereon: provided always, that the consent of any ratepayers or owners of property of any parish, shall not be necessary to any sale, exchange, lease, or other disposal, by guardians or overseers, to or with any such district board of any workhouse, tenement, building, or land; provided also, that the principal sum or sums required for the purpose of providing any such building or buildings shall, if the same be borrowed, be repaid, with all interest thereon, within a period not exceeding twenty years (c). And every such district board shall be enabled to accept, take, and hold, on behalf of the district for which they act, any lands, buildings, goods, effects, or other property, as a corporation; and in all cases to sue and be sued as a corporation, by the name of the board of management of the district school or asylum, as the case may be (d). Contributions to the expenses, how enforced.] And every district board for the management of any school or asylum shall from time to time call on the parishes and unions included in such district for such contributions as they may deem requisite for the purposes of this Act; and notice in writing of the amount of such contributions, purporting to be signed by the clerk or other officer of such district board in any form prescribed by the said commissioners, shall, fourteen days at least before such contribution becomes due, be forwarded, by (b) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 43. Vict. c. 82, s. 1; 14 & 15 Vict. c. 105, ss. 16, 17. (d) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 45. |