BYE-LAWS.

FORM OF DECLARATION OF DEPOSIT OF BYE-LAWS.

School board for (1)

(or)

School attendance committee for (1)

Declaration of Deposit of Bye-Laws.

(Sec. 74 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, as amended by the Elementary Education Act, 1876.)

I hereby declare that the following statements are correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

1. A printed copy of [each of] the document[s] attached hereto and marked (2) being the proposed bye-laws for the above district[s] continued deposited for inspection by any ratepayer at the office of the school [board or attendance committee] for one month from the (3)

day of

18

2. Copies of the notice attached hereto and marked B. were duly published by advertisement in a newspaper circulating in [each of] the above district[s].

3. Printed copies of the aforesaid document were supplied gratis to any ratepayer.

Clerk. Date.

(1) Insert here the name of the district to which the bye-laws relate. If the declaration is to refer to the deposit of the bye laws for more than one district, the names of the several districts should be inserted in alphabetical order. (2) Insert here the several official numbers which appear on the provisionally approved draft bye-laws for the several districts.

(3) Date of newspaper in which notice appears.

CERTIFICATES OF HALF-TIME SCHOLARS.

THE following letter was addressed by the Education Department on the 14th April, 1883, to the several School Boards and School Attendance Committees.

EDUCATION Department, 14th April, 1883.

SIR, I am directed to forward a copy of revised Regulations (1) as to certificates of age, proficiency, and school attendance, and in connexion therewith to call the attention of your Board (or Committee) to the duties imposed upon local authorities by the provisions of Articles 11 and 15 of the Code of 1883, relative to half-time scholars.

Article 11 defines a half-time scholar to be a scholar certified by the local authority to be employed in conformity with the bye-laws; and Article 15 provides that each attendance of a halftime scholar shall, for the purpose of calculating the average attendance, be counted as one attendance and a half.

The managers of all schools receiving annual grants will, at the end of the school year, send to the local authority of their district a list of the half-time scholars on whom they claim the allowance provided by Article 15. This list will contain the names of the children and the number of attendances they have made in their school during the school year just ended, and it will have at its foot a form of certificate, to be signed by the clerk or other officer of the local authority, to the effect that the scholars whose names are on the list have been employed in conformity with the bye-laws.

In order that the officer of the local authority may be able to sign this certificate, he will have to satisfy himself that the following conditions are fulfilled, viz., that each of the scholars on the list

i. is over 10 years of age;

ii. has been beneficially and necessarily employed during the

year; iii. has been certified by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors to have reached the standard fixed by the bye-laws for partial exemption, i.e., to have passed in the three elementary subjects in that, or a higher, standard.

The local authority is already bound, in the ordinary administration of the Education Acts, to have sufficient information to

(1) For Regulations referred to, see p. 608.

enable its officer to certify as to these conditions, for they must all be satisfied before any child under 13 can be legally employed; and the local authority will therefore have occasion to enquire whether they are satisfied as soon as legal employment is alleged by any child as the excuse for irregular attendance. In the case of children employed half-time under the Factory Acts, some form of certificate as to the first and second of the above conditions is already required.

It will not, therefore, be necessary to call upon the local authority, for the purpose of the Articles in question, to undertake any investigation that it is not already bound to undertake, but my Lords think it may be useful to explain what evidence the local authority should require as to the conditions above mentioned.

i. As regards age, in order that allowance under Article 15 may be made for any half-time scholar, the local authority must have obtained either a registrar's certificate as to the child's age, or a statutory declaration from the parent in the form prescribed by the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835.

ii. In the matter of employment the local authority will be expected to see that partial exemption is not claimed for any child if the circumstances of its family are not such as to render its employment necessary and beneficial. iii. The managers of a school are supplied, after its inspection, with a duplicate of the examination schedule, with a certificate from the Inspector which will be authoritative evidence as to whether any child has or has not reached any standard. In the case of Board Schools, the officer of the local authority will have access to this certificate; in the case of Voluntary Schools he will be warranted in accepting a certificate from the principal teacher as to the fact that the Inspector has certified any child to have reached a particular standard. Such a certificate is accepted by magistrates under the provisions of Section 24 (5) of the Elementary Education Act, 1873. When the officer of the local authority receives a list of halftime scholars from the managers of any school, he will cancel the name of any scholar as to whom he cannot certify that the above conditions are satisfied. He will then insert, in figures, the number of scholars to whom his certificate applies and return the list to the managers without loss of time, as it is essential that the list duly signed should be ready at the school when the inspection begins.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

F. R. SANDFORD.

GENERAL ORDER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD

AS TO ACCOUNTS OF SCHOOL BOARDS.

TO ALL SCHOOL BOARDS for the time being formed under the authority of the Elementary Education Acts ;

To the district auditors within whose districts the districts of the said school boards are for the time being respectively included ;

To the clerks, accountants, treasurers, and other officers of the said school boards;—

And to all others whom it may concern.

Whereas, in pursuance of the provisions contained in the 60th section (sub-section 9) of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, orders were issued by the Poor Law Board and the Local Government Board respectively to certain school boards formed under the authority of that Act, prescribing regulations respecting the form of keeping the accounts of such school boards, and the audit of such accounts;

And whereas, by section 18 of the Elementary Education Act, 1873, it is enacted that the principal Act (viz., the Elementary Education Act, 1870) shall be construed as if for sub-section 9 of sec. 60 thereof there were substituted the following words :"Subject to the provisions of this section, the Local Government Board may from time to time make such regulations as may be necessary respecting the form of keeping the accounts, the audit thereof, the mode of publishing the time and place of holding the audit, the time within which the accounts are to be examined by the school board and signed by the chairman, and (with the consent of the Education Department) the school boards or class of school boards the accounts of which are to be made up only annually, and the day to which they are to be so made up in every year."

And whereas by a general order bearing date the 24th day of November, 1873 (after reciting that it was expedient that the orders already issued to school boards should be rescinded, and that regulations in accordance with section 18 of the Elementary Education Act, 1873, should be issued for those school boards, as well as for such other school boards as had since been, or might thereafter be, formed under the authority above mentioned), the Local Government Board rescinded all the orders issued to

school boards as aforesaid by the Poor Law Board or the Local Government Board, and prescribed regulations in accordance with the said Section 18, as regards all school boards then formed, or which might thereafter be formed, under the authority of the Elementary Education Acts;

And whereas by a general order dated the 9th day of May, 1879, the Local Government Board, in pursuance of Section 3 of "The District Auditors Act, 1879," prescribed the form of financial statement to be prepared and submitted to the district auditor in duplicate by school boards as local authorities, in accordance with the provisions of that section;

And whereas it is expedient that the above-cited general orders should be rescinded to the extent hereinafter specified, and that other regulations should be substituted for those contained in the said orders:

Now therefore we, the Local Government Board, in pursuance of the powers given to us by the statutes in that behalf, hereby order as follows, with respect to each school board, for the time being, formed under the authority of the Elementary Education Acts:

Art. 1. The said general order dated the 24th day of November, 1873, is hereby rescinded, on and after the 29th day of September, 1880, except so far as the same rescinds the other orders above cited.

Provided nevertheless, that where the form of any book or account prescribed by this order differs from that prescribed for such book or account by the general order rescinded as above, the form now in use may forthwith be altered and adapted as nearly as may be to the form herein prescribed for such book or

account.

Art. 2. The said general order dated the 9th day of May, 1879, is hereby rescinded.

Art. 3. From and after the 30th day of September, 1880, the following Regulations shall be observed, except in so far as the Local Government Board may from time to time assent to any departure therefrom; that is to say:

Clerk.

Art. 4. The clerk to the board shall enter, from time to time, at proper dates, in the minute book of the board, a statement of all authorities for the receipt and payment of moneys, all precepts issued by the board, and all minutes relating to any other pecuniary transactions of the board, and shall insert in such minute book marginal notes of reference to the page of the cash book mentioned in Art. 5, in which the items relating thereto are entered.

Art. He shall punctually enter and accurately keep the