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presumably striving to do their duty, recommendations—and even the
mere expression of a wish, on the part of those who have the right to
express one—are more efficacious than peremptory commands.
“If, therefore, the Department proceeds by means slightly differing
from those suggested in the letter now under reply, Mr. Raikes trusts
your Vestry will not conclude from that circumstance that he does
not cordially approve of the cause which they have at heart, or that he
will not endeavour to promote it by every means in his power."
It is to be hoped that the officers and employes of the
Department will in future pay more respect to the wishes of the
Authorities than they have done during the last four years.
INTERRUPTION OF EDUCATION AT ELEMENTARY
SCHOOLS RESULTING FROM THE PREVALENCE
OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
It is the practice at Board and other elementary schools to
refuse admission to children from houses where infectious disease
exists, even when the excluded children are not members of the
family affected. The propriety of this practice is beyond question,
and to its existence we may reasonably ascribe the fact that it has
never been found necessary, in this parish, to close a school on
account of the prevalence of infectious disease among the pupils.
The “notification of infectious disease,” when it shall have been
secured by legislation, and the increased powers of removal to
hospital of non.isolated cases of infectious sickness, for which
Sanitarians are asking as a correlative measure, will probably
have the desired effect of limiting the occasions on which it will
become necessary to close schools on account of epidemics, e.g.,
of scarlet fever. Sanitary authorities have greater powers under
the provisions of the Education Code of 1883., than they formerly
possessed, to close schools—powers which it need hardly be said
should be used with great care and discretion. It has always
been my endeavour to obtain the co.operation of school teachers in
. “The Managers must comply with any notice of the Sanitary Authority of
the district in which the school is situated, requiring them for a specified time,
with a view to prevent the spread of disease, either to close the school, or to
exclude any scholars from attendance, subject to an appeal to the Department,
if the Managers consider the notice to be unreasonable.”