AUDIT OF ACCOUNTS.

Form of Accounts.

The accounts of every sanitary authority must in every year be made up in the form and to the day or days appointed by the Local Government Board. (35 & 36 Vict. c. 79. s. 49.)

Audit.

The accounts of the sanitary authority must be audited in every respect in the same manner as their accounts are audited in their capacity of guardians.

*

The accounts of the overseers collecting or paying any money for the purposes of the Sanitary Acts, must be audited in the same manner as the accounts of overseers collecting or paying any money for the purposes of the Acts relating to the relief of the poor. (35 & 56 Vict. c 79. s. 49.)

Powers and Duties of Auditor.

An auditor has with respect to the accounts audited under these provisions, the like powers and he is subject to the like obligations in every respect as in the case of an audit under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor.

Any person aggrieved by the decision of the auditor has the like rights and remedies as in the case of an audit under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor. (35 & 36 Vict. c. 79. s. 49.)

Taxation of Solicitors' Bills.

*

On the application of sanitary authority whose accounts are required by the Sanitary Acts to be audited to the clerk of the peace of the county in which the area under the jurisdiction of the authority is wholly or in part situated, his deputy must tax any bill due to a solicitor or attorney for legal business performed on behalf of the authority. The allowance of a sum of the taxation is prima facie evidence of the reasonableness of the amount, but not of the legality of the charge.

The clerk of the peace is allowed for the taxation a remuneration after the rate fixed by the master of the Crown Office, and declared by order of the Local Government Board.†

If a bill of this kind is not taxed before being presented to the auditor, the auditor's decision upon the reasonableness and the legality of the charge is final. (35 & 36 Vict. c. 79. s. 50.)

* For definition, see p. 12.

† See" Powers of the Local Government Board," p. 105.

DEFAULTING SANITARY AUTHORITIES.

Powers of Chief Officer of Police as to Nuisances.

In any place within the jurisdiction of the sanitary authority, the chief officer of police in the place, under the direction of the Local Government Board, and on its being proved to their satisfaction that the sanitary authority have made default in doing their duty under the Nuisance Removal Acts,* may institute any proceeding which the sanitary authority of the place might institute with respect to the removal of nuisances.

But no officer of police is at liberty to enter any part of a house used as the dwelling of anyone without his consent, or without the warrant of a justice of the peace, for the purposes of carrying into effect this provision. (29 & 30 Vict. c. 90. s. 16.)

Powers of the Local Government Board to enforce Performance of Duty by Sanitary Authority.

Where complaint is made to the Local Government Board that the sanitary authority have made default in providing their districts with sufficient sewers, or in the maintenance of existing sewers, or in providing the district with a supply of water, in cases where danger arises to the health of the inhabitants from the insufficiency or unwholesomeness of the existing supply, and a proper supply can be got at a reasonable cost, or in requiring new houses or old ones rebuilt above the ground floor, to have a watercloset or privy and ashpit, or in seeing that drains, waterclosets, privies, and ashpits within their district do not become a nuisance, or in enforcing the provisions of the Nuisances Removal Acts,* the Local Government Board, if satisfied, after due inquiry, that the sanitary authority have been guilty of the alleged default, must make an order limiting a time for the performance of their duty in the matter complained of. (29 & 30 Vict. c. 90. s. 49.; 31 & 32 Vict. c. 115. s. 4.)

If the duty is not performed by the time limited in the order, the Local Government Board must appoint some person to perform it; and from time to time, by order, they may change the person appointed. They must by order direct the expenses of performing it, together with reasonable remuneration to the person appointed for superintending its performance, and amounting to a sum to be specified in the order, together with the costs of the proceedings, to be paid by the sanitary authority in default; and an order made for the payment of these costs and expenses may be removed into the Court of Queen's Bench, and be enforced in the same way as an order of that Court. (29 & 30 Vict. c. 90. s. 49.; 32 & 33 Vict. c. 100. s. 8.)

31415.

*For definition, see note on p. 12.

G

A person appointed for these purposes is, in the performance of his duty, and for the purposes of it, invested with all the powers of the sanitary authority in default, except the power of levying rates. (30 & 31 Vict. c. 113. 3. 2.)

See Water Supply, p. 15; Sewers and Drains, p. 21; Waterclosets, Privies, Cesspools, and Ashpits, p. 29; and Removal of Nuisances, p. 50.

The Local Government Board may recover Expenses.

The sum specified in the order of the Local Government Board, together with the costs of the proceedings, are deemed expenses properly incurred by the sanitary authority in default and a debt due from them, and payable out of any money in their hands or their officers, or out of the local rate; i.e. a rate applicable to the payment of expenses properly incurred by them. In the event of the sanitary authority refusing to pay this sum with costs for a period of 14 days after demand, the Local Government Board may by precept empower a person to levy out of the local rate a sum (to be specified in the precept) sufficient, in the opinion of the Board, to defray the debt due from the defaulting authority, and all expenses incurred in consequence of its non-payment. A person so empowered has the same powers of levying the local rate, and requiring officers of the defaulting authority to pay over money in their hands, as the defaulting authority itself would have in the case of expenses legally payable out of a local rate raised by them. The person, after repaying all sums of money due in respect of the precept, must pay any overplus, (as ascertained by the Local Government Board, to or to the order of the defaulting authority. (31 & 32 Vict. c. 115. s. 8.)

See Rates and Expenses, p. 81.

The Local Government Board may from time to time certify the amount of expense incurred, or an estimate of the expenses to be incurred by a person appointed by the Board to perform the duty of a defaulting sanitary authority. They may also from time to time certify under their hand the amount of a loan required for the purpose of defraying expenses incurred or to be incurred. The certificate of the Board is conclusive as to the matters to which it refers. (32 & 33 Vict. c. 100. s. 4.)

Definition of Expenses.

For the purposes of these provisions expenses are defined to include all sums payable by or by order of the Local Government Board, or the person appointed by them, on the occasion of a default being made by a sanitary authority in the performance of its duties in relation to sanitary matters. (32 & 33 Vict. c. 100. s. 10.)

Loans for Expenditure on behalf of Defaulting Sanitary

Authority.

Whenever the Local Government Board certifies a loan to be required for the purpose of defraying the expenses of performing the duty of a defaulting sanitary authority, the Public Works Loan Commissioners may advance to the Board, or to the person appointed, the amount of the loan certified to be required, on the security of the local rate, without requiring any other security.

The Board or the person appointed, may by an instrument in writing, charge this rate with the repayment of the principal and interest due in respect of the loan, and the charge will have the same effect as if the defaulting authority were empowered to raise the loan on the security of the rate, and had executed an instrument to that effect.

The certificate of the Board certifying a loan to be required, or appointing a person to perform the duty of a defaulting authority, is taken as conclusive evidence that all the requirements of section 49 of the Sanitary Act, 1866, and of any other enactment relating thereto, have been duly complied with, and that the person appointed has been duly appointed. (32 & 33 Vict. c. 100. s. 5.)

Principal money or interest for the time being due in respect of a loan made for payment of the expenses of performing the duty of a defaulting sanitary authority is taken to be a debt due from such authority, and, in addition to any other remedies, may be enforced in the manner in which a debt due from a defaulting sanitary authority may be enforced in pursuance of section 8 of the Sanitary Act, 1868.* (32 & 33 Vict. c. 100. s. 6.)

Overplus of Loan.

If the amount of a loan raised for defraying the expenses of performing the duty of a defaulting sanitary authority is not wholly expended in defraying them, the overplus, as ascertained by a certificate of the Local Government Board, must be paid to or to the order of the defaulting authority. (32 & 33 Vict c. 100. s. 7.)

* See p. 98.

PORT SANITARY AUTHORITIES.

Constitution of Port Sanitary Authorities.

The Local Government Board by provisional order may permanently constitute any sanitary authority whose district or part of whose district forms part of or abuts upon any part of a port in England, or the waters of the port, or any conservators, commissioners, or other persons having authority in or over the. port or any part of it (which sanitary authority, conservators, &c. are referred to below as a "riparian authority"), the sanitary authority of the whole of the port, or of any part of it, and may by the order assign to the sanitary authority (referred to below as the "port sanitary authority") any powers, rights, duties, liabilities, and obligations under the Sanitary Acts,† or any of them, and may direct the mode in which the expenses of the port sanitary authority are to be paid. Until the provisional order has been made and confirmed by Parliament, the Board may by order temporarily constitute any riparian authority, the port sanitary authority, for the purposes of the Sanitary Acts, or any of their provisions.

The Board may constitute a port sanitary authority by uniting two or more riparian authorities, as provided by the Public Health Act, 1872, with reference to the formation of sanitary districts or united districts,§ and may assign to the port sanitary authority so constituted any of the powers, rights, duties, liabilities, and obligations before mentioned. (35 & 36 Vict. c. 79. s. 20.)

Definition of Port.

"Port" means a port as established for the purposes of the laws relating to the customs. (35 & 36 Vict. c. 79. s. 20.)

Jurisdiction of Port Sanitary Authority.

The order of the Board constituting a port sanitary authority is deemed to give them jurisdiction over all waters within the limits of the port, and also over the whole or such portions of the district within the jurisdiction of any riparian authority as may be specified in the order. (35 & 56 Vict. c. 79. s. 20.)

Delegation of Powers.

A port sanitary authority may, with the sanction of the Board, delegate to any other riparian authority within or bordering upon their district, the exercise of any powers con

*This includes Wales. (20 Geo. 2. c. 42. s. 3.) + See p. 4.

For definition, see p. 12.

§ See p. 7.