42. Agricultural Schools consist of four classes, viz. (1), First Class Appendix. Agricultural Schools under exclusive management of Board; (2) First Rules and Class Agricultural Schools under local management; (3) Ordinary Na- Regulations tional Schools, with School farms attached; (4) Ordinary National of CommisSchools, with School gardens attached.

(1.) First Class Agricultural National Schools under the exclusive management of the Board.*

43. The Commissioners defray the greater portion of the cost of erecting the necessary buildings; but they require the local parties to contribute in such proportion as may be deemed necessary, according to the circumstances of each case.

44. The Commissioners undertake the entire cost of the furniture, fittings, rent, maintenance, implements, stock, &c., &c.

45. A Farm of sufficient extent must be conveyed to the Commissioners, at a moderate rent, and on a satisfactory lease.

46. The Commissioners exercise all the rights of Patrons, as in the case of District and Minor Model Schools.

47. The Commissioners admit into these Schools a limited number of free, and also of paying resident Agricultural Pupils.

(2.) First Class Agricultural National Schools under Local

Management.

Where the Premises are Vested.

48. The Commissioners contribute a certain amount of assistance towards the erection of the buildings, in proportion to the amount of local contribution, and the extent of the farm. The remaining portion of the cost of the buildings and furniture, and the whole cost of implements, stock, seed, &c., must be contributed by local parties.

49. The site of the buildings must be legally vested in the Commissioners, or in Trustees, at a moderate rent, and on a satisfactory lease.

50. The only aid granted by the Commissioners towards the maintenance of such Schools, consists of salary and results fees to the Master (who must be competent to conduct both the literary and agricultural departments), and a sum towards the support of a limited number of resident Agricultural pupils.

Where the Premises are Non-vested.

51. The entire cost of the necessary buildings, furniture, implements, stock, seed, &c., must be defrayed by local parties, and a farm of sufficient extent must be provided.

52. The Commissioners contribute salary and results fees to the Master.

(3.) Ordinary National Schools with School Farms attached.

53. This class of Schools consists of Ordinary National Schools (either Vested or Non-vested), to which small farms of not less than two acres are annexed. The Teachers must be competent to give instruction both in the theory and practice of Agriculture, and must cultivate the land with the assistance of their pupils.

54. The only aid granted by the Commissioners is an addition to the class salary of the Teacher and results fees.

The Commissioners have, for the present, ceased to take into connexion Schools of this class.

sioners.

Appendix A.

55. Before granting such aid, the Commissioners require to be satisfied, from the Report of one of their Agricultural Inspectors, that the Agri Regulations cultural department is efficiently conducted.

Rules and

of Commis

sioners. (4.) Ordinary National Schools with School Gardens attached.

56. The Commissioners award gratuities, on the recommendation of the Agricultural Inspectors, to the Teachers of National Schools, who exhibit the best specimens of garden culture, on ground attached to their respective Schools, the ground to be cultivated by the pupils.

National Schools with Industrial Departments attached.

57. In these Schools, embroidery and other advanced kinds of needlework are taught. The Commissioners grant salaries to the Teachers, on the following conditions:

First That all the pupils of the industrial department, as in the case of the pupils of the literary department, shall attend for at least four hours daily for secular business, and shall receive literary instruction, for at least two of these hours daily.

Second-That no religious instruction or religious exercise shall take place during the time the pupils are engaged in industrial occupation. Third-That a separate room be provided for industrial instruction. Fourth-That in addition to the literary Teacher, there shall be a suitable person appointed to conduct the industrial department.

58. None but lay Teachers are entitled to a salary from the Commissioners, for conducting an Industrial Department in connexion with a Convent National School to which a grant is made on the principle of capitation.

59. The amount of salary will depend upon the circumstances of each

case.

Convent National Schools.

60. Convent National Schools receive aid as Non-vested Schools, and they are subject to the same Rules and Regulations.

61. The members of the community may discharge the office of Literary Teachers, either by themselves or with the aid of such lay persons as they may see fit to employ.

62. The amount of salary awarded to Convent National Schools is regulated by the average number of children in daily attendance, according to a scale laid down by the Commissioners; or if the Teachers of Convent National Schools adopt the principle of classification, they will receive the same class salaries as the Teachers of Ordinary National Schools. In both cases the results fees are paid as in Ordinary National Schools. These conditions apply to the Monastery National Schools recognised previous to 1855.

63. The Commissioners will grant aid to one School only, in connexion with the same Convent.

64. Evening Schools are also recognised in connexion with Convent National Schools.

Workhouse National Schools.

65. Workhouse Schools are received into connexion, and grants of Books made to them, on condition that they shall be subject to inspection by the Commissioners, or their officers, and that all the Rules of the Board applicable to Non-vested Schools be faithfully observed.

66. The Commissioners award gratuities to a certain number of the Teachers of Workhouse Schools in each District, on the recommendation of the Inspector.

Schools attached to Prisons, Asylums, &c.

Appendix.A.

67. Schools attached to Prisons, Asylums, &c., are received into con- Rules and nexion, upon the same general principles as the Workhouse Schools, and Regulations grants of Books are made to them. In special cases gratuities are awarded sioners. to the Teachers.

Evening National Schools.

68. The Commissioners grant aid towards the support of Evening Schools, where the wants of the locality render such institutions desirable. The aid is limited to salary, results fees, books, and inspection.

USE OF SCHOOL-HOUSES.

69. In Non-vested Schools, the Commissioners do not, in ordinary cases, exercise control over the use of the School-houses on Sundays, or before or after the School-hours on the other days of the week; such use being left to the local Patrons or Managers, subject to the following limitations, and to the interference of the Board in cases leading to contention or abuse.

70. No National School-house shall be employed, at any time, even temporarily, as the stated place of DIVINE WORSHIP of any religious community; or for the celebration or administration of the Sacraments or Rites of any Church.

71. No aid will be granted to a School held in a place of worship; nor will the Commissioners sanction the transfer of an existing School to a place of worship, even for a temporary period.

72. When a School-room is in any way connected with a place of worship, there must not be any direct internal communication between the School-room and such place of worship.

73. Vested School-houses must be used, exclusively, for the education of the pupils attending them; except on Sundays, when they may be employed for Sunday Schools, with the sanction of the Patrons or Local Managers, subject, in cases leading to contention or abuse, to the interference of the Commissioners.

74. No political meetings shall be held in National School-houses, whether Vested or Non-vested; nor shall any political business whatsoever be transacted therein.

75. When any School is received into connexion, the Commissioners will require that the inscription "NATIONAL SCHOOL," shall be put up in plain and legible characters on a conspicuous part of the School-house, or on such other place as may render it conspicuous to the public. In Vested Schools a stone is to be introduced into the wall having that inscription cut upon it.

76. The Commissioners will not sanction any inscription containing a title of a denominational character, or which may appear to them to indicate that the School is one belonging to any particular religious body; but the terms Boys', Girls', or Infants', or the proper local designation taken from the city, town, parish, street, village, or townland, in which the School may be situated, or the name of the founder, may be included in the inscription.

77. No emblems or symbols of a denominational nature shall be exhibited in the School-room during the hours of united instruction; uor will the Commissioners in future, grant aid to any School which exhibits on the exterior of the buildings any such emblems.

78. No emblems or symbols of a political nature shall at any time be exhibited in the School-room or affixed to the exterior of the buildings; nor shall any placards whatsoever, except such as refer to the legitimate business of school management, be affixed thereto.

of Commis.

Appendix A.

Rules and
Regulations

RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR INSTRUCTION.

79. In all National Schools there must be secular instruction for not of Commis- less than four hours upon at least five days in the week.

sioners.

80. Opportunities are to be afforded (as hereinafter provided for) to the children of all National Schools for receiving such religious instruction as their parents or guardians approve of.

81. Religious instruction must be so arranged, that each school shall be open to children of all communions; that due regard be had to parental right and authority; that, accordingly, no child shall receive, or be present at, any religious instruction of which his parents or guardians disapprove; and that the time for giving it be so fixed that no child shall be thereby, in effect, excluded, directly or indirectly, from the other advantages which the School affords.

82. A public notification of the times for religious instruction must be inserted in large letters in the "Time Table" supplied by the Commissioners, who recommend that, as far as may be practicable, the general nature of such religious instruction be also stated therein.

83. The "Time Table" must be kept constantly hung up in a conspicuous place in the School-room.

84. When the secular precedes the religious instruction, the Teacher must, immediately before the commencement of the latter, announce distinctly to the pupils that the hour for religious instruction has arrived, and must put up, and keep up, during the period allotted to such religious instruction, and within the view of all the pupils, a notification thereof, containing the words "Religious Instruction," printed in large characters, on the form supplied by the Commissioners. Similarly when the School commences with religious instruction, the Teacher is to put up and keep up the same notification.

85. Also, when the secular precedes the religious instruction in any National School, there shall be a sufficient interval between the announcement and the commencement of the religious instruction; and whether the religious or the secular instruction shall have precedence in any National School, the books used for the instruction first in order shall be laid aside at its termination, in the press or other place appropriated for keeping the School-books.

86. No secular instruction, whether literary or industrial, shall be carried on in the same apartment, during school-bours, simultaneously with religious instruction.

87. The term "SCHOOL-HOURS" is always to be understood to mean the entire time in each day, from the opening of the School to the closing of the same for the dismissal of the pupils.

88. In vested Schools such pastors or other persons as shall be approved of by the parents or guardians of the children respectively, shall have access to them in the School-room, for the purpose of giving them religious instruction there, at times convenient for that purpose—that is, at times so appointed as not to interfere unduly with the other arrangements of the School.

89. In non-vested Schools, it is for the Patrons or Local Managers to determine whether any, and if any, what religious instruction shall be given in the School-room; but if they do not permit it to be given in the School-room, the children whose parents or guardians so desire, must be allowed to absent themselves from the School, at reasonable times, for the purpose of receiving such instruction elsewhere.

90. The Patrons and Managers of all National Schools have the right to permit the Holy Scriptures (either in the Authorized or Douay Version) to be read, at the time or times set apart for religious instruc

tion; and in all Vested Schools the parents or guardians of the children AppendixA. have the right to require the Patrons and Local Managers to afford Rules and opportunities for the reading of the Holy Scriptures, in the School-room, Regulations under proper persons approved of by the parents or guardians for that of Commis

purpose.

91. The reading of the Scriptures, either in the Protestant Authorized, or Douay Version,-the teaching of Catechisms,-public prayer, --and all other religious exercises, come within the rules as to religious instruction.

92. Religious instruction, prayer, or other religious exercises, may take place before and after the ordinary School business (during which all children, of whatever denomination they may be, are required to attend); but may take place at one intermediate time, between the commencement and the close of the ordinary school business. The Commissioners, however, will not sanction any arrangement for religious instruction, prayer, or other religious exercises at an intermediate time in cases where it shall appear to them that such arrangement will interfere with the usefulness of the School, by preventing children of any religious denomination from availing themselves of its advantages, or by subjecting those in attendance to any inconvenience.

With the above exception, the secular School business must not be interrupted, or suspended, by any spiritual exercise whatsoever.

Note.-The Commissioners earnestly recommend that Religious Instruction shall take place either immediately before the commencement, or immediately after the close, of the ordinary School business; and they further recommend that, whenever the Patron or Local Manager thinks fit to have religious instruction at an intermediate time, a separate apartment shall (when practicable) be provided for the reception of those children who, according to these Rules, should not be present thereat.

93. The Register kept in each School, according to the Form furnished by the Commissioners, must show the religious denomination of each. child on the School Roll.

94. The religious denomination is to be ascertained from the parent (the father if possible) or guardian of the pupil, and is to be entered in the Register according to his wish.

95. No pupil who is registered by his or her parents or guardians as a Protestant is to be permitted to remain in attendance during the time of religious instruction in case the Teacher giving such instruction is a Roman Catholic; and no pupil who is registered by his or her parents or guardians as a Roman Catholic is to be permitted to remain in attendance during the time of religious instruction in case the Teacher giving such instruction is not a Roman Catholic. And further, no pupil is to be permitted to remain in attendance during the time of any religious instruction to which his or her parents or guardians object.

Provided, however, that in case any parent or guardian shall express a desire that the child should receive any particular religious instruction, and shall record such desire in the book provided for that purpose in the School, this prohibition shall not apply to the time during which such religious instruction only is given. The entry in the book shall be signed with the name or mark of the parent or guardian, and the book shall be submitted to the Inspector whenever he visits the School.

Such expression of desire may at any time be revoked by the parent or guardian and shall thereupon become inoperative.

sioners.