To enable a local board or improvement commissioners to appoint a school attendance com mittee the following conditions must be fulfilled :—(1.) The local board district or Improvement Act district must not include a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act. (2.) The district must be coextensive with one or more parishes not under the jurisdiction of a school board. (3.) The district must have a population according to the last census of not less than 5000; and (4) the appointment of a school attendance committee by the sanitary authority must have been authorised by an order of the Education Department. A school attendance committee, when thus appointed by a sanitary authority, will be in precisely the same position and have the same powers as a school attendance committee appointed by the council of a borough.

When a parish is partly within and partly without a borough, the part of the parish outside the borough constitutes a separate parish for the purposes of this section. See 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75, s. 77, ante, and sec. 49 of this Act.

(2) The order of a board of guardians for the purpose of obtaining the contribution of a parish to their common fund is addressed to the overseers of the parish, and requires the payment to the treasurer of the guardians of a certain sum on a certain day. Where the guardians deem it desirable, the sum may be ordered to be paid by instalments on days to be specified in the order.

The order must be addressed to all the overseers (including the churchwardens, when they are ex-officio overseers) by name, but it is not necessary that the order should be served on more than one of them (12 & 13 Vict., c. 103, sec. 7).

As regards the enforcement of a contribution order, the 2 & 3 Vict., c. 84, by sec. 1, provides that in every case in which any contribution by overseers or other officers of any parish of moneys required by the guardians acting for such parish, or for any union which shall include such parish, shall be in arrear, it shall be lawful for any two justices acting within the district wherein such parish shall be situate, on application under the hand of the chairman or acting chairman of the board, to summon the overseers or other officers to show cause, at a special sessions to be summoned for the purpose, why such contribution has not been paid, and after hearing the complaint preferred under the authority of such chairman or acting chairman, and on behalf of such board, if the justices at such sessions shall think fit, by warrant under their hands and seals, to cause the amount of the contribution so in arrear, together with the costs occasioned by such arrear, to be levied and recovered from the said overseers or other officers in like manner as moneys assessed for the relief of the poor may be levied and recovered, and the amount of such arrear, together with the costs as aforesaid, when levied and recovered, to be paid to the said board. Provided always that no distress made under any such warrant of justices shall be replevisible.

See also 14 & 15 Vict., c. 105, sec. 9, as to the jurisdiction of justices in these cases.

(3) For provisions of sec. 74 of the Education Act, 1870, see p. 153. (4) The urban sanitary districts to which this sub-section refers are the districts of local boards and improvement commissioners acting as urban sanitary authorities under the Public Health Act, 1875. A local board district or Improvement Act district will not come within the terms of this sub-section if it includes a municipal borough, or is wholly within the jurisdiction of a school board, or is a district for which under the first clause of the section the sanitary authority might upon the order of the Education Departinent

appoint a school attendance committee. With regard to a school attendance committee appointed by the guardians, see sec. 7.

(5) For provisions of sec. 74 of the Education Act, 1870, see p. 153.

Clerk of School Attendance Committee of Guardians and Application of Acts to Guardians and School Attendance Committee.

34. In a union the clerk of the guardians shall be the clerk of the school attendance committee for the purposes of this Act. (1)

All enactments relating to guardians and their officers and expenses, and to relief given by guardians, shall, subject to the express provisions of this Act, apply as if the guardians, including the school attendance committee appointed by them, and their officers acting under this Act, and expenses incurred, and money paid for school fees and relief given under this Act, were respectively acting, incurred, and paid and given as relief, under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor, and the Local Government Board may make rules, orders, and regulations accordingly. (2)

Any expenses incurred by officers of guardians in carrying into effect section twenty of the Elementary Education Act, 1873, when paid by such guardians, may be charged by them to the parish in respect of which such expenses are incurred. (3)

(1) Under the Union Assessment Committee Act, 1862, the clerk or "assistant clerk" of the board of guardians is to act as the clerk to the assessment committee, and under the Public Health Act, 1875, the clerk to the guardians is to be clerk to the rural sanitary authority, with the proviso that if the clerk is unable or unwilling to undertake the additional duties, the assistant clerk of the union shall be appointed to discharge the same. Under the present Act, it would seem that the clerk to the guardians will have no alternative but to act as the clerk of the school attendance committee, appointed by the guardians.

As to the duties and remuneration of the clerk to the guardians as the clerk to the school attendance committee, see arts. 2, 9, 10, 11, 15 and 16 of Order of the Local Government Board of 14th April, 1877 (Appendix, pp. 513-516).

(2) The Local Government Board, under the powers conferred on them by this section, have issued two Orders, one containing regulations as to the proceedings of guardians and their officers in relation to the payment of the school fees of non-pauper children (see secs. 10 and 35), and the other containing regulations as to the proceedings of school attendance committees appointed by guardians. These Orders will be found in the Appendix, pp. 487, 513.

The Board have also issued Orders as to the delegation by the guardians to relief committees of their powers of hearing and deciding upon applications for the payment of school fees for the children of non-pauper parents under sec. 10, and as to the fees thus paid being declared to be allowed by way of loan. An Order has also been issued with reference to the payment of the fees by pay clerks when such officers have been appointed, instead of by the inquiry officers. These several Orders are printed in the Appendix, pp. 503, 506, 508, 511.

The 30 & 31 Vict., c. 106, s. 27, provides that "where a union extends into several distinct jurisdictions, every matter, act, charge, or complaint by which the guardians thereof are affected, or in which they have any interest, shall for the purpose of jurisdiction be deemed to arise or exist equally throughout the union," and the Secretary of State has stated that he cannot undertake to give an authoritative interpretation of Acts of Parliament, nor is his opinion binding, but that it appears to him that this section by operation of sec. 34 of this Act is made applicable to school attendance committees.

(3) The provision now made as to the expenses incurred by officers of guardians under sec. 20 of the 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75, ante, will meet the question which has frequently arisen as to whether the expenses should be charged on the common fund of the union, or to the parish in respect of which the notices were published.

Charge to Parish of Money for School Fees.

35. Money given under this Act for the payment of school fees for any child of a parent who is not a pauper and is resident in any parish shall be charged by the guardians having jurisdiction in such parish to that parish with other parochial charges.

As to the powers of guardians with reference to the payment of the school fees of non-pauper children, see sec. 10.

For regulations issued by the Local Government Board with regard to the proceedings of guardians and their officers in respect to the payment of the school fees in these cases, see Appendix, p. 487.

Effect of Subsequent Appointment of School Board.

36. Where a school board is appointed after the commencement of this Act for any school district, the authority acting at the time of such appointment as the local authority under this Act shall continue so to act until the expiration of two months after the election of such board, and shall then cease so to act for such district; nevertheless, all bye-laws previously made by the local authority shall continue in force, subject to being revoked or altered in respect of that district by the school board in pursuance of section seventy-four of the Elementary Education Act, 1870.

As to the provisions of sec. 74 of the Education Act, 1870, see p. 153.

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.

Application of 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, ss. 23–5, to Penalties and Punishment for fraudulently obtaining Payment of Fees.

37. Sections twenty-three, twenty-four, and twenty-five of the Elementary Education Act, 1873 (which provisions relate to legal proceedings, and the forgery of certificates), shall so far as applicable apply in the case of offences and penalties under this Act, and proceedings for such offences and penalties and of certificates for the purposes of this Act, in like manner as if those sections were enacted in this Act and in terms made applicable thereto. (1)

And every person who shall fraudulently obtain or enable or procure any other person to obtain from any school board or local authority payment, or remission of payment, or an order for payment, or remission of payment of any school fees, shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding fourteen days. (2)

An order which a court of summary jurisdiction have authority to make in pursuance of this Act may be made in manner provided by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts. (3)

(1) For secs. referred to in the Elementary Education Act, 1873, see pp. 213-216.

(2) This provision, it will be observed, provides for cases where payment or remission of payment, or an order for payment or remission of payment of any school fees is fraudulently obtained from a school board or "local authority." A "local authority" for the purposes of the Act is the school attendance committee provided for by secs. 7 and 33, but the school attendance committee are not empowered to pay or remit the payment of school fees. The guardians alone are authorised by the Act to pay the fees, whether of pauper or non-pauper children, and the guardians, it would seem, are not a "local authority" within the meaning of the statute.

It will also be borne in mind that sec. 25 of the Education Act of 1870 having been repealed by this Act, the power of a school board to pay school fees has ceased. This provision, therefore, can only apply to cases where the remission of payment or an order for the remission of payment is fraudulently obtained from a school board.

(3) The Summary Jurisdiction Acts are defined as meaning the 11 & 12 Vict., c. 43, and any Acts amending the same.

The term "Court of Summary Jurisdiction" means any justice or justices of the peace, metropolitan police magistrate, stipendiary or other magistrate or officer, by whatever name called, to whom jurisdiction is given by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts.

No Prosecutions except with the Authority of two Members of a School Board, or Local Authority.

38. No legal proceedings for non-attendance or irregular attendance at school shall be commenced in a court of summary jurisdiction, by any person appointed to carry out the compulsory bye-laws of a school board or local authority, except by the direction of not less than two members of a school board or school attendance committee.

As to the appointment of officers for this purpose by a school attendance committee, see secs. 28 and 31.

Exemption of Employer on Proof of Guilt of some other
Person.

39. Where the offence of taking a child into employment in contravention of this Act is in fact committed by an agent or workman of the employer, such agent or workman shall be liable to a penalty as if he were the employer.

Where a child is taken into employment in contravention of this Act on the production by or with the privity of the parent of a false or forged certificate, or on the false representation of his parent that the child is of an age at which such employment is not in contravention of this Act, that parent shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.

Where an employer charged with taking a child into his employment in contravention of this Act proves that he has used due diligence to enforce the observance of this Act, and either that some agent or workman of his employed the child without his knowledge or consent, or that the child was employed either on the production of a forged or false certificate and under the belief in good faith in the genuineness and truth of such certificate, or on the representation by his parent that the child was of an age at which his employment would not be in contravention of this Act and under the belief in good faith in such representation, the employer shall be exempt from any penalty.

Where an employer satisfies the local authority, inspector, or other person about to institute a prosecution that he is exempt under this section by reason of some agent, workman, or parent being guilty, and gives all facilities in his power for proceeding against and convicting such agent, workman, or parent, such authority, inspector, or person shall institute