justice of the peace in and for the county in which the offence was committed, or in which such offender may reside.

SEC. 8. Such complaint shall be in the name of such town, and the proceedings thereon shall be the same in all respects as if the mother had complained as aforesaid. If found chargeable, he shall be ordered to give security to save the town harmless from the maintenance of such child, and to pay all costs of prosecution and to stand committed until said order shall be performed.

SEC. 9. When any town is a party to such prosecution and the party accused shall be found not chargeable, he shall recover his costs against such town.

SEC. 10. If any person committed to prison by virtue of this act, is poor and unable to pay such sum or to procure such security as may be ordered, said court may on application for that purpose discharge such person from imprisonment at such time and upon such terms as they shall think expedient.

SEC. 11. Whenever a warrant shall be issued as aforesaid by any justice, and the person charged therein shall either before or after the issuing thereof escape or go out of the county, the sheriff thereof or his deputy, or any constable of the town to whom such warrant shall be directed, may pursue such person and apprehend him in any county in this State, and carry him before any justice in and for the county in which he was so apprehended, for examination.

SEC. 12. If it shall appear to said justice that said warrant was duly issued, and that such person did escape or go out from such other county as aforesaid, he shall issue his warrant thereupon directed to such sheriff, deputy or constable, commanding such officer to carry such person before some justice in and for the county from which he has so escaped or gone out, for trial, and that such further proceedings may be had thereon as the law requires.

TITLE XI.

OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

CHAPTER 73. Of the creation and division of school districts.
CHAPTER 74. Of the meetings and officers of school districts.
CHAPTER 75. Of school houses.
CHAPTER 76.

CHAPTER 77.

CHAPTER 78.
CHAPTER 79.

Of assessment and apportionment of the school

tax.

Of the regulation, instruction and inspection of
schools.

Of truant children and absentees from school.
Of high schools.

CHAPTER 80. Of schools in the town of Portsmouth.
Of high school in the town of Somersworth.
Of commissioners of common schools.

CHAPTER 81.

CHAPTER 82.
CHAPTER 83.
CHAPTER 84.

Of teachers' institutes.

Of instruction of youth in manufacturing establishments.

CHAPTER 85. Of the literary fund.

SECTION 14.

Selectmen to fill vacancies.

SECTION

15. District to notify both towns of any vote to raise money.

18. Persons severed from district in one town, right to literary and school funds.

16. Persons annexed, to pay their pro- 19. Towns exempt from the general laws in relation to division into school districts.

portion.

17. Money, how assessed and collected.

SECTION 1. Every town shall be divided by metes and bounds into so many districts as the public good requires, which shall be distinguished by suitable boundaries and include all the territory of the town. (R. S., chap. 69, sec. 1.)

SEC. 2. At any legal meeting for that purpose such division may be made by vote of the town, and the limits of such districts defined and from time to time altered as convenience may require, a record of which shall be made. (R S., chap. 69, sec. 2.)

SEC. 3. If any town shall neglect so to divide itself into school districts, the selectmen on application in writing by ten legal voters shall forthwith divide the town into districts, define their boundaries and cause a record thereof to be made by the town clerk within thirty days after such application. The town of Newington is exempted from this section. (R. S., chap. 69, sec. 3.)

SEC. 4. Every school district shall be a body politic and corporate, and may sue and be sued, take, hold, manage and convey real and personal property for the use of the district, and make and enforce all necessary contracts in relation thereto. (R. S., chap. 70, sec. 1.)

SEC. 5. Any town not divided as aforesaid shall be considered, when necessary, as one district, and shall be entitled to all the rights and subject to all the liabilities of a town and of a district respectively. (R. S., chap. 69, sec. 4.)

SEC. 6. If the selectmen of any town shall negleet for six months after application made, to make a division as aforesaid, they shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars. (R. S., chap. 69, sec. 5.)

SEC. 7. When a new district is formed from one or more districts, the selectmen upon the petition of a majority of the legal voters of such new district, shall appraise all the property belonging to and all the debts due by each district so divided. (R. S., chap. 69, sec. 6.)

SEC. 8. If the property exceed the debts, the selectmen shall assess upon the polls and ratable estate of that part of the district retaining such property, a reasonable sum not exceeding the proportion of the excess which the polls and ratable estates of the parts of the district so divided bear to each other, and shall assess and collect the same in the same manner as school house taxes, and cause the same to be paid over and applied for the use of such new district. (R. S., chap. 69, sec. 7.)

SEC. 9. Two or more contiguous districts in adjoining towns may, upon such terms as they shall think proper, unite in the sup

port of schools to be kept from year to year, so long as they agree, within either of such towns for the common benefit of such districts, and it shall be lawful for the prudential committees of such districts, so long as such union exists, to expend in the support of said schools the proportions of school money assigned to their respective districts by the selectmen of their respective towns. (R. S., chap. 69, sec. 8.)

SEC. 10. Each of the districts so uniting shall maintain its separate organization, and may raise money to build, repair, alter, remove and furnish a school house and other necessary buildings for their common use, although the same be not located within the district raising the money, and the money so raised shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as though it had been raised to build a school house within such district. (R. S., chap. 69, sec. 9.)

SEC. 11. When an execution shall issue against any school district, a copy thereof shall be left with one of the selectmen of the town, and the selectmen shall assess the inhabitants of such district in a sum sufficient to satisfy the same, and shall have the same authority in the collection thereof that they now have in the collection of town taxes. (R. S., chap. 70, sec. 2.)

SEC. 12. The selectmen of two or more adjoining towns, on petition of any member of any school district in either of said towns, may, by a majority of the selectmen in each town, disannex such member, together with his taxable property, for school purposes, from the district to which he belongs, and annex him to some district of one of the adjoining towns. (Laws of 1845, chap. 221, sec. 1.)

SEC. 13. Such selectmen may, in like manner, on petition of persons interested, form new school districts by the union of inhabitants of such adjoining towns, and may, for this purpose, set off individuals with their taxable property, from existing districts; and it shall be the duty of the selectmen to define the districts so formed, by metes and bounds, and to cause the same to be recorded in their respective towns, and the selectmen of the town first incorporated may call the first meeting of the district so formed. (Laws of 1845, chap. 221, sec. 2.)

SEC. 14. The selectmen of the town in which the school house is located shall have all the powers and are required to perform all the duties in relation to filling vacancies in said district, that the selectmen of towns now have. (Laws of 1851, chap. 1117, sec. 2.)

SEC. 15. Whenever a school district, composed of inhabitants of different towns, shall vote to raise money for the purpose of building, buying or repairing a school house, it shall be the duty of the clerk of said district to notify the selectmen of the several towns, in which the persons belonging to such district may reside, of the amount of money so voted to be raised, and it shall be the duty of the selectmen of each of said towns, thereupon, to assess

upon the polls and ratable estate of such persons residing in their respective towns, their due proportion of the sums so voted to be raised, having regard to the entire inventory of all the inhabitants of said district, and to cause the same to be collected and paid over to the person authorized by the district to receive it. (Laws of 1845, chap. 221, sec. 3.)

SEC. 16. All persons who have been, or may hereafter be, severed from any school district in one town, and annexed to a school district in any other town, for the purpose of schooling, shall pay a just proportion for the purchase, building or repairing school houses in said districts, to which they are or may be annexed. (Laws of 1845, chap. 223, sec. 1.)

SEC. 17. Whenever any such district shall vote to raise money, the clerk of said district shall certify such vote to the selectmen of each of said towns; and said selectmen shall form a joint board for the purpose of assessing upon the polls and ratable estate in said district the due proportion of said money; and each board of selectmen shall commit to the collectors of their respective towns the taxes by them so assessed in their respective towns, to be collected and paid over to the person or persons by said district authorized to receive the same, to be applied and accounted for according to law. (Laws of 1845, chap. 223, sec. 2.)

SEC. 18. All persons who have been, or hereafter may be, severed from any school district in one town and annexed to a school district in any other town for the purpose of schooling, shall have and enjoy all the rights and privileges in regard to the literary and school funds of every description, to which they would have been entitled if they had not been so disannexed or united. And whenever the real estate of any person shall be disannexed for the purposes aforesaid, the polls and ratable estate of all persons residing or having their home on said real estate, on the first day of April of each year, shall also be considered as disannexed, and their proportion of the literary and school fund shall be paid over to the prudential school committee of the district to which said real estate has been annexed. It shall be the duty of the selectmen of the town from which any person or persons may be disannexed as aforesaid, to pay over the proportion of the literary and school fund as aforesaid to the prudential school committee as aforesaid, on or before the first day of February, annually. (Laws of 1850, chap. 974, sec. 1 and 2.)

SEC. 19. The town of Pittsburg and the town of Bartlett are exempt from the provisions of the law of this State in regard to the division of the town into school districts, and the selectmen thereof, respectively, may divide said towns or any part thereof, into as many school districts as they may deem just, and cause a record thereof to be made in the records of said town, which districts shall have all the rights and privileges and be subject to all the liabilities of other school districts in the State. (Laws of 1848, chap. 632, and laws of 1851, chap. 1108.)