Page:An address on compulsory education.djvu/12

8 different localities. If a law were passed compelling all children to attend, say one hundred days in the year, how could it be enforced? I would suggest the following plan:—Let Parliament cause a School Board to be formed in every place, where under the present Act none need now exist, and let each board be compelled to frame a system of compulsion adapted to the requirements of the locality, and which system shall cause every child within its jurisdiction to attend school a certain number of times in the year. Of course I do not advocate that these Boards should possess the power of rating, &c., when the schools are well supported voluntarily, but they should merely have the power of compulsion. I believe that such Boards, acquainted as they would be with the local necessities and requirements of their several districts, could overcome all the difficulties which might exist in the enforcement of compulsion. They should have the power of saying to the parents, "We will compel you to send your child to school (say one hundred days in the year). If you wish to obtain employment for him when child-labour is demanded, you can do so, but we will regulate the length of the time he is to be absent from school. You may send the child to any efficient school you please, if there be more than one in the parish, but if there be only one, whether belonging to the Church or Dissent, you must send him there, and we will see that no religious dogmas distasteful to you are taught to your child. If you cannot afford to pay the school fee, and we shall know, being residents of the parish, we will pay it for you out of the poor rate, but in this case you will be regarded as a recipient of parish relief." All that refuse to send their children to school ought to incur certain penalties, as if they wilfully deprived their offspring of food.

You see, then, that I would give to the School Boards the following powers:—

1.—They should be able to compel all parents and guardians to send their children to some efficient school; and lest the so-called "religious difficulty" should be an impediment to united action, the parents must be allowed to possess perfect liberty in the choice of the school. In cases where only one school exists in a parish, no matter of what religious denomination it may be, the children must be sent there, and it would be the duty of the Board to see that the provisions of the Education Act as regards the religious instruction are stringently enforced. If, when this is carried