Page images
PDF
EPUB

passing of

Rules as to (4.) The chairman shall propose to the meeting the resolution for the adoption of the Act, and the meeting shall decide for or against such adoption:

resolutions

of owners

and rate

payers.

Provided, that if any owner or ratepayer (c) shall demand that such question be decided by a poll of the owners and ratepayers, such poll shall be taken by voting papers in the Form (A.) given in the schedule to this Act, in the same way, and with the same conditions as to notice of voting (d), delivery, filling up, collection, examination, declaration of the result, custody of voting papers, penalty for neglect or refusal to comply with the provisions of the Act, scale of votes, and in all other respects whatsoever as is provided in the Public Health Act, 1848, in respect of the election of local boards of health;

And if no poll is demanded, or if the demand for a poll is withdrawn by the parties making the same, a declaration by the chairman shall in the absence of proof to the contrary (e), be sufficient evidence of the decision of such meeting (ƒ).

Penalty for (5.) If any person (g) fabricates, in whole or in part, alters,

forging, &c.

(c) See note on sect. 12, No. 3, ante.

(d) See 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 23, ante, as to the notice; sect. 24 as to the delivery; sect. 25 as to the filling up; sect. 26 as to the collection; sect. 27 as to the examination, declaration (or, as it is there termed, certificate) and custody of the voting papers; sect. 28 as to the penalty for neglect; and sect. 20 as to the scale of votes. As to the custody of the voting papers, the provisions will not be applicable if the proposal be rejected. (e) It will not, however, be conclusive in itself.

(f) There is no provision in the statute for the costs of these proceedings, whatever be the result; but now see in the previous note on this section, ante, the provision for the costs on failure. When the board is established the costs incurred in the establishment are paid by them out of the funds which they raise.

(g) This clause is taken from 14 & 15 Vict. c. 105, s. 3, with reference to the election of guardians, though the language is slightly altered. It is well to state that several prosecutions have taken place upon that clause, and persons have been convicted of offences under it. At the Spring Assizes for Yorkshire, in 1858, three persons were convicted before Byles, J., of a common law offence for conspiring to defeat the due election of guardians, by causing forged proxy appointments to be issued and acted upon at such election, and sentenced to imprisonment. Q. v. Beckwith and others.

papers.

defaces, destroys, abstracts, or purloins any voting paper, of voting
or personates any person entitled to vote in pursuance
of the Public Health Act, 1848, or this Act, or falsely
assumes to act in the name or on the behalf any person
so entitled to vote (h), or interrupts the distribution of
any voting papers, or distributes the same under a false
pretence of being lawfully authorized so to do, he shall
for every such offence be liable, on conviction before
two justices (i), to be imprisoned in the common gaol
or house of correction for any period not exceeding three
months, with or without hard labour.

Provision as

included

greater.

XIV. In cases where any place hereby authorized to adopt this Act includes within its limits any less place which, if it to less place were not so included, would of itself be authorized to adopt within the this.Act, such less place shall not be entitled to adopt this limits of a Act (k) unless the greater place within the limits of which it is included has refused to adopt the same, or unless it has been determined by one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, in manner hereinafter mentioned (1),

(h) Where the person who should have been so entitled is dead and he is personated at the election, the case is not provided for by this clause. Whiteley, appellant, Chappell, respondent, 19 L. T. (N. s.) 355; L. R. 4 Q. B. 147; 38 L J. M. C. 51.

(i) See 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 2, ante.

(k) Where an Ecclesiastical District had been formed from parts of two townships in separate parishes, each of which townships separately maintained its own poor, it was held not to be a less place included within a greater within the meaning of this section. Q. v. Ratepayers of Northowram and Clayton, Law R. 1 Q. B. 110; 7 B. & S. 110.

In Re Matlock Bath District, 2 B. & S. 543, it was decided that where an undefined place had obtained the Secretary of State's order to settle the boundaries, but was included within the limits of a parish, it could not adopt the Act under this section until the parish refused to do so.

(1) See sect. 17, post. Hence, if a city comprising several parishes be formed into a district, no parish therein can adopt the Act unless it had been excluded from the district under that section. But where a parish included a municipal borough, an order establishing a local board for the parish was held to be valid, and the fact that the whole parish, and part of another was included in a Parliamentary Borough did not render the adoption by the parish alone invalid. Reg. v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, 19 L. T. (N. s.) 352; 38 L. J. Q. B.9; Law Rep. 4 Q. B. 117.

Power for

partial adop

that such less place ought as respects the adoption of this Act, to be excluded from the limits of such greater place.

XV. Any corporation or body of commissioners (ƒ) tion of Act. exercising powers for sanitary regulations (g) under the provisions of any local Act may adopt any part or parts of this Act by resolution of the council or commissioners (h), and such resolution shall in every case be passed and forwarded

Every local authority invested

with powers of town

any part of

(f) The power of adopting this Act is extended, and the consequences of such adoption are declared by the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 61, s. 2. in the following terms :

"The power of adopting any part of 'The Local Government Act, government 1858," given by the fifteenth section of that Act to any corporation or may adopt body of commisssoners exercising powers for sanitary regulation under the provisions of any local Act, shall extend to every local authority invested with powers of town government and rating by any local Act, by whatever name such local authority is called, and the words 'local board' or 'board of commissioners' as used in the said Local Government Act shall apply to such local authority:

local government Act:

Provision for election of

such local

"Provided always, that whenever the members of such local authority are elected for life they shall adopt, in lieu of the provisions for elections contained in the local Act, the provisions for and in relation to elecwhen elected tions prescribed by The Public Health Act, 1848,' and The Local Government Act, 1858:'

authorities

for life at

the time of

adopting

local government Act.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"And within one month of such adoption one-third of the members of such local authority shall retire, the order of retirement to be fixed by the local authority, and the election of members in lieu of such retiring members shall be governed in all respects by the said Public Health Act, 1848,' and 'Local Government Act, 1858,' and be conducted by the chairman of the local authority:

[ocr errors]

"Provided also, that such adoption shall not affect the qualification fixed for members of such local authority by the local Act under which it is constituted, or the qualification and tenure of office of ex-officio members of such local authority."

(g) There is no legal definition of what is a sanitary regulation, and much difficulty exists in applying the words of the text. It is presumed that these latter words are connected with the corporation as well as the commissioners, which corporation, by the use of the word council, refers to a municipal corporation.

(h) No previous requisition from the ratepayers or owners is necessary in this case; and it will be seen that the commissioners are not limited to such as are elected by the ratepayers of any place. Neither is the consent of the secretary of state, nor any Act of parliament, required to complete the proceeding, except in the cases specially provided for.

The statute 26 & 27 Vict. c. 17, s. 7, enacts that the power of adopting any part or parts of the Local Government Act, 1858, and the Acts amending the same, shall not be exhausted by one adoption, but may be exercised from time to time.

to one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, as provided in this Act for the adoption thereof (i), and thereupon the part or parts of this Act named in such resolution shall be in force within the district comprised in such local Act as fully and effectually as if such part or parts of this Act had been enacted in such local Act:

Provided always, that when the parts of this Act thus adopted confer any power of borrowing money, such power shall be exercised subject to the provisions of this Act with respect to borrowing (k).

ADOPTION OF ACT BY PLACE NOT HAVING A KNOWN

OR DEFINED BOUNDARY.

to settling

XVI. (1.) Any place (1) not having a known or (m) de- Provision as fined boundary may petition one of Her Majesty's principal boundaries secretaries of state to settle its boundary for the purposes of on petition.

this Act:

petitions for

of bounda

(2.) The petition shall state the proposed boundaries of Rules as to the place, shall be signed by one-tenth of the rate- settlement payers (n) resident within such boundaries, and shall be ries. supported by such evidence as the said secretary of state may require:

(i) See sect. 19, post.

(k) See ss. 57, 58, post.

(1) This word has no legal nor peculiar popular meaning. It is alto- As to the gether indefinite and unlimited. See, however, as to the interpretation of word place. this word in a statute, Smith v. Redding, L. R. 1 Q. B. 489. Moreover the phraseology of the clause is not very happily chosen. The inhabitants of a place may petition, or a petition may be presented from a place, but the place itself is not competent to present a petition.

(m) Note, that though the disjunctive copulate is here used, it is difficult to see why the two words are introduced: every defined boundary must be a known boundary, though every known boundary is not necessarily a defined one, if that word signifies one which has been delineated or described in a map or in words. At the close of the section the conjunctive copulate is used. See note on sect. 13 of this Act.

(n) The owners are not introduced into this clause, which applies to the residents. As owners are not necessarily residents, they are probably omitted on this ground, though it certainly would seem reason

M

Power of the

(3.) Upon the receipt of such petition the secretary of state may direct inquiry (a) to be made as to the genuineness of the petition, and as to the propriety of the proposed boundaries; and

(4.) Fourteen days' notice of the time, place, and subject of such enquiry shall be given (b) in the place to which it refers:

(5.) The said secretary of state may, upon consideration of the matter, either dismiss the petition altogether (c), or make order (d) as to the boundaries of the place:

He may also make order as to the costs of the proceedings under this section and the parties by whom such costs are to be borne (e):

able that if non-resident owners may apply for the rejection of the Act, as they may, according to the next section, they should also have a voice in the settlement of the boundaries.

(a) See sect. 80, post, as to the power of the officer making the inquiry.

(b) It is not stated who is to give this notice, but the officer who will make the inquiry is the proper person to do so. No precise kind of notice is prescribed; therefore he can exercise his own judgment in the matter, and doubtless will be careful to give ample notice according to the practice of the place.

(c) It thus appears that the local government to be established by the Act cannot be acquired absolutely in all places. In the non-corporate districts referred to in the text, the secretary of state may refuse to sanction the adoption, by refusing to settle the boundaries.

(d) A question has been raised but not determined, whether the secreSecretary of tary of state can extend the boundaries of the places proposed, Smith v. State, The Local Board of Todmorden, 1 B. & S. 412; 30 L. J. Q. B. 305. It may be properly contended that such extension would be unfair upon parties in the extended limit, inasmuch as they could not oppose the petition which must be confined to the limit originally proposed. But his order, assuming it to be legal in itself, will be conclusive. See sect. 78, post.

Enforcing of his order.

(e) Though the secretary of state may make the order, it does not appear how this order is to be enforced, if the parties decline to obey it, since the courts of law have not hitherto recognized the order of a secretary of state like an order of justices. If indeed this petition be considered as an appeal made to the secretary of state, then sect. 81, post, provides for the due enforcement of his order, but it is not what is usually understood as an appeal. In default of other remedy an application might be made to the Court of Queen's Bench for a mandamus directed to the parties ordered to pay the money.

« PreviousContinue »