Alternation of Majority and Mino

rity.

When a notice of dissent is erved in accordance with this form, the status que is maintained until the date of the annual elections, and at that date the dissentients elect three school trustees, in the usual manner (for the method of election prescribed, see below); during the eight days following their election or nomination, the trustees must give notice thereof to the chairman of the school commissioners.

If, in any municipality, the ratepayers who belong to the religious denomination of the dissentients become the majority, they may signify in writing their intention of organising themselves in consequence.

Such notice must be made and signed in triplicate, and is served and deposited in the same manner as the notice of dissent.*

It is also, like the notice of dissent, served upon the chairman of the commissioners and upon the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In such case, the status quo is maintained up to the month of July following, and at that date an election is held in the usual way of five school commissioners, either for all the ratepayers, if the former majority, which has become the minority, has not declared itself dissentient, or for the majority alone, if the minority has declared itself dissentient.

When the former dissentients have declared their intention of electing five commissioners, the former majority, which has become the minority, may at once declare itself dissentient by giving notice, in the usual manner, to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and to the chairman of the trustees.

The notice of dissent must, in such case, in order to have effect the same year, be served on or before the 15th of June. In such case, in the month of July, the new dissentients elect their school trustees in the usual manner.

If the notice of dissent is not served before the 15th of June, the minority is governed by the school commissioners until it declares itself dissentient in the usual manner (Statute of 1893).

Dissentient are not liable for any taxes or school-rates which may be imposed by the school commissioners, except for the taxes of the then current year, or for taxes for the building of any school-house previously contracted for, or for the payment

of

*Notice of declaration of majority.

Province of Quebec,

Municipality of

To the Chairman of the School Commissioners of the Municipality , county of

Sir, We, the undersigned, proprietors, tenants, occupants, and ratepayers of the Municipality of in the county of now under the control of the School Trustees of the said Municipality, have the honour to inform you, in virtue of Article 1987 of the Revised Statutes of the Province of Quebec, that we have become the majority, and that we therefore intend to organise ourselves and elect five School Commissioners, for the administration of our schools, in the month of July next.

of debts previously incurred. But such taxes must always be imposed within six months from the date of the receipt of the notice of dissent.

In the case of newly organised municipalities, if the declaration of dissent be served upon the chairman of the school commissioners within one month after the organisation of the school corporation, the dissentients are not liable for any taxes imposed by the school commissioners.

municipali

The dissentients in any municipality, who, as such, form a Union of school municipality, may, with the approval of the superin- dissentient tendent, upon the demand of both parties, unite with a neigh- ties. bouring school municipality of their religious faith, situated at a short distance from their own, either completely or only for the purpose of sending their children to school. If the union be only for this latter purpose, the school trustees of these dissentients continue to collect the school taxes in their territory, but are bound to remit the amount within a fixed time to the school municipality to which they are united.

Any such union of dissentient school municipalities of the same religious faith may be made for the number of years that the Superintendent may fix. With his approval it may also be cancelled after twelve months' public notice. In such cases of union the trustees of the dissentients are obliged to levy the same rate of taxes in their municipality as that imposed by the school corporation to which they are united.

in towns.

Hitherto, the regulations have only touched the case in which Dissentients the school municipality is of itself an entire district. There are further provisions in regard to townships or parishes divided into two or more municipalities with ordinary schools controlled by school commissioners.

Any number whatever of the proprietors, occupants, and ratepayers of such a township or parish, who profess a religious faith different from that of the majority of the township or parish, may dissent and maintain one or more dissentient schools, situated anywhere in that township or parish, by giving notice in writing to the chairman of the school commissioners of their respective municipalities, and electing three trustees for school purposes. The trustees of these dissentients in a township or parish thus elected must either maintain under their immediate control, or subsidise, a school of their own religious faith situated in that township or parish.

sioners to

If the members of the religious minority in any one of the Grant by school municipalities, into which the township or parish is Commis divided, desire to send their children to the school maintained by Trustees. the trustees, without themselves becoming dissentients, it is lawful for the school commissioners of that municipality to make an annual grant from the school funds of the municipality to the trustees, in aid of that dissentient school.

For readers in Great Britain it may be instructive here to elaborate an imaginary equivalent to this regulation in terms of our own educational system. It is similar to a possible arrangement by which, should any number whatever of the

4226.

P2

Extinction of Trustee Corporation.

Children
Taught in

next munici-
pality.

ratepayers in a district upon which local rates are levied by a School Board desire to send their children to a voluntary school situated within that district, it would be lawful for the School Board of the district to make from the school funds raised by it from local rates, an annual grant in aid of the voluntary school, proportionate to the number of children attending that school, whose parents are liable to pay rates to the School Board.

To return to the actual conditions of Quebec. Whenever the trustees of dissentient schools in any municipality have been a year without schools, either in their own municipality or jointly with other trustees in an adjoining municipality, it is lawful for the Superintendent, after giving three consecutive public notices to that effect, to recommend to the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, that the corporation of trustees of dissentient schools in that municipality be declared extinct. The ratepayers who were, up to the time of such extinction, under the control of those trustees, then become liable for all taxes levied by the school commissioners; and the trustees are further required to pay over to the commissioners a sum equal to their share of all school taxes levied by the commissioners during all the time for which they, as trustees of dissentient schools not in operation, had neglected to keep their schools in operation.

One year after the dissolution or extinction of a corporation of trustees, any number of proprietors, tenants, and occupants, professing the religious faith of the minority in such municipality, may again elect trustees, and form a new corporation.

is

Whenever there is no dissentient school in a municipality, it open to any resident head of a family professing the religious faith of the minority in that municipality, and having children of school age, to declare, in writing, to the chairman of the school commissioners, that he intends to support a school in a neighbouring municipality. But this school must not be more than three miles distant from his residence. After this declaration, he pays his taxes to the commissioners or trustees, as the case may be, by whom the school, which he has chosen to support, and to which in virtue of that support he sends his child or children, is maintained. Special mention must be made in all school returns of children belonging to a neighbouring municipality, and these children are not taken into account in apportioning the school grants between the commissioners and trustees.

Children from other school districts, of the same faith as the dissentients for whom the school was established, may attend that school whenever the dissentients for whom it was established are not sufficiently numerous in any district to support a school alone.

(a) Any person belonging to the religious minority may at any time become a dissentient; and (b) any dissentient may, in like manner, declare his intention of ceasing to be a dissentient. The receipt by the chairman of the commissioners of the declaration made in the former case (a) is sufficient to place the persons making that declaration under the control, for

school purposes, of the trustees; and, similarly, the receipt by the chairman of the trustees of the declaration made in the latter case (b) is sufficient to place the persons making that declaration under the control, for school purposes, of the

commissioners.

It may here be repeated that the terms "religious majority' Erection of and "religious minority" mean the Roman Catholic or Protestant new munici. majority or minority, as the case may be.

It is now time to describe the method by which a new school municipality is erected. As a general rule, the first step is an application made by residents in any district for the alteration subdivision, or erection of a municipality. municipality. The LieutenantGovernor in Council then exercises his power, giving public notice, for which the applicants must pay. At the first meeting of the newly created municipality the election of a board of school commissioners (or school trustees) takes place. Such a meeting is called, at eight days' notice, either by the senior justice of the peace or by any other resident justice of the peace, or, in their default, by any three proprietors of real At this first meeting the justice of the peace, or one of the other persons responsible for the calling of the meeting, presides; but after the election of the commissioners (or trustees) has once been made at the first meeting, the chairman of the commissioners or trustees, or a person appointed to that effect by a resolution of the commissioners or trustees, presides; this person may be one of those members of the school corporation who do not go out of office at that date. If such an appointment be not made, or if the person appointed be absent or unable to act, the secretary presides de jure at the election.

pality.

On the first Monday in July in each year there is held a Annual general meeting of all the proprietors of real estate paying taxes Meeting. or monthly fees in each school municipality, for the election of a board of school commissioners or trustees. As a general rule it is the secretary-treasurer of the board of school commissioners or school trustees who calls this annual general meeting. In his absence the chairman of the commissioners or trustees acts for him in this respect; and in any case due public notice must be given.

The quorum of any corporation is, unless otherwise provided, an absolute majority of all its members; and the majority of the members present at any meeting regularly held at which there is a quorum may validly exercise all the powers of the corporation.

At the annual election of the commissioners or trustees, the Procedure. following is the procedure in cases where the choice is contested. Any five persons present and qualified to vote may demand a poll to be held in the following manner:

1. The presiding officer requests the electors present to propose those persons whom they wish to be chosen as school commis

sioners or trustees.

2. He is bound to receive and propose as candidates the names

of all persons submitted to him, whether verbally or in writing, by at least two of the electors present.

3. If, during the first hour after the opening of the meeting, as many candidates as there are school commissioners or trustees to be elected, or fewer candidates than the required number, have been proposed for election, the election is declared closed and the presiding officer proclaims the candidates proposed for election duly elected.

4. If more candidates have been nominated than there are vacancies to be filled, the presiding officer, upon a requisition by five electors present, proceeds without delay to hold a poll, and to register the votes of the electors; but if among those nominated there be any to whom there is no opposition, he proclaims such candidates elected, and the poll is held for the other opposed candidates only.

5. If five electors do not demand a poll, the candidates are proclaimed as elected on a show of hands, provided always that twenty electors present may appeal from such a count and demand a poll.

6. Every elector may vote for as many candidates as there are school commissioners or trustees to be elected in the municipality.

7. Any person tendering his vote must take the following oath or affirmation, if so required by the presiding officer, or by any elector, or by any candidate, or by the representative of any candidate: "I swear (or I affirm) that I am qualified to vote at this election, that I am at least twenty-one years of age, that I have paid all school taxes due by me, and that I have not already voted at this election; so help me God."

If the elector refuses to take this oath when required to do so, his vote is rejected.

8. Entry is made in the poll book against the names of those persons required to take the oath or affirmation, ie," sworn,' "refused to swear," "affirmed," "objected to," as the case may be.

9. In the case of an equal division of votes in favour of one or more of the candidates, the presiding officer is bound under a penalty of not less than $20 nor more than $50 to give a casting

vote.

At these election-meetings the proprietors of real estate paying taxes or monthly fees, and thus qualified to vote, elect five school commissioners or three trustees, as the case may be, or the number of commissioners or trustees required to fill the vacancies caused by the retiring of such of the commissioners or trustees as go out of office. All persons so elected, except Roman Catholic and Protestant clergymen, are bound to accept office. The provision of 1892 may here be quoted:-"The default on the part of any person, lawfully required to perform any duties under these regulations, to accomplish any one of the duties