Disputes as to the area of School Districts.

Any question or dispute regarding the area of any parish or burgh shall be settled either

1. By the Board of Education ;

or,

2. By the sheriff of the county in which the parish or burgh, or the greater part thereof, is situated, on an

application by the school board authorised by the Board of Education.

The determination in either case shall be final. § 9.

II. MANAGEMENT.

Sections 3, 4, 5, 8, 12-22, 48, 52, 57, 58, 67, 70.

Management vested in School Boards.1

The management of the public schools2 is vested in the school boards established in the different school districts.3 § 26.

Scotch Education Department.

In order to regulate the distribution of the Imperial money provided by Parliament for public education in Scotland, a Committee of the Privy Council on Education in Scotland is appointed by the Queen called the Scotch Education Department.4

The Committee were named on the 9th of August 1872. They consisted of

The Lord President of the Council. (The Marquess of Ripon.)

1 A summary of the principal provisions regarding school boards will be found at p. xlviii.

2 Public school is defined to mean any parish or burgh school or any school under the management of a school board.

3 "The management of the schools was committed to the school boards in Scotland, and to no one else. Nothing whatever connected with the management of the schools in Scotland was committed to the Privy Council." - Lord Advocate, June 3d.

* Scotch Education Department is defined to mean the Lords of any Committee of the Privy Council appointed by Her Majesty on Education in Scotland.

The Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Educa

tion. (Mr Forster.)

The First Lord of the Treasury. (Mr Gladstone.)

The Chancellor of Exchequer. (Mr Lowe.)

The Duke of Argyll.1

Mr Bruce.

The Lord Advocate. (Mr Young.)

The principal duties of the Department during the existence of the Board of Education are

1. To see to the distribution of the annual and building grants in Scotland. §§ 5 and 67.

2. To frame the code of minutes in accordance with which

those grants will henceforth be made. §§ 5 and 67. 3. To regulate and conduct the examination of candidates for certificates of competency. §§ 57, 58.

These duties are at present performed for Scotland by the Committee of Council on Education, which, since the passing of the Elementary Education Act of 1870, have been called the Education Department.

The Scotch Education Department are constituted a different committee from the Education Department, but both are in fact branches of the Government of the day. They are assisted by a permanent secretary in London (Sir Francis Sandford, C.B.), and a staff acting under him who carry on the regular work of the departments, and for whom the Government are responsible to Parliament.

The Scotch Education Department will in the following pages be called "The Department."

Board of Education.

In order to get the new system into working order and to bring the provisions of the Act into operation, the Department and the school boards are to be assisted by a temporary Board of Education in Scotland.

1 The Duke of Argyll was Secretary of State for India, and Mr Bruce, Home Secretary; but they were appointed personally, owing to their connection with Scotland, and not in virtue of their office.-Cf. Appendix, p. 96.

A summary of the principal provisions regarding the Department will be found at P. lviii.

The Board are to hold office for three years,' and, if necessary, for two years more. They are responsible to the Department, and on the expiration of their original or extended term of office their powers and duties devolve upon the Department, and "thereafter the clauses and provisions of the Act in which the term Board of Education' occurs shall be construed as if the term Scotch Education Department' were substituted therefor." (§ 3, sub-sec. 6.)

The principal duties of the Board are 2

1. To assist in the organisation of school districts and school boards.

2. To give advice and directions as to the institution and establishment of new schools, and to regulate the amount of school accommodation to be provided in each school district.

3. To submit to the Department the conditions according to which in their opinion Parliamentary grants should be distributed in Scotland. § 5.

The members of the Board were appointed on the 10th of October 1872, viz. :

:

Sir John Don Wauchope, Bart., Chairman.

3Sir William Stirling Maxwell, Bart.

John Ramsay, Esq.

Sir Alexander Grant, Bart.

Rev. John Tulloch, D.D.

Rev. James Taylor, D.D., Secretary.

The chairman, two members, and the secretary, have salaries.

Two members are a quorum.

4

The office of the Board is in

Edinburgh. The ordinary meetings will be held there every month except August and September. The chairman or some other member and the secretary will attend regularly at business hours during at least nine months in the year. The

1 "I have no doubt that the Board could accomplish their work in two years; and indeed I might say that my knowledge of the facilities already existing in Scotland leads me to believe that they will do it in less time.”—Mr W. E. Forster, 30th July 1872.

2 A summary of the principal provisions regarding the Board will be found at p. liii.

3 Without salary.

The office is in 32 Queen Street.

Board may appoint one or more of their number to perform special duties connected with the execution of the Act, and to visit such places as may be necessary for that purpose. § 3.

The first meeting of the Board was held in Edinburgh on Friday the 18th of October 1872. § 4.

The Board of Education will in the following pages be called "The Board."

First Elections of School Boards.

The first election of school boards will be conducted in accordance with the following provisions.

Number of Members.

1. The number of members in each school board will be determined by the Board according to the requirements of the school district. Each school board must consist of not less than five and not more than fifteen members.1 § 12, sub-sec. 1. Candidates.

2. Any one, not being a teacher in a public or stateaided school-i.e., a school in receipt of Parliamentary grant― is eligible as a member of a school board.

No qualification as to age, sex, residence, or ownership is required for membership, and the same person may, if elected, be a member of two or more Boards.2

Electors.

3. The electors consist of all persons3 of lawful age whose

1 Five and fifteen are the limits allowed by the English Act, the determination of the number resting with the Department. The following is the scale laid down by the Education Department with reference to the number of members of school boards in England:

A similar arrangement will be made in Scotland. Scale of the Board regulating the number of members of School Boards will be found in the Appendix, p. 164. 2 There is nothing in the Statute positively to prevent a Returning Officer from being a candidate or from voting at an election. But it is clearly inexpedient, and at common law perhaps incompetent.

The jurisdiction conferred by the Act upon Sheriffs and Sheriff-substitutes renders it undesirable that they should act as members of school boards in their own counties.

3 Females, if otherwise qualified, may vote as well as males.

names are entered on the latest valuation roll1 applicable to the parish or burgh for which the school board is to be elected, as owners or occupiers of lands or heritages of the annual value of £4 and upwards, situated within the school district for which the school board are to be elected.2 § 12, sub-sec. 2.

Conduct of Elections.

4. The elections will be conducted in accordance with rules 3 and directions which will be issued by the Board within six months of the passing of the Act, and published in the Edinburgh Gazette. § 12, sub-sec. 5.

Authorities to conduct Elections.

5. The old managers of the parish and burgh schools-viz., the qualified heritors and minister in each parish, and the town council in each burgh,5 or if there is no town council the bodies specified in Schedule A of the Act, are constituted the authorities to initiate the first elections.

They are to meet as soon as conveniently may be after the publication by the Board of the rules in the Gazette, and are to fix a time and place for the elections in their parishes and burghs respectively, and to appoint returning officers.

They are to transmit written information to the Board that they have taken these preliminary steps.

If they fail in any parish or burgh to do so for three months after the publication of the rules,' the Board will require the sheriff of the county to perform the duty. §12, sub-sec. 3 and 4.

1 The valuation roll is made up each year on September 30th. The elections, after the first, will probably be appointed to take place, so far as possible, in the following month, so that the correct valuation roll may be used. Cf. as to valuation roll, p. 8, notes 2 and 3. It is perhaps unnecessary to add that no votes can be given by proxy. It will be observed that the words " applicable to the parish, &c.," are used. There is no such thing as the "valuation roll of a parish or burgh.' 2 It was proposed in the House of Commons that an elector should be disqualified if he were in arrears of either poor-rate or school-rate, but the amendment was not pressed.

3 The Rules were issued on January 21, 1873, and will be found in the Appendix, p. 155.

4 Qualified heritors. By § 22 of the Act of 1803 (43 Geo. III. c. 54), no heritor is entitled to vote at any meeting with reference to schools "who is not a proprietor of lands within the parish to the extent of at least £100 Scots of valued rent, appearing in the land-tax books of the county."

5 It will be observed that there is no provision for the election of members of School Boards in burghs according to wards.

6 As to returning officers in England, cf. p. 12, note 1.

7 After April 21, 1873.