year, the town clerk shall immediately notify the secretary thereof, who shall supply the deficiency forthwith. And it is made the duty of each district clerk during the first week in March annually, to procure of the town clerk a register for each school in his district, and be responsible for the safe keeping thereof.

SEC. 110. It is hereby made the duty of every teacher of a common school, or of a union school before he commences his school, to procure from the clerk of the district in which he shall teach, a school register, and therein keep a true record of the daily attendance of each scholar who may attend such school, while under his instruction, in accordance with the form prescribed in such register, and at the close of his school shall enter in said register correct answers to all statistical inquries therein addressed to teachers, and return such register to the district clerk previous to the receipt of his wages as such teacher. And it is hereby made the duty of each district clerk to comply with all the requirements made of him in the register or registers of his district in reference to the statistics of his district, and make oath to the correctness of his returns before a justice of the peace of the county in which he resides, and file said register or registers in the office of the town clerk, in the month of March in each year; and no portion of the public money in any town shall be distributed to any district whose school register or registers shall not be properly filled out and filed in the town clerk's office, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.

SEC. 111. It shall be the duty of the town clerk of each town, annually on or before the first Tuesday of April, to prepare an abstract of the returns of the several district clerks, and deliver the same to the town superintendent of schools when called for-which abstract shall be as near as may be in the following form :

The foregoing is a true statement of the statistics of the common schools in the town of

as obtained by me from the returns of district clerks, made to me in the first Tuesday of April, A. D. 18

33 Vt. 271.

SEC. 112. Town superintendents of schools shall annually, on or before the tenth day of April, make out and return to the secretary of the board of education, the statistics of the schools in each district, in their respective towns, in accordance with the forms prescribed by said secretary, agreeably to the provisions of this chapter. And the secretary is directed on receipt of such return, to forward a certificate thereof to the superintendent making the return.

SEC. 113. It is hereby made the duty of the trustees of all the academies and grammer schools which have been incorporated by the legislature of the state of Vermont, to cause their principals to return to the secretary of the board of education, on or before the first day of April in each year, true and correct answers to such statistical inquiries as may have been addressed to them by the secretary in the month of January previous.

SCHOOL HOUSES AND YARDS.

SEC. 114. Whenever it shall be determined in any school district in what place in said school district the school house shall be located, and the owner or owners of the land upon which it is proposed to locate such house, including, also, sufficient land for school house yards, and convenient and necessary out buildings, shall refuse to sell and convey the same, by deed, to such district, or shall, in the opinion of the prudential committee of such district, demand an unreasonable sum therefor; and also whenever in the opinion of any school district, expressed by vote of such district at a legal meeting warned for that purpose, it shall become necessary to have more land attached to the school house of such district, for the accommodation and convenience of the same, or to enlarge the grounds or lands belonging to and adjoining such school house lands, such district may purchase for the use of the same, such lands as may be necessary for the accommodation and convenience of the same; and if the owner or owners of such lands shall refuse to convey the same, by deed, to said district, or, in the opinion of such district, shall demand an unreasonable sum therefor, such district, by their prudential committee, in any of the aforesaid cases, may apply to the selectmen of the town in which such district is located, whose duty it shall be to locate and set out such lands as may be required for any of the aforesaid purposes, and when the same shall have been determined upon by them, to cause the same to be surveyed; and they shall proceed to ascertain what damages shall be sustained by the owner or owners of the same; but before they shall determine the amount of damages which any one may sus

tain, they shall cause him to be notified of the time and place of hearing, either personally or by leaving written notice at the residence of such owner or owners of the land; and when they shall have completed their inquiries, they shall their report, stating particularly all their proceedings and decision, with their survey and apprisal of damages, if any, and shall file the same in the town clerk's office in the town where such lands are situated, and shall cause the same to be there recorded.

SEC. 115. Before the school district shall enter on such lands, it shall pay, or tender to such owner or owners, the amount of such damages so appraised by said selectmen.

SEC. 116. If the owner or owners of such land shall not accept the damages so appraised by said select:nen, the prudential committee of such district, on behalf of such district, may agree with the owner or owners of such land, to refer the question of damages to one or more disinterested persons, whose award shall be made in writing and shall be final.

SEC. 117. If any person interested in the land which the selectmen may have located and set out, as aforesaid, 'shall be dissatisfied with such location, or with the compensation awarded for his damages, he may make his application in writing by petition to county court in the same county, and at their next stated term, if there should be sufficient time for notice, and if not, to the next succeeding term, and any number of persons aggrieved may join in the petition; and the petition, together with a citation for that purpose, shall be served on one or more of the prudential committee of such school district, at least twelve days before the session of the county court, and the court shall appoint three disinterested commissioners to inquire into the convenience and the necessity of such school house, and the manner of its location, and of the necessity of such lands and the amount required, as well as the matter of damages which may have been sustained by the persons interested therein.

SEC. 118. The commissioners shall give six days notice to one or more of the prudential committee of such school district, of the time and place when and where they will make such inquiry, and hear the parties; and on the report of such commissioners the court may establish or set aside such location, or such parts thereof as shall appear just, and may render judgment for the petitioner to recover against such school district such sum for damages as shall appear to said court to be just and reasonable, and the court may tax costs for either party as shall appear to be just.

SEC. 119. When application shall be made to the county court as provided in the two preceding sections of this chapter, the opening of the lot of land surveyed and laid out by the selectmen shall be stayed until the decision of the county court in the premises; and such court may fix the time for opening the same and the payment of damages, and if such damages shall not be paid within the time limited, the court may award execution for the same.

SEC. 120. If any school district shall require lands for any of the purposes specified in the one hundred and fourteenth section of this chapter, and the lands so required to be encumbered by mortgage, such school district shall cause the same notice to be given to the mortgagee, or the assignee of the mortgage, that is required to be given to the owner; and the damage agreed upon, or otherwise determined, as specified in this chapter, shall be paid to the mortgagee or his assignee ; but if the sum due on the mortgage be less than the damage, the amount due thereon shall be paid to the holder, and the balance to the owner, on the payment of which damage a valid title shall vest in the district for the purpose aforesaid.

AN ACT directing the Board of Education to select a Text Book: of the Geography and History of Vermont.

SEC. 121.

The board of education is hereby directed to select, at its session next year after the passage of this act, some book or books to be used in the district schools of this state as text books of the geography and history of Vermont, which selection shall be published, as soon as may be, in all the newspapers in the state, and also inserted in each school register and such selection, when thus made and published, shall be authoritative and binding upon the board of education, superintendents, and teachers, until January first, A. D. eighteen hundred and sixty-seven.

OF INSTRUCTION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB AND

BLIND.

SEC. 1. The governor of this state shall, ex-officio, be commissioner of the deaf, the dumb and the blind and, as such commissioner, shall constitute the board for their instruction.

SEC. 2. A sum not exceeding three thousand dollars may be annually drawn from the treasury of this state, by the governor, for the benefit of the deaf and the dumb, and a

sum not exceeding twenty-seven hundred dollars may also be annually drawn by him, from the treasury, for the benefit of the blind, to be appropriated agreeably to the provisions of this chapter.

SEC. 3. Until provision is otherwise made by law, the beneficiaries mentioned in this chapter, shall be instructed at the following places, that is to say the deaf and dumb. at the American asylum, established in the city of Hartford, in the state of Connecticut, for the education of the deaf and dumb; and the blind, at the New England institution for the instruction of the blind, established in the city of Boston, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

SEC 4. The board of civil authority in each town shall ascertain, and certify to the county clerk, on or before the first day of February, annually, the number of deaf and dumb persons and the number of blind persons in such town, their respective ages, condition and circumstances and the ability of their parents to educate them, and whether, in the opinion of such board, such deaf and dumb and blind persons are proper subjects of the charity of this state, and whether they and their parents or guardians are willing they should become beneficiaries of either of the institutions mentioned in the third section of this chapter, or such other institution as may be provided by law, for the instruction of deaf and dumb or blind persons.

SEC. 5. Each county clerk shall make return to the governor before the first day of March in each year, of all the information he receives from the several boards of civil authority in his county.

SEC. 6. The governor shall have power to approbate and designate beneficiaries, as aforesaid; to draw orders on the treasury for any part of the appropriations provided in the second section; to superintend and direct all concerns relating to the education of deaf and dumb or blind persons, inhabitants of this state, and to allow all or any portion of the expenses of their conveyance to, and support in the institutions in which they are instructed, for such term or time as he shall deem proper, and he may, in his discretion, take bonds to indemnify the state against expenses, which may accrue in consequence of the sickness, clothing or transportation of any of the beneficiaries.

SEC. 7. Whenever any person shall be approbated and designated a beneficiary, under this chapter, the selec'men of the town in which such beneficiary resides are empowered and authorized to defray the expenses of the conveyance of such beneficiary to and from the institution in which such beneficiary is