Examination.

Travelling expenses of pupils, when to be paid.

Teachers' institutes, &c.,

for.

SEC. 4. The said trustees shall, by themselves, or by a committee of their board, examine all applicants to teach in the public schools, and shall give certificates to such as are found qualified to teach school.

SEC. 5. The trustees of the Normal School may pay to each pupil who shall reside within the state, and not within five miles of said school, who shall have been duly admitted thereto, and who shall have attended the regular sessions of said school, and complied with the regulations thereof, during the term next preceding such payments, not exceeding ten dollars, for each quarter year, for travelling expenses, but such payments in the aggregate for such travelling expenses shall not exceed the sum of fifteen hundred dollars in any one year, and shall be made to the respective pupils entitled to the same, in proportion to the distance they may reside from said school.

SEC. 6. A sum not exceeding five hundred dollars shall be annually paid for defraying the necessary expenses and charges for proappropriation curing teachers and lecturers for teachers' institutes, to be holden under the direction of the commissioner of public schools; and a like sum of not exceeding five hundred dollars shall be annually paid for publishing and distributing some journal devoted to educational interests published in this state, among the several school districts.

Annual account.

SEC. 7. The commissioner of public schools shall render an annual account to the state auditor, of his expenditures, under the provisions of this chapter, with his vouchers therefor.

Town councils may provide respecting

truants.

Same subject.

Approval by commissioner.

SECTION 1. Town councils shall make needful provisions and arrangements concerning habitual truants, and children not attending school, or without any regular and lawful occupation, or growing up in ignorance, between the ages of six and sixteen years; and also all such ordinances respecting such children as shall be deemed most conducive to their welfare, and to the good order of such town, and may provide penalties for the breach of any such ordinance, not exceeding twenty dollars for any one offence.

SEC. 2. Any such minor convicted under any such ordinance of being an habitual truant, or of not attending school, or of being without any lawful occupation, or of growing up in ignorance, may, at the discretion of the court having jurisdiction of the case, instead of being fined as aforesaid, be committed to any institution of instruction or suitable situation provided for that purpose.

SEC. 3. Before any ordinances made under the authority of the next two preceding sections hereof shall take effect, they shall be approved by the commissioner of public schools.

ants.

SEC. 4. The several towns, availing themselves of the provisions Appointment of this chapter shall appoint, at their annual town meetings, or an- of complainnually, by their town councils, three or more persons, who alone shall be authorized to make the complaints, in case of violation of said ordinances, to the court which, by said ordinances shall have jurisdiction in the matter; and said persons thus appointed shall alone have authority to carry into execution the judgment of such court.

SECTION 1. No person shall be excluded from any public school Exclusion to be in the district to which such person belongs, if the town is divided by general rule.. into districts, or if not so divided, from the nearest public school, on

account of race or color, or for being over fifteen years of age, nor

except by force of some general regulation applicable to all persons under the same circumstances.

SEC. 2. Every school officer elected or appointed under the pro- Engagement of visions of this title, except the moderator of a district meeting, shall school officers. take an engagement before some person authorized to administer oaths, to support the constitution of the United States, the constitu

tion and laws of this state, and faithfully to discharge the duties of

his office so long as he shall continue therein.

SEC. 3. The record of the district clerk that any district school Evidence of. officer has been duly engaged, shall be primâ facie evidence thereof;

and no school district officer shall enter upon the duties of his office,

without taking an engagement.

SEC. 4. Every school officer elected or appointed under the provis- Tenure of ofions of this title shall, without a new engagement, hold his office un- fice. til the time of the next annual election or appointment for such office, and until his successor is elected or appointed and qualified.

SEC. 5. Every officer who shall make any false certificatê, or ap- Penalty for propriate any public school money to any purpose not authorized by neglect of law, of who shall refuse for a reasonable charge to give certified copies of any official paper, or to account or deliver to his successor,

duties.

Schools aided by state, to be visited.

Penalty.

Penalty for nuisances near

school-house.

Construction of word "town."

Schools in
Providence.

Fees, &c., pro⚫hibited to

school officers.

Penalty for offering fees, &c.

Children of de

ceased soldiers and sailors, when admitted

free.

any accounts, papers or money in his hands, or shall wilfully or knowingly refuse to perform any duty of his office, or violate any provisions of any law regulating public schools, except where a particular penalty may be prescribed, shall be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned not exceeding six months, and shall be liable to an action on the case for damages, to be brought by any person injured thereby.

SEC. 6. Any school receiving aid from the state, either by direct grant or by exemption from taxation, may be visited and examined by the school committee of the town or city, in which such institution is situated, and by the members of the board of education and the commissioner of public schools, whenever they shall see fit.

SEC. 7. Whenever such school shall refuse to permit such visitation, when requested, its exemption from taxation shall thereafter cease and be determined.

SEC. 8. Every person who shall keep any swine, in any pen or other enclosure, or shall keep, or suffer to be kept, any other nuisance, within one hundred feet of any district school-house, or within one hundred feet of any fence enclosing the yard of any such school-house, shall be fined twenty dollars, one half thereof to and for the use of the school district in which said offence is committed, and the other half thereof to and for the use of the state.

SEC. 9. In the construction of this title, except in the construction of chapter fifty-seven and the sixth and seventh sections of this chapter, the word town shall include the city of Providence only so far as to entitle said city to a distributive share in the public money, upon making a report to the commissioner, in the same manner as the school committees of other towns are required to do.

SEC. 10. The public schools in said city shall continue, as heretofore, to be governed according to such ordinances and regulations as the proper city authorities may from time to time adopt.

SEC. 11. No superintendent or school committee of any town, or any other person officially connected with the government or direction of the public schools, shall receive any private fee, gratuity, donation, or compensation in any manner whatsoever, for promoting the sale or the exchange of any school book, map, or chart, in any public school.

SEC. 12. No person shall offer to any public school officer any fee, commission, or compensation whatsoever, as an inducement to effect through such officer any sale, or promotion of sale, or exchange, of any school book, map, chart, or school apparatus; and every person violating any provision of this chapter, shall be fined not exceeding fifty dollars, or be imprisoned not exceeding thirty days.

SEC. 13. All the public schools in the state, including the State Normal School, shall be open to the children of officers and soldiers belonging to the state, mustered into the service of the United States, and of those persons belonging to the state, and serving in the navy of the United States, and who died in said service during the late rebellion against the authority of the United States, or who were discharged from said service, in consequence of wounds or disease contracted in said service, or who were killed in battle, without any cost or expense for taxes, or other charges imposed for purposes of public education.

TITLE X.

OF HIGHWAYS, DRIFTWAYS, AND BRIDGES.

CHAPTER 59. Of laying out and making highways and driftways. CHAPTER 60. Of repairing highways and bridges.

CHAPTER 61. Of certain bridges.

CHAPTER 62. Of travelling on highways.

CHAPTER 63. Of guide boards.

CHAPTER 59.

OF LAYING OUT AND MAKING HIGHWAYS AND DRIFTWAYS.

Town councils may lay out highways.

May appoint men to mark out highways.

Mode of procedure.

How damage shall be settled.

Plat of new highway.

Notice to parties interested.

Action of town council on re

port.

Lay out of driftways.

Mode of pro.cedure.

SECTION

29. Town councils to have like control
of highways laid out by general
assembly as of those laid out by
town councils; towns subject to
same liabilities.

SECTION

30. Consequences of declaring high-
way or driftway useless.
31. Appeals from decrees of town
council, when to be taken.

Highways laid out by town councils.

SECTION 1. The town councils of the several towns may order highways to be laid out so far and through such part of their respective towns, as they may judge necessary.

SEC. 2. For the due marking out of any highway, the town council shall appoint three suitable and indifferent men, not interested or concerned in the land through which such highway is to pass, who shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of their trust.

SEC. 3. Said three men, accompanied by a justice of the peace and a constable, or the town sergeant of the town, to be named by the town council for that purpose, shall go to the place where such highway is ordered to begin, and from thence proceed to survey, bound, and mark out a highway conformable to the direction of the town council; and they shall take care to lay it in such manner as may be most advantageous to the public, and as little as may be to the injury of the owners of the land through which it passes.

SEC. 4. They shall also agree with the owners of the land over which such way is laid out, for the damage they shall sustain, if any, by means of such highway passing through their lands; and in case they cannot agree with the owners, the town council shall value and appraise the damage, if any, caused by such highway passing through their lands.

SEC. 5. They shall, after having laid out said highway as aforesaid, cause a plat thereof to be made, which, together with a report of their doings, in writing, by them signed, shall be by them presented to the town council.

SEC. 6. The town council thereupon shall cause notice to be given to all persons interested in the land through which such highway is laid, to appear before them, if they see fit, and be heard for and against receiving the report; notice to persons interested as aforesaid living without the state, shall be given by advertisement, three weeks successively, in some newspaper printed within the state, and where their residence is known, also by letter, post paid, duly mailed to them by the council clerk.

SEC. 7. The council shall, after hearing the persons appearing to be heard, proceed to receive, or reject the report, as to them shall appear just and right; and if the report be approved and received, they shall cause the same to be recorded, and the highway to be established and laid open, by removing all buildings, fences, and other impediments therein, which shall be done by the town sergeant or constable of the town, under a warrant from the town council to him directed for that purpose.

SEC. 8. The town councils may lay out driftways in their respective towns, in such places, and of such widths, as they shall think necessary, as fully as by law they are empowered to lay out high

ways.

SEC. 9. Driftways shall be laid out in the same manner, and under the same regulations, in every respect, as highways; the damage shall be ascertained in the same manner as in laying out highways.