[570] Twenty-third Annual Report of the Poor Law Board, 1870-71, p. 378.
[571] On 1st January 1892, the 336,870 children of 1871 had fallen to 177,245, probably the lowest figure of the whole seventy years (Twenty-first Annual Report of the Local Government Board, 1891-2, p. 365).
[572] 36 & 37 Vic. c. 86, sec. 3 (Elementary Education Act 1873); 39 & 40 Vic. c. 79, sec. 40 (Elementary Education Act 1876); 43 & 44 Vic. c. 23, sec. 5 (Elementary Education Act 1880). It was held in 1877 that the guardians might, if they chose, pay, besides the school fee, also for books and stationery (Selections from the Correspondence of the Local Government Board, vol. i. 1880, p. 49).
[573] 39 & 40 Vic. c. 79, sec. 10 (Elementary Education Act 1876).
[574] Circulars of 30th December 1873 and 30th December 1876, in Third Annual Report, 1873-4, pp. 4-7, and Sixth Annual Report, 1876-7, pp. 23-6; MS. Minutes, Bakewell Board of Guardians, 12th January and 9th February 1874.
[575] Ibid. 30th August 1880.
[576] 31 & 32 Vic. c. 122, sec. 37 (Poor Law Amendment Act 1868).
[577] Circular of 31st December 1888, in Eighteenth Annual Report, 1888-9, p. 105.
[578] 52 & 53 Vic. c. 44, secs. 1, 12 (1889); 57 & 58 Vic. c. 41, sec. 1 (1894); Circular of 30th September 1889, in Nineteenth Annual Report, 1889-90, pp. 92-5.
[579] 4 Edw. VII. c. 15, sec. 5.