Alleration to take effect 25th December.

But no such alteration* in the boundaries of a school section shall take effect before the twenty-fifth day of December next after the alteration has been made.

repealing it, which would in effect make an alteration of school sections, could not be passed without notice to those interested; and that the by-law levying a rate on Section 13, as it stood before 1857, must necessarily be quashed also, for that would include part of what was Section 9.-Shaw et al. and the Corporation of the Township of Manvers. 12 Q. B. R. 288.

2. Boundaries of new or altered Sections must be defined with certainty.

The Court of Queen's Bench has decided that the by-law set out in this case was bad, for not describing or defining with sufficient certainty the limits of the school sections inten led to be established by it.-Haacke v the Municipality of Markham. 17 Q. B. R. 562. [See also decision of the Court of Queen's Bench, in the case of school section for coloured people, on page 39.]

3. Notice only and not consent necessary in altering School Section. Any alteration in the boundaries of a section may be effected after due notice to all parties interested, and independently of the consent or request of its Trustees or inhabitants. But the union of two or more sections into one, cannot be ef fected without the concurrence of the inhabitants of each of the sections concerned. The Court of Queen's Bench in confirming the decision of the Chief Superinten dent on this subject, holds that an alteration in the boundaries of a school section under the [fortieth] section of the [Upper Canada Consolidated Common] School Act, does not constitute it a new section, or make it necessary to call a school meeting to elect new trustees. Such an alteration only involves a change of par ties, from being members of one school section, and becoming members of another school section, and takes effect the 25th December next after. Nor is it necessary to show that the people desire an alteration of the boundaries to authorize the Council to make it.-Chief Superintendent, appellant from Judge of the Division Court, in re Trustees No. 2, Moore v. Wm. McRae. 12 Q. B. R. 525.

4. Dividing a School Section makes only one new section.

The Court of Queen's Bench has decided the following case.-On application of the resident inhabitants of a section, the Municipality of a township, in 1853, passed a resolution to divide the section, by taking away a part to constitute a new section (but no by-law was passed until 1855, when one was adopted confirming the resolution.) A meeting was called for the 16th January, 1854, to elect three new trustees for the section. In the meantime, on the 10th of January

* Form of intimating to Trustees the alteration of their School Section.
Township Clerk's Office,

186.

SIR,-In conformity with the fortieth section of the Upper Canada Consolidated Common School Act, I have to acquaint you that the Municipal Council of this Township has altered the School Section of which you are Trustee, in the following manner: [Here insert the changes which have been made, and a full description of the new School Section.] These changes will go into effect from and after the twenty fifth day of next December, according to the foregoing section of the Act. You will please communicate this notice to the other Trustees of your School Section. I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

To D. E.,

A. B, Township Clerk.

Trustee of School Section, No.-, Township of REMARK.-In giving notice of the formation of Union School Sections see the remarks at the end of the form.

Union of existing Sections; Meetings to be called.

41. In case at a public meeting of each of two or more sections called by the trustees for that purpose, a majority of the [assessed]

the ordinary annual meeting was held, and a dispute arose as to whether trustees should not then be elected for the ensuing year? Some thought not, and left the meeting; while others remained, and proceeded with the election. The Local Superintendent being appealed to, declared the election illegal, considering the section had become a new section; and appointed another election to take place on the 16th, when the three defendants were appointed trustees. In January, 1855, the dispute was renewed and elections held so that there were two sets of trustees claiming the office. The first elected trustees in 1854, abstained from acting; and the defendants imposed a rate, which the plaintiff resisted. Held by the Court, (affirming (No. 14, page 57,) Chief Superintendent of Education, Appellant, from the Judge of the Division Court of the County of Lambton, in re Trustees, No. 2 Moore v. McRae, 12 Q. B. R. 525,) that the alteration did not constitute the section a new one; but the rate was legal being imposed by trustees de facto, who had not been removed.-Quare, whether such alteration could be made by resolution only. Quare, also, whether the decision of the local superintendent can be thus incidentally reviewed in an action to recover back the rate.-Chief Superintendent of Education, Appellant, from the Judge of the Division Court of the County of Haldimand, in re Trustees, No. 7, Oneida, Gill & Jackson et al. 14 Q. B. R. 119.

5. Notice should be given before the alteration of School Section be made. The Court of Common Pleas has decided that before any alteration can be made in the limits of a school section, notice must be given to the parties interested in the proposed alteration, before the passing of the by-law authorizing the same.Griffiths v. Municipality of Grantham. 6 C. P. R. 274.

6. Preliminaries to be observed in forming or altering School Section. In effecting alterations, the Municipal Council may take the initiatory, and can act without any previous request from a public meeting; but if they enter upon such a measure of their own accord, they must see that all parties affected by the alteration have been duly notified of the intended step; and if they have been ap plied to on the subject, they are not required to entertain the application until they see that such notice has been given, of which they must be the judges.(Chief Justice Robinson; In re Ness v. Saltfleet Municipality. 13 Q. B. R. 408. 7. By-laws for the alteration of School Sections can only be quashed within a

reasonable time.

The Court of Common Pleas in a case where a great length of time (fourteen months) had elapsed before motion was made, refused to quash a by-law altering school sections, it being on its face legal, and having been acted upon, although it was doubtful whether sufficient notice had been given to interested parties.-Hill v. Municipality of Tecumseth. 6 C. P. R. 297.

8. Time when alteration in School Section takes effect-Sufficient notice must

appear.

The Court of Queen's Bench, affirming Ness and the Municipality of Saltfleet, 13 Q. B. R. 408, has decided, that to alter the boundaries of a school section within a township, not being a union section, it is only necessary that the altera tion shall not go into effect before the 25th of December following, and that it must appear to the municipality that all parties affected have had due notice.— Held, also, that notice in this case was sufficiently shown.-In re Isaac and the Municipality of Euphrasia. 17 Q. B. R. 205.

9. Alteration of School Section by County Council illegal.

The Court of Common Pleas has decided that, under the School Law, the township council and not the [county] council, have authority to sanction any altera

freeholders and householders of each of the sections to be affected, request to be united, then the council shall unite such school sections into one.

tion made in school [sections]. A proposed alteration being submitted by the [local] superintendent of schools to the [county] council, was held not to legalize the alteration thereby proposed.-McFee v. Dunbar. 10 C. P. R. 94.

10. Township Councils cannot alter Union School Sections.—By law, to levy School Rate after alteration, also bad.

The Municipality of Vespra and Sunnidale [before the passing of the Supple mentary School Act of 1853] passed a by-law re-modelling the school sections of those townships, which transferred to Union School Section No. 3, created by the by-law, a part of Vespra, which had formerly belonged to Union School Section No. 4 of Vespra, Flos, Oro, and Medonte. Held, that this was beyond the power of the municipality, and that the by-law was bad. It appeared also that no notice had been given of the intended alteration, and that on this ground as well the by-law was illegal. Held, also, that as Union Section No. 3 was illegally constituted, a by-law passed to raise money for a school house erected there was also bad; and the by-law in this case passed for that purpose was bad too, for omitting to comply with the requisites [under the two hundred and twenty-third section of the Municipal Institutions Act] of all by-laws creating a debt or contracting a loan-Hart and the Municipality of Vespra and Sunnidale. 16 Q. B. R. 32.

11. The Act determines when by-law takes effect.-Lapse of time.—Quashing. The Court of Common Pleas on a motion to quash a by-law passed on the 1st of October, 1859, by defendants, doing away with school section No. 7, in the township of Darlington, and attaching a portion thereof to school section No. 6, and another part to No. 8. Held, 1st, that it is unnecessary that a by-law should state on its face that the alteration shall not go into effect till the 25th December following the passing thereof. 2nd, that no step having been taken to quash a bylaw for a year and more from the passing thereof, the decision in Hill v. Munici pality of Tecumseth, 6 C. P. R. 297, [quoted above,] was adhered to, and the motion refused on account of delay in making the application.-Cotter v. Municipality of Darlington. 11 C. P. R. 265.

12. See decisions in regard to uncertain boundaries of school sections for coloured people, on page 39.

13. If two sections be united, in re-arranging the School Sections of a Township, an election of Three Trustees is necessary.

The Court of Common Pleas has decided the following case: In the township of Harwich, prior to February, 1854, School Section No. 1 consisted of the town of Chatham and a part of the township. There was also a school section in operation, known as Section No. 24. In February, 1854, the township council passed a resolution dividing the township into sixteen school sections. No. 1 (of the new sections) was formed of that part of the township of Harwich which, together with the town of Chatham, bad previously been No. 1, added to the whole of No. 24 as it existed previously. In January, 1855, an election for the new Section No. 1 (as created by the resolution in 1854) was held, at which one trustee only was elected, and the two other trustees elected the previous year for the then section, gave defendant the warrant under which he acted. Held by the Court, that there should have been three trustees elected for Section No. 1 at the election in January, and that a warrant signed by the other two was inoperative.—MacGregor v. Pratt, No. 1, Harwich. 5 C. P. R. 173.

1. The Court of Queen's Bench has also decided that the union of two or more sections into one, is equivalent to the formation of a new section, and goes into operation (unless especially deferred to a fixed date) immediately after the action

First Elction in such united Sections.

42. The first election in such united section shall be appointed and held in the same manner as is provided for in the seventh to the twelfth sections of this Act, in respect to a new school section [pages 9, 10, and 11.]

Share of School Fund not affected.

43. The several parts of any altered or united school sections shall have respectively the same right to a share of the common school fund for the year of the alteration or union, as if they had not been altered or united.

Disposal of School Property when not wanted.

44. In case a school site, or school house, or other school property be no longer required in consequence of the alteration or the union of school sections,* the same shall be disposed of by sale or. otherwise, in such manner as a majority of the [assessed] freeholders and householders in the altered or united school sections decide at a public meeting called for that purpose.†

Separated part to Share in proceeds.

And the inhabitants transferred from one school section to another, shall be entitled, for the common school purposes of the section to which they are attached, to such a proportion of the proceeds of the sale of such school house or other common school property, as the assessed value of their property bears to that of the other inhabitants of the school section from which they have been so separated; and the residue of such proceeds shall be applied to the erection of a new school house, or to other common school purposes of such altered or united sections.

[The forty-fifth and forty-sixth sections of this Act have been superseded by the fifth section of the School Law Amendment Act of 1860, as follows:]

of the township council; and the same court has decided that the union of two or more school sections in the same township into one, may take place at any period of the year, and would then require a new election of trustees.-Chief Superinten dent, Appellant, in re Trustees No. 2 Moore v, William McRae. 12 Q. B. R. 525. But the union of parts of adjoining townships, and an alteration in the boundaries of union sections, have no effect until after the 25th December following the act. In all cases, an altered or united section has no legal existence, as such, until after the date fixed for the coming into effect of such alteration or union.

As the site, school-house, and other school property of an altered school section can be "no longer required" by the parties who, by such alteration, have been separated from the original section, they are in equity entitled to the proportion of the estimated value of the site, school house, and other school property mentioned in the Act, although they be not actually sold, as contemplated by the Act.

See authority for the sale of school premises: (1) By the trustees, in the tenth section of the School Law Amendment Act of 1860, on page 30; and (2) By the township council in the Municipal Institutions Act, as [344], page 51.

[Formation and alteration of Union School Sections.* 45. [5. The forty-fifth and forty-sixth sections of the said Upper Canada [Consolidated] Common School Act, shall be amended so as to read as follows: "Under the conditions prescribed in the fortieth section (pages 54, 55), in respect to alterations of other school sections, union school sections, consisting of parts of two or more townships or parts of a township and any town or incorporated village, may be formed and altered by the reeves and local superintendent or superintendents, of the townships out of parts of which such sections are proposed to be formed;† or in the case of a union section of parts of a township or townships and a town or incorporated village, by the reeve and local superintendent of the township, and the Board of Common School Trustees of the town or village, at a meeting appointed for that purpose by any two of such reeves, or by the Board of Common School Trustees of auch town or village, of which meeting the other parties authorized to act with them shall be duly notified;

[Effect of such Union in Township, Town, or Village.

46. [And each union school section, composed of portions of adjoining townships or portions of a township or townships, and a town or incorporated village, shall, for the purposes of the election of trustees under their control be deemed one school section, and shall be considered in respect to superintendence and taxation for the erection of a school house, as belonging to the township, town, or village in which the same [i.e. the school-house] is situated."+

[46. The School Law Amendment Act of 1860 also enacts: 2. On the incorpora tion of a part of any school section within the limits of a village, the municipal council of the township within the limits of which such school section is in whole or in part situated, shall have authority forthwith to attach the part or parts of such school section not included within the limits of the village corporation, to an adjacent school section or school sections, or form them into a separate and distinct section or sections.]

* Formation and alteration of Union School Sections can only be made by Reeves and Local Superiutendents.

The Court of Queen's Bench has decided that a township municipality may alter the boundaries of school sections within the township, by taking from one sec tion and adding to another, without any previous request of the [assessed] free, holders and householders, and notwithstanding their disapprobation of the change provided that those affected by the alteration have due notice of the intention to make it. But the municipality has no power to alter the boundaries of a union school section consisting of parts of different townships-such power pertaining only to the reeves and local superintendents of the townships concerned.—In re Ley v. Municipality of Clarke. 13 Q. B. R. 433.

This union can be dissolved by either of the township councils concerned, on giving due notice to all parties concerned. See forty-seventh secion of this Act, page 69.

See ninety-second section of this Act.