equally or in such proportion as the town may direct, and for want of such direction, then in such manner as they deem best.

SEC. 17. They shall, immediately after making the apportionment among the several districts as provided in the three sections next preceding, give notice to the trustees of the amounts so apportioned to each district.

SEC. 18. They shall draw an order on the town treasurer in favor of such districts only, as shall have made a return to them in manner and form prescribed by them or by the commissioner, or as may be required by law, from which it shall appear that for the year ending on the first of May previous, one or more public schools have been kept for at least four months by a qualified teacher in a school-house approved by the committee or commissioner, and that the money designated teachers' money," received the year previous, has been applied to the wages of teachers and to no other purpose.

SEC. 19. Such orders may be made payable to the trustees or their order, or to the district treasurer, or teacher, and if the treasurer receive the money, he shall pay it out to the order of the trustees.

SEC. 20. The committee shall not give any such order until they are satisfied the services have actually been performed for which the money is to be paid; and the register, properly kept, has been deposited with the committee, or with some person by them ap pointed to receive the same.

SEC. 21. At the end of the school year any money appropriated to any district which shall be forfeited, and the forfeiture not remitted, or which shall remain unexpended, may be divided by the committee among the districts the following year.

SEC. 22. The committee shall prepare, and submit annually, a report to the commissioner, on or before the first day of July, in manner and form by him prescribed; also a written or printed report to the town at the annual town meeting, when the school committee is chosen, setting forth their doings, the state and condition of the schools, and plans for their improvement, which report, unless printed, shall be read in open town meeting, and they shall transmit a copy thereof to the commissioner, on or before the first day of July in each year.

SEC. 23. The committee may reserve annually out of the public appropriation, a sum not exceeding twenty dollars to defray the expense of printing their report.

SEC. 24. The school committee of any town, or trustees of any school district, may make arrangements with the school committee of any adjacent town, or trustees of any adjacent district, for the attendance of such children as will be better accommodated in the public schools of such adjacent town or district, and may pay such portion of the expense as may be just and proper.

SECTION 1. No person shall be employed in any town to teach as principal or assistant in any school, supported entirely or in part by the public money, unless he has a certificate of qualification, signed either by the school committee of the town, or by some person or persons appointed by said committee.

SEC. 2. Such certificate, unless annulled, if signed by the school committee, shall be valid within the town for one year.

SEC. 3. The school committee shall not sign any certificate of qualification unless the person named in the same shall produce evidence of good moral character, and be found on examination qualified to teach the English language, arithmetic, penmanship, and the rudiments of geography and history, and to govern a school.

SEC. 4. The school committee of any town may dismiss any teacher who shall refuse to conform to the regulations by them made, or for other just cause, and in such case shall give immediate notice to the trustees of the district.

SEC. 5. Every teacher in any public school shall keep a register of all the scholars attending said school, their sex, ages, names of parents or guardians, the time when each enters and leaves the school, the daily attendance; together with the days of the month on which the school is visited by any officer connected with public schools, and shall prepare the district's return to the school committee of the town, if requested to do so by the trustees.

SEC. 6. Every teacher shall aim to implant and cultivate in the minds of all children committed to his care, the principles of morality and virtue.

SECTION 1. Any person aggrieved in consequence of any decision or doings of any school committee, district meeting, trustees, or in any other matter arising under this title, may appeal to the commissioner of public schools, who is hereby authorized and required to examine and decide the same without cost to the parties.

SEC. 2. The commissioner may, and if requested, on hearing of such appeal, by either party, shall, lay a statement of the facts of the case before some one of the justices of the supreme court, whose decision shall be final.

SEC. 3. The commissioner may prescribe from time to time rules regulating the time and manner of making such appeals, and to prevent their being made for trifling and frivolous pretences.

SEC. 4. Any persons having any matter of dispute between them arising under this title, may agree in writing to submit the same to the adjudication of said commissioner, and his decision therein shall be final.

SEC. 5. If no appeal be taken from a vote of a district relating to the ordering of a tax or rate bill, or from the proceedings of the officers of the district in assessing the same, or if on appeal, such proceedings are confirmed, the same shall not again be questioned before any court of law or magistrate whatever: Provided, that this section shall not be construed to dispense with legal notice of the meeting, or with the votes or proceedings being approved by the school committee or commissioner, whenever the same is required by law.

SEC. 6. In any civil suit before any court, against any school officer, for any matter which might by this chapter have been heard and decided by the commissioner, no cost shall be taxed for the plaintiff, if the court are of opinion that such officer acted in good faith.

SEC. 7. Any inhabitant of a district, or person liable to pay taxes therein, may be allowed by any court to answer a suit brought against the district, on giving security for costs, in such manner as the court may direct.

SEC. 8. The school-house lot, with the school-house and appendages, shall be exempt from attachment, or sale on execution in any suit against the district.

SEC. 9. When judgment shall be recovered in any court of record against any school district, the court rendering judgment shall order a warrant to be issued, if no appeal be taken, to the assessors of taxes of the town in which such district is situated, or in case of a joint district, composed of parts of towns, then to one or more of the assessors of each town, with or without designating them, requiring them to assess upon the ratable property in said district, a tax sufficient to pay the debts or damages, costs, interest, and a sum in the discretion of the court sufficient to defray the expenses of assessment and collection. Said assessors shall, without a new engagement, proceed to assess the same, giving notice as in case of other district taxes.

SEC. 10. Said warrant shall also contain a direction to the collector of the town, or in case of a joint district, then to the collector of either town the court may direct, requiring him to collect said tax; and said warrant, with the assessment annexed thereto, shall be a sufficient authority for the collector, without a special engagement, to proceed and collect the same with the same power as in case of a town tax; and when collected, he shall pay over the same to the parties to whom it may belong, and the surplus, if any, to the district. And the court may require a bond of the collector at their discretion.

SEC. 11. When any writ, summons or other process shall issue against any school district in any civil suit, the same may be served on the treasurer or clerk, and if there are no such officers to be found, the officer charged with the same may post up a certified copy thereof on the door of the school-house, and if there is no school-house, then in some most public place in the district, and the same when proved to the satisfaction of the court, shall constitute a sufficient service thereof.

SEC. 12. Inhabitants of school districts, or persons paying taxes therein, shall be competent witnesses in all civil and criminal cases, notwithstanding such interest, if not otherwise disqualified.

SEC. 13. The record of a clerk of a district, that a meeting has been duly or legally notified, shall be prima facie evidence that it has been notified as the law requires. The clerk shall procure, at the expense of the district, a suitable bound book for keeping the record therein.

SEC. 14. The commissioner shall hear and decide all appeals, and may remit all fines, penalties and forfeitures incurred by any town, district or person under any of the provisions of this title, except the forfeiture incurred by any town for not raising its proportion of money as specified in section four, of chapter fifty-nine of this title.

CHAPTER 69.

OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL, TEACHERS' INSTITUTES AND LECTURES.

SECTION

1. Normal school, appropriation for support of.

2. Teachers' institutes, appropriation for. 3. Lectures, appropriation for.

SECTION

4. Appropriations to be paid upon order of commissioner; report to be made to auditor, and to general assembly.

SECTION 1. A sum not exceeding three thousand dollars is hereby annually appropriated for the establishment and support of a normal school for the training of teachers of common schools.

SEC. 2. A sum not exceeding three hundred dollars is hereby annually appropriated for defraying the expenses of teachers' in

stitutes.

SEC. 3. A sum not exceeding five hundred dollars is hereby annually appropriated for providing suitable lectures and addresses in the several school districts, upon the subject of education and the best modes of teaching and improving the schools.

SEC. 4. The sums aforesaid shall be respectively paid upon the order of the commissioner, who shall annually render to the state auditor an account of the expenditures of such sums with the vouchers therefor; and shall annually report to the general assembly the mode of expending said appropriations.

SECTION 1. Each of the several towns of this state is authorized and empowered to make all needful provisions and arrangements concerning habitual truants, and children between the ages of six and sixteen years, not attending school, without any regular and lawful employment, and growing up in ignorance, and, also, such ordinances and by-laws respecting such children as shall be deemed most conducive to their welfare, and the good order of such town.