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with this modification, that the conveyance shall express that the land shall be held upon trust for the purposes of a public elementary school within the meaning of this Act, or some one of such purposes which may be specified, and for no other purpose whatever. (2)

Land may be acquired under the Acts incorporated with this section, or under the School Sites Acts, or any of them, or partly under one and partly under another Act.

Any persons desirous of establishing a public elementary school (3) shall be deemed to be managers for the purpose of this section if they obtain the approval of the Education Department to the establishment of such school.

(1) As to the Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts, see note on sec. 20. It was proposed in committee on the Bill that the powers which are conferred upon a school board with regard to the purchase of land otherwise than by agreement, should also be given to the managers of an elementary school, but the amendment was negatived.

(2) The School Sites Acts will be found in the Appendix, p. 434. (3) The term "public elementary school" is defined in sec. 7.

Sale or Lease of Schoolhouse.

22. The provisions of the Charitable Trusts Act, 1853 to 1869, which relate to the sale, leasing, and exchange of lands belonging to any charity, shall extend to the sale, leasing, and exchange of the whole or any part of any land or schoolhouse belonging to a school board which may not be required by such board with this modification, that the Education Department shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be substituted in those Acts for the Charity Commissioners.

The Charitable Trusts Acts referred to, which contain provisions with regard to the sale, leasing, and exchange of lands belonging to a charity, are the 16 & 17 Vict., c. 137; 18 & 19 Vict., c. 124; 23 & 24 Vict., c. 136; 25 & 26 Vict., c. 112; 32 & 33 Vict., c. 110; and 50 & 51 Vict., c. 49. See also sec. 78.

Managers may transfer School to School Board.

23. The managers of any elementary school in the district of a school board may, in manner provided by this Act, make an arrangement with the school board for transferring their school to such school board, and the school board may assent to such arrangement. (1)

An arrangement under this section may be made by the

managers by a resolution or other act as follows (that is to say):

(1.) Where there is any instrument declaring the trusts

of the school, and such instrument provides any manner in which, or any assent with which, a resolution or act binding the managers is to be passed or done, then in accordance with the provisions of such instrument :

(2.) Where there is no such instrument, or such instrument contains no such provisions, then in the manner and with the assent, if any, in and with which it may be shown to the Education Department to have been usual for a resolution or act binding such managers to be passed or done: (3.) If no manner or assent can be shown to have been usual, then by a resolution passed by a majority of not less than two-thirds of those members of their body who are present at a meeting of the body summoned for the purpose, and vote on the question, and with the assent of any other person whose assent under the circumstances appears to the Education Department to be requisite. And in every case such arrangement shall be made only

(1.) With the consent of the Education Department; and,

(2.) If there are annual subscribers to such school, with the consent of a majority, not being less than two-thirds in number, of those of the annual subscribers who are present at a meeting duly summoned for the purpose, and vote on the question.

Provided that where there is any instrument declaring the trusts of the school, and such instrument contains any provision for the alienation of the school by any persons or in any manner or subject to any consent, any arrangement under this section shall be made by the persons in the manner and with the consent so provided.

Where it appears to the Education Department that there is any trustee of the school who is not a manager, they shall cause the managers to serve on such trustee, if his name and address are known, such notice as the Education Department think sufficient; and the Education Department shall consider and have due regard to any

objections and representations he may make respecting the proposed transfer. (2)

The Education Department shall consider and have due regard to any objections and representations respecting the proposed transfer which may be made by any person who has contributed to the establishment of such school. (3)

After the expiration of six months from the date of transfer the consent of the Education Department shall be conclusive evidence that the arrangement has been made in conformity with this section.

An arrangement under this section may provide for the absolute conveyance to the school board of all the interest in the schoolhouse possessed by the managers or by any person who is trustee for them or for the school, or for the lease of the same, with or without any restrictions, and either at a nominal rent or otherwise, to the school board, or for the use by the school board of the schoolhouse during part of the week, and for the use of the same by the managers or some other person during the remainder of the week, or for any arrangement that may be agreed on. The arrangement may also provide for the transfer or application of any endowment belonging to the school, or for the school board undertaking to discharge any debt charged on the school not exceeding the value of the interest in the schoolhouse or endowment transferred to them. (4)

When an arrangement is made under this section the managers may, whether the legal interest in the schoolhouse or endowment is vested in them or in some person as trustee for them or the school, convey to the school board all such interest in the schoolhouse and endowment as is vested in them or in such trustee, or such smaller interest as may be required under the arrangement. (4)

Nothing in this section shall authorise the managers to transfer any property which is not vested in them, or a trustee for them, or held in trust for the school; and where any person has any right given him by the trusts of the school to use the school for any particular purpose independently of such managers, nothing in this section shall authorise any interference with such right except with the consent of such person.

Every school so transferred shall, to such extent and during such times as the school board have under such arrangement any control over the school, be deemed to be a school provided by the school board. (5)

(1) It was considered probable that cases would frequently occur in which the managers of a voluntary school under the existing system would desire, having regard to the provisions of this Act with reference to rating for school purposes, to transfer the school to a school board, with the view of being relieved of the expense attending its maintenance. The section is chiefly intended to meet cases of that character.

The Education Department have no power to compel the transfer of any school to a school board. The Department can only consent to the terms of transfer agreed to by the managers of an elementary school, and the school board of the district within which the school in question is situated. A school board do not in virtue of their election, and independently of agreement, obtain the control and management of any existing school unless they are appointed to be the governing body by some scheme, trust deed, or other instrument of trust. When school premises have been erected, enlarged, or improved, or fitted up partly by pecuniary aid from the parliamentary grant, the Education Department will refuse to recognise in any way a school carried on in such premises as a board school, unless such use as the board have of the premises has been secured to the board in pursuance of an agreement made in accordance with the requirements of this section. Until, therefore, these requirements are complied with, no annual grant on account of the school will be paid by the Education Department during the time that it continues under the control of the school board. These observations equally apply to schools of which it is intended that the school board should have only the temporary use.

The Committee of Council on Education, on the 17th July, 1871, adopted the following resolutions with reference to applications for the transfer of elementary schools to school boards under this section:

"I. In the case of premises held under a trust, express or implied, the following rules shall be observed:

(1.) All questions relating to the title of the parties to the proposed

arrangement, or affecting the subject-matter upon which it is to operate, must be considered and settled by the legal advisers of the parties, and will not be investigated by the Education Department.

(2.) In considering whether any proposed arrangement should be approved, the Department will confine their attention to ascertaining that the terms of such arrangement are, in their opinion, proper and reasonable, and the approval expressed in any case will be limited accordingly.

(3.) As to the terms of the arrangement,- -no payment of rent beyond that charged upon or reserved out of the premises by the original lease, and no other valuable consideration, except an undertaking to insure and keep the premises in repair, and to keep down or redeem charges or incumbrances on the same will in general be sanctioned.

"II. Arrangements with respect to schools which are private property must be settled by the proprietors of the premises and the school boards, under sec. 19 of the Act, and do not require the intervention of the Department."

An explanatory letter as to the foregoing minute, with a form of transfer of schools to school boards under the provisions of this section, will be found in the Appendix, p. 548.

As to the terms of arrangement which may be made under this section, see also note 4, p. 108.

The School Sites Act, 1841 (4 & 5 Vict., cap. 38), by sec. 14, provides that "where a portion of any parliamentary grant shall have been or shall be applied towards the erection of any school, no sale or exchange thereof shall take place without the consent of the Secretary of State for the Home Department for the time being." The question has been raised whether this provision renders necessary the sanction of the Home Secretary to the transfer to a school board, under sec. 23 of this Act, of a school for the erection of which a contribution was received from the parliamentary grant. The transfer is clearly not a "sale or exchange" within the meaning of the School Sites Act, and therefore the sanction of the Secretary of State is not required.

(2) In Re Burnham National School, L. R. 17 Eq. 241; 43 L. J. Ch. 340; 29 L. T., N. S. 495, it appeared that there were but two trustees for a national school. These trustees were unable for a considerable time to agree as to the management of the school, and differences had arisen between them as to the appointment of a master, the result of which had been the closing of the school. One of the trustees was a member of the school board for the parish, and he proposed that the school should be transferred to the school board, and the school board passed a resolution applying to the trustees to make such transfer. The second trustee objected. The Charity Commissioners were then petitioned to appoint three new additional trustees, with the view, as was alleged, of securing a majority of at least two-thirds of the trustees who would transfer the school to the school board. The memorial to the Commissioners was signed by five of the members of the school board as well as others, but the intended transfer was not mentioned in the memorial, and an order was made by the Commissioners accordingly. A meeting of the trustees was afterwards convened, and a resolution for the transfer of the school was passed by a majority of four. The objecting trustee then petitioned for a discharge of the order. He alleged that the appointment of the three additional trustees would bring about a transfer of the school to the school board, and that the effect of it would be to destroy the Church of England character of the school and the trusts of the deed, as no distinctive religious teaching was allowed in a school so transferred. The petitioner impugned the authority of the Commissioners to make the order without the consent of the bishop, and also on the ground that the new trustees, one of whom was the chairman of the school board, before being appointed, were pledged to join in transferring the school to the school board, which object was that for which the Commissioners had made the order. The Master of the Rolls (Sir G. Jessel) held that the power of the Charity Commissioners to make the order was clearly established. As to the objection to the order that even if the Commissioners have the power to appoint additional trustees generally, yet that it should not be exercised in a case where the appointment of such trustees of a Church of England school might have the effect of handing it over to a school board, he said: "I can conceive cases in which the Commissioners might be very careful in exercising their undoubted jurisdiction, but that is no reason for saying that any legislation with respect to such schools has taken away that jurisdiction. In fact a statutory provision has anticipated the objection by requiring a majority of two-thirds of the trustees to effect such a transfer. The only other objection upon public grounds is that the exercise of the power to appoint these trustees interferes with the provision contained in the 46th section of the Act of 1853. That section might in the case of a church school prevent the

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