Fabrique Schools.

Statistics, 1898-99.

proceedings, the Superintendent may in his own name sue any secretary-treasurer in or out of office for the recovery from him of any sum of money which belongs to the school corporation, whether that money arise from the Government grants, the collection of school taxes, monthly fees, or other school dues received by him during the term of his office.

There are certain special rules about Fabrique Schools. The Fabrique of a parish is the vestry-board or board of churchwardens. The Fabrique of any parish and the school commissioners or trustees in charge of it may by mutual agreement unite the Fabrique schools in operation with any of the public schools for one or more years. Any Fabrique contributing not less than $50 annually towards the support of any school under the management of school commissioners or trustees thereby acquires a right for the curé and churchwarden in office to be commissioners for the management of that school only, if they were not so before. But no Fabrique may unite its school to those managed by commissioners or trustees of another faith, except under an express and formal agreement between the Fabrique and the school corporation of different faith.

This account of the Local Administration may be concluded by the following statistics taken from the Superintendent's Annual Report for 1898–99.

Roman Catholic and Protestant Schools, Boards of Commissioners and Trustees, Schoolhouses Owned and Leased, Materials of School buildings.

III. FINANCE, PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL.

There is little especially remarkable in the financial arrangements of the Quebec educational system. Accordingly, it will be unnecessary to give the regulations in such detail as seemed desirable in the matter of local authorities.

Schools are maintained (a) by grants from the "Common School Fund" of the Province, (b) by local school taxes, whether usual or special.

To entitle any school to its share, whether of the general Conditions common school fund or of the local school fund (i.e., to grants of aid. from the "Common School Fund" of the Province or to apportionment from the school fund of the local authority, whether it be a corporation of school commissioners or of school trustees) it is requisite and sufficient that the school in question should fulfil the following conditions:

:

(1.) The school must be conducted under the management of school commissioners or school trustees in accordance with the regulations;

(2.) The school must have been in actual operation during at least eight months;

(3.) The school must have been attended by at least fifteen children, periods of epidemic or contagious diseases being excepted. (A special indulgence is allowed whenever the school corporation can be shown to have endeavoured in good faith to carry out the law, by which a share of the school fund, general or local, may be paid for each school where there are fifteen or more children of school age, although the school has not been attended by that number during the year.)

(4.) Reports must have been made to the School Corporation by the teacher, and also by at least two of the school commis

sioners or trustees.

(5.) A public examination must have been held in the school. (6.) A Report, signed by the majority of the School Corporation and by its secretary-treasurer, must have been transmitted to the Superintendent every six months.

(7.) A sum equal to the grant made by the Legislature for the municipality must have been raised. A special exemption can, however, be made in the case of poor municipalities.

The Superintendent may, upon a representation to the fact Exemption of that the School Commissioners or trustees have in good faith municipality. carried out the provisions of the law, and upon proof of this fact to his satisfaction, exempt the municipality from the whole or part of the tax that would otherwise have to be raised in order to entitle the municipality to its share from the Provincial common school fund. He may pay the amount of share in this case, although the amount of the tax actually levied falls short of the amount required, i.e., although the amount locally raised

Distribution of Local

School Fund.

be not as great as the amount of share from the Provincial grant.

(8.) Teachers with diplomas must have been employed in the school.

(9.) Teachers must have been paid every six months.

(10.) Only those books authorised by the Roman Catholic or the Protestant Committee of the Council of Public Instruction should have been used.

(11.) The Regulations of the Council of Public Instruction or of the Roman Catholic or Protestant Committee, and the instructions of the Superintendent, must have been observed.

The sum annually voted by the Legislature in aid of poor municipalities is distributed by the Superintendent according to a division made by him and approved by the Committee of the Council of Public Instruction of the religious faith to which such school municipalities belong.

The Fund and its distribution.-The sums constituting the Common School Fund of the Province may be paid by the Superintendent in two semi-annual payments, under two accountable warrants to the Provincial Treasurer to be issued by the Lieutenant-Governor.

The Superintendent deposits these sums in some bank, according as the Lieutenant-Governor in Council may direct; and apportions it according to law among the various municipalities. He pays to the school commissioners or trustees the shares belonging to the municipalities they represent by cheques drawn upon the bank and made payable to their order; and he must account according to law for all moneys. The shares must be paid to the school corporations by the Superintendent in two half-yearly payments. The school commissioners or trustees may direct the payment, out of the general (local) school fund in their hands, of such contingent expenses as are not specially provided for in the Regulations

Any sums of money which have not been specially appropriated by provision of the donors, vendors, or others, and all sums arising from the allowance for schools, from school taxes or from any source other than monthly fees, form the school fund in each municipality under the control of the commissioners or trustees. The school fund thus formed is divided, distributed, and employed by them;

(1.) either in proportion to the number of children from seven to fourteen years in each school district capable of attending school; or,

(2.) by making a common fund, out of which the commissioners or trustees pay the expenses occasioned by the payment of teachers' salaries, the maintenance of school houses, the purchase of books, school furniture, and other contingent

expenses.

The school commissioners or trustees after having adopted one or the other of these two methods, cannot change it within two years unless by the authority of the Superintendent.

In all cases, the school corporation must deduct from this school fund a sum of eighty dollars for the support of a model school, if there be one in the municipality, in addition to the share which such model school is entitled to receive from the fund.

The girls' school, if there be one in the municipality, is counted as constituting in itself one school district, and the model school as another school district. The share of the moneys to be allotted to the girls' school and the model school is determined by the number of children of the age prescribed for attending school, residing in the school district in which such schools are established.

The Superintendent may refuse the school grant for any year to any municipality in which the commissioners or trustees have not rendered sufficient accounts, accompanied by vouchers, of the application of the school moneys for the years preceding, or for any one of them, whatever be the source whence those moneys were derived.

The Superintendent may refuse to pay the whole or any part Refusal of of the share of the Common School Fund, which would other- share in wise be payable to any school municipality,

(1) if his instructions or those of the Council of Public Instruction, or of either of its committees, have been disobeyed; or,

(2) if unqualified teachers have been employed by the commissioners or trustees; or,

(3) if a qualified teacher has been dismissed by the school commissioners or trustees before the end of his engagement, and for no valid or just cause. He may, further, pay out of the share of the municipality such indemnity as appears to him justly due to any teacher unjustly dismissed by the school corporation of that municipality.

Common
School Fund.

Out of the permanent and additional legislative grant for Sum reserved school purposes in the Province, the following sums may, with for three special the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, be set apart purposes. and expended yearly by the Superintendent, for the following

purposes :

(1.) A sum for special aid to public schools in poor school municipalities.

(2.) A sum to encourage the publication and circulation of a journal of public instruction.

(3.) A sum towards forming a fund for the support of super

Applications of Local

School Fund.

Valuation of property.

annuated or worn out public school teachers in the Province, under such regulations as may be from time to time adopted by the Superintendent or by the Council of Public Instruction, and approved by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council.

Any sum of money whatever arising from the general or local school fund which is not employed by the School Commissioners, Trustees, or Secretary-Treasurers during the year in which it is received must be deposited by them or placed out at interest, in order to create revenue for the School Corporation.

If in any school district there is no school in operation, the School Commissioners or Trustees deposit the money to which. the district would be entitled at interest in some savings or other chartered bank, where, with the consent of the rate-payers of the district, they allow it to accumulate during a term not exceeding four years, to be thereafter used by them either in the purchase of ground or in building a school-house, or towards other educational purposes in the school district.

The Superintendent may authorise the School Corporation in any municipality to apply the share coming for any one year to any school district, the inhabitants of which have contributed nothing or too little during the same year to the common fund of that municipality, in such manner as the Superintendent may direct, for the advancement of education in the municipality, instead of depositing the share in a bank. The amounts already placed in any bank for any school district in like cases may be dealt with in the same manner.

It is not necessary to give in full detail the regulations governing

a. Valuation.

b. The Imposition of Taxes.

c. Their Collection by Seizure...

d. New and Special Taxes.

e. Voluntary Contributions.

f. Collection of Taxes from Corporations, including Religious or Educational bodies, and

g. Capitalisation of Debt.

Nevertheless, certain distinctive features of the school finance of the Province may with advantage be given in rough outline under each of these headings.

a. Wherever a Valuation of Property has already been made