By Mr Macassey — Provided also that no school rate shall be payable by, or recover able from any person who shall, by a statutory declaration made before a Justice of the Peace, solemnly declare that he is opposed to, or cannot consjientiously avail himself of, or send his children to the school or schools, in aid of the funds of which such rate shall be levied. . . . Provided also thcit such rateable property shall comprise only houses, messuages, and buildings, actually occupied for domestic purposes. By the Hon. Mr M'Lean — And every householder with'n such district shall be rated in any sum not exceeding 20s. By Mr Macassey— Provided also that from after the passing of this Ordinance, no aid shall be given out of any public grant for educational purposes to any district school, to any greater extent than the amount which shall be locally raised. By Mr Green : The assessment of such property to be made not sooner than twenty- j eight days after the prorogation of the next Bessiou of the Council. By VJr G. F. C Browne: Not being the property of Catholics — an addition to the last words of the clause. On clause 5, the Provincial Solicitor, to meet objections that had been urged during the debate that Dunedin would be exempted from the operation of the Bill by the clause as it stood, moved the following addition which was carried: — ** Provided further that where in any city or town there shall be a valuation made under the Otago Municipal Corporations Ordinance, 1865, or any Act or Ordinance amending the same, such valuation shall be taken and held to be the rateable value for the pur poses of this Ordinance " A new clause was afterwards moved as follows :— " It -ball be lawful for tbe school committee to deter mine whether the Bible shall be read in school or not ; and if a Bchool committee resolve that it shall be read, then it shall be so read before or after ordinary school hours, and withaut note or comment, anything in the 40th section of the Education Ordinance, 1864, to the contrary notwithstanding." On the motion of Mr Mervyn, the words • before or" were struck out, and the clause as amended was carried.
