CHAP. 32.

"Border Section": A section embracing portions of two or more districts.

"District": That portion of territory, the schools of which may be under the general supervision of a Board of Commissioners.

"Rate-payer": Any resident of a section rated in the county rate-roll in respect of real or personal property.

Constitution

and authority of

board.

CITY OF HALIFAX.

84. The City of Halifax shall be one school section; Halifax school and there shall continue to be thirteen Commissioners of schools for such City appointed [seven by the Governor in Council and six by the City Council] under the provisions of section 1 of Chapter 9 of the Acts of 1868, as modified by Chapter 27 of the Acts of 1869; and the thirteen Commissioners thus appointed shall constitute a Board of School Commissioners for the City of Halifax; and such Board shall be a body corporate, and may exercise all the powers and perform all the duties of trustees of public schools in and for the City.

City council to fill certain vacancies.

Duties of board

of commissioners.

Board of com

missioners may aid any city

85. All vacancies occurring by any means, either by the death, retirement from the City Council, or otherwise, of any of such Commissioners appointed by such Council, during the current year after selection, shall be filled as soon as may be by the City Council; and at the end of such year the same members or any of them may be re-elected by such Council.

86. The Board of Commissioners shall take all necessary steps to provide sufficient school accommodation; and shall furnish annually to the Superintendent of Education a report of their proceedings under this Chapter: also returns of all schools subject to their control, and a statement of the appropriation of all moneys received and expended by them under the provisions of this Chapter.

87. The Board of Commissioners are authorized to co-operate with the governing body of any City school, on school, provided such terms as to the Board shall seem right and proper, so

it be a free school.

City council shall assess sum

that the benefits of such school may be as general as circumstances will permit; and the Board may make such allowance to any such school out of the funds under their control, as shall be deemed just and equitable; but no public funds shall be granted by them in support of any school unless the same be a free school.

88. On request of the Board of Commissioners, specifyrequired by com- ing the amount required in addition to the sums provided missioners for from the Provincial Treasury, for the yearly support and school purposes. maintenance of the schools under their charge, the City

Council shall be authorized, and are hereby required to add CHAP. 32. a sum sufficient, after deducting costs of collection and probable loss, to yield the amount so specified by the Board, to the general assessment of the City, to be levied

and collected from the inhabitants thereof, and from pro- Mode of assessperty lying within the County, the owners whereof reside ment. in the City; and on the payment of the required fee, the City assessors shall furnish to the trustees of Dartmouth or other school section, and the Clerk of the Peace for the County shall furnish to the City assessors, the information necessary in order to give effect to this provision. Any person who may have been assessed, both in the City and in Dartmouth, or any of the school sections in the County, in respect of such property, shall be entitled to receive back the amount paid by him, either in the City or in Dartmouth or other school sections, as the case may be, in accordance with the foregoing construction of the law. The sum so assessed shall be paid quarterly by the City Treasurer to the Board, upon the written order of the chairman or vice-chairman. Provided, however, that the Not to exceed Commissioners shall not have power to assess the City for $60,000. any greater sum than sixty thousand dollars in any one year, without the consent of the Governor in Council

given at the request of such Commissioners.

ment.

89. The objects to be provided for by the Board of Objects provided Commissioners out of the sum so assessed, shall be the for out of assesssalaries of teachers and assistants, and of the secretary of the Board, the leasing of lands and buildings for school purposes, the repairing and improving of grounds and buildings, the cleaning, fuel, and insurance of school-houses, the purchase of prescribed school books, the interest payable ou debentures issued by the Board, and all other expenses required in the due execution of the different powers and trusts vested in the Board by this Chapter.

sites and build

90. The Board of Commissioners shall have power to Board may borselect and purchase sites for school buildings, and shall row money for have power to borrow money for the purchase of the ing. same; as also for the purchase or erection of school buildings, the improvement of school grounds, and the purchase of suitable furniture and apparatus for the schools under their control; but the Commissioners shall not enter into Proviso. any contract for the purchase of any land nor for the erection of any school building until such contract has been submitted to, and obtained the approval of the Governor in Council.

91. To enable the Commissioners to borrow money, Board may issue they may issue debentures, in such form, and for such debentures. sums as they may decide upon, payable with interest in twenty-five years from the date thereof, free from taxation;

CHAP. 32. such debentures to be a charge on the City of Halifax, and the interest thereon to be paid every six months, and to be included in the sum specified and required to be assessed upon the inhabitants of the City, as aforesaid. The debentures shall be sealed with the corporate seal of the Board, and shall be signed by the chairman, and countersigned by the secretary.

Superintendent to pay commis

92. The Board of Commissioners are hereby invested with the title of all public school property, real and perSonal, within the City (with the exception of the Halifax Grammar School), and may sell and dispose of the same, or any part thereof, and with the proceeds may purchase new school-house sites, and erect new school-houses in such places and at such times as they may deem expedient.

93. The commissioner, whose name shall stand first on the list of appointments shall be Chairman of the Board; and in his absence the commissioner next on the list present shall act as chairman, and the commissioners shall appoint their own secretary and fix his salary.

94. Every male person of full age having been resident in the City six months or upwards immediately previous to the levying of the assessment in any year, not being as sessed to the amount of one dollar for the support of public schools in respect of real or personal property, shall be assessed in the sum of one dollar for the support of such schools during the year; but the City Council shall have power to exempt from the payment of such assessment any person whom they may deem unable to pay the

same.

95. The Superintendent of Education shall be empow sioners grants to ered to pay to the Board of Commissioners the grants provided by law for teachers and assistants employed in the City.

teachers.

Commissioners may dispose of debentures.

Commissioners

96. The Board of Commissioners for the City shall be empowered to dispose of debentures, authorized under this Chapter, at current rates.

97. The Board of Commissioners for the City shall be to receive $1,000 entitled to receive a sum, in no case to exceed a thousand

annually.

City treasurer

to pay over

dollars annually, as remuneration for their services; such remuneration to be apportioned according to the promptness and regularity of the attendance of the members of the Board, and the amount of labor performed by each, as the Board may decide.

98. All moneys assessed on the City of Halifax for money to board. educational purposes, and in the hands of the City Trea surer, shall be paid over by him to the Commissioners of Schools for the City of Halifax, at the times and in the manner hereinbefore provided.

99. The Commissioners of Schools for the City of CHAP. 33. Halifax are authorized to effect insurances on school- Commissioners houses.

may insure school-houses.

100. The provisions of this Chapter, except as herein How far proviotherwise specified, shall apply to the City of Halifax; sions of Chapter provided that the pupils of any ward shall be entitled to apply to Halifax. school privileges in any other ward.

TITLE VIII.

OF THE POOR.

CHAPTER 33.

OF THE SETTLEMENT AND SUPPORT OF THE POOR.

terms.

poor, how ap

1. The words "township" and "settlement" when Definition of used in this Title, shall be held to mean any district set off and established as a district for the support of the poor. 2. The grand jury shall annually at the sessions nomi- Overseers of nate ten freeholders out of every township, of whom the pointed. court shall appoint five to be Overseers of the Poor; and if any person so appointed shall cease to reside in the township, or shall die within the period for which he was appointed, any two justices of the county may appoint another to act instead until the next meeting of the grand jury and court of sessions; and such overseers and their successors in office shall be a body corporate.

3. Every person who has lived as a hired servant one Bettlement, how whole year therein, under an agreement to serve the same gained. master one whole year then next before application for relief, or has executed a public annual office therein, or has been assessed and paid his share of poor and county rates in the township during one year at one time, shall be

entitled to a settlement; and any person who shall have Persons entitled resided in any poor district for five years consecutively, to a settlement after arriving at the age of twenty-one years, and who during that time shall not have received aid from the Overseers of the Poor as a pauper, shall have a settlement in

such poor district; and all persons under the age of twenty. Under age. one years who have served an apprenticeship within any poor district to any trade for the space of two years, shall have a settlement therein.

Settlement of children.

CHAP. 33. 4. The settlement of any legitimate child shall be that of the father, if the father have any; if not, that of the mother, if the mother have any. Illegitimate children shall have the settlement of the mother, if the mother have any: but in case a child has no settlement by parentage, the birth-place of such child shall be the place of settlement. 5. A married woman shall have the settlement of her married women. husband if the husband have any; if not, her own settlement, if she have any, shall not be suspended by her marriage.

Settlement of

Bettlement,

when to cease.

In case of divi

&c.

6. A legal settlement shall cease when a new one is gained, and shall not revive.

7. When a poor district shall be divided or a new dission of district, trict created, the settlement of any person dwelling within such divided or newly created poor district shall be within the limits of the district in which such person may have dwelt at the time of such division or creation.

Proceedings preparatory to

pauper.

8. Any person applying to the Overseers of Poor of any Premoval of a township for relief who shall not have obtained a settle. ment therein, shall be required to declare on oath before a justice of the peace his last place of residence; and if he be found to have gained a settlement within the Province, a copy of the declaration certified by the justice, with the amount of expense incurred, shall be transmitied to the Overseers of the Poor of the township to which such person belongs.

If the overseers of the place of his settlement

refuse to remove for his removal

him, a warrant may issue.

Examination,

when pauper insane.

Persons near of kin, and able, required to

9. If such last mentioned Overseers refuse or neglect to remove such person, two justices by a warrant shall cause such person to be removed to the township where a last settlement has been obtained; and the Overseers of the Poor there shall receive such person and pay to the Overseers of the first named township the necessary expense incurred about his removal. If the Overseers of the last namned township have no money in hand to pay such expense, they shall stand charged therewith until the next assessment made on the township to which such person belongs.

10. In the event of any pauper whose examination it may be necessary to take as to his last place of settlement being insane, or otherwise incapable or incompetent to undergo such examination, any justice may take such other testimony under oath as to the settlement of such pauper as to such justice may appear satisfactory; and thereupon such pauper may be removed as if he had been personally examined.

11. The father, grandfather, mother, grandmother, children and grand children respectively, of every old, blind, maintain their lame, impotent or other poor person not able to work, being of sufficient ability, shall relieve and maintain at their own

poor relations.