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divide the meeting, or whether a poll should have been de

manded. (1)

If, at a meeting called to adopt the Local Government Act, Poll of parish. a poll be demanded and the chairman refuse to grant it, and no resolution for or against the adoption be come to, but the consideration of the question adjourned to another and distant day, a mandamus will not lie against the chairman to take a poll, for after the meeting is dissolved the chairman's functions are at an end. In such a case the proceedings must commence de novo. (2)

of

Persons fabricating, or otherwise improperly altering or in- Penalty for terfering with voting-papers, or personating persons entitled to forging, &c. of vote, or falsely assuming to act in the name or on the behalf voting papers. 21 & 22 Vict. any person entitled to vote, or interrupting the distribution c. 98, s. 13. of voting-papers, or distributing them under a false pretence of being lawfully authorized, for every such offence are liable to be imprisoned for any period not exceeding three months, with or without hard labour.

§ 3. ADOPTION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT BY PLACES NOT HAVING DEFINED BOUNDARIES.

boundaries.

The Local Government Act, 1858, may also be adopted by Adoption by places not having known or defined boundaries by petition places not to the Local Government Board, stating the proposed bound- having defined aries of the place, and signed by one-tenth of the ratepayers Ib. s. 16. resident within such boundaries. The petition must also be 34 & 35 Vict. supported by such evidence as the Local Government Board c. 70. may require.

Before acting upon the petition, the Local Government Board may direct inquiry to be made as to its genuineness, and as to the propriety of the proposed boundaries; of which inquiry fourteen days' notice of the time, place, and subject of it must be given.

Local Govern

The Local Government Board may, either before or after Settling inquiry, upon consideration of the matter, dismiss the petition boundaries by altogether, or make an order as to the boundaries of the place : ment Board. they may also make an order as to the costs of the proceedings 21 & 22 Vict. under this section, and the parties by whom the costs are to c. 98, s. 16. be borne.

34 & 35 Vict. Matlock Bath, a district not having any ascertained or defined c. 70. boundary, and a portion of the parish of Matlock, obtained from the Secretary of State an order, under s. 16 of the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, settling its boundaries for the purposes of that Act, and subsequently adopted the Act within the district. Afterwards the parish of Matlock adopted the Act. Under these circumstances the Court refused a mandamus to the Secretary of State to publish the notice of the adoption of the Act by the

(1) Ex parte Bird, 5 Jur. (N.S.) 1009; 28 L. J. Q. B. 223; 33 L. T. 162; E. & E. 931.

(2) Reg. v. Bird, 39 L. T. 286.

C

Settling boundaries.

21 & 22 Vict.

c. 98, s. 16.

district of Matlock Bath under sect. 19; holding that sect. 14 applied to places the boundaries of which were settled by an order of the Secretary of State, and therefore that the district of Matlock Bath could not adopt the Act unless the parish of Matlock had refused to do so. (1)

A district carved out of a larger district for ecclesiastical purposes, under the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 37, s. 9, is a place having a defined boundary which can adopt the Act, without having recourse to s. 16 of the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98. (2)

After the Home Secretary has included other property within the boundary of the district, and the ratepayers have met and adopted the Act, and the time has expired after which the Act is to become law, it will be too late to bring up the Home Secretary's order by certiorari to be quashed. The ratepayers of a place not having a known or defined boundary petitioned the Secretary of State, under sect. 16 of the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, to settle its boundaries for the purposes of the Act; the petition setting forth the proposed boundaries. The Secretary of State thereupon appointed an inspector to inquire, and the inspector reported in favour of the proposed boundaries, subject to certain alterations by which certain properties beyond the proposed boundaries were included in the district. On the fifteenth of January, 1861, the Secretary of State made an order adopting the proposed boundaries with the alterations, and directed that from and after that date the boundaries therein set forth should form the boundaries of the district. In pursuance of the order, a meeting of the ratepayers to decide as to the adoption of the Act within the district was held on the sixteenth of February, at which a resolution for its adoption was carried. On the seventh of March a ratepayer who occupied property in the district appealed against this resolution. to the Secretary of State, upon the ground that his property was not comprised within the boundary from within which the petition proceeded. The Secretary of State again directed the inspector to inquire, and upon his report thereon made an order, dated the twenty-first of April, dismissing the appeal, and directing that after one month from the date thereof the Local Government Act, 1858, should have the force of law within the district. Upon motion for a certiorari at the instance of the petitioning ratepayer to remove the order of the fifteenth of January, on the ground that it was ultrà vires of the Secretary of State to make it, it was held by Wightman and Blackburn, JJ., Cockburn, C.J., dubitante, that if the Secretary of State had exceeded the powers conferred upon him by the Act, still the application for a certiorari was too late, the resolution for the adoption of the Act having, by sect. 20, acquired the force of law within the district. Cockburn, C.J. expressed very

(1) In re Matlock Bath District, 2 B. & S. 543; 31 L. J. Q. B. 177; 6 L. T. (N.S.) 243.

(2) Reg. v. Northowram, ante, p. 12.

serious doubts whether it is competent for the Secretary of State to extend the area of a proposed district under the Local Government Act beyond the boundaries mentioned in the petition; and though the Court did not decide that question, he said he was desirous that it should be kept quite open for the consideration of the Court if the question should arise again and the matter be brought before the Court in time. (1) The portion of land on the sea-shore between high-water Land on seamark and ordinary low-water mark may form part of the parish coming down to the shore; but there is no primâ facie presumption that it does so, and in the absence of evidence that it does form part of the parish, it must be taken not to be part of it. (2) See, however, Reg. v. Bennett, post.

shore.

extra-paro

Now from the twenty-fifth of December, 1868, every place Provision for which was or is reputed to be extra-parochial, whether entered incorporation by name in the report upon the census for 1851 or not, for of certain which an overseer has not been then appointed, or for which chial places. no overseer shall be then acting, or which has not been then 31 & 32 Vict. annexed to and incorporated with an adjoining parish, shall for c. 122, s. 27. all civil parochial purposes be annexed to and incorporated with the next adjoining parish with which it has the longest common boundary, and in case there shall be two or more parishes with which it shall have boundaries of equal extent, then with that parish which now contains the lowest amount of rateable value; and every accretion from the sea, whether natural or artificial, and the part of the sea-shore to the low-water mark, and the bank of every river to the middle of the stream, which on the twenty-fifth of December, 1868, shall not be included within the boundaries of or annexed to and incorporated with any parish, shall for the same purposes be annexed to and incorporated with the parish to which such accretion, part, or bank adjoins in proportion to the extent of the common boundary.

With reference to what may be included within the limits of District coma district comprising a sea "port," it has been held that the prising a seafollowing description of the limits within which the powers of port. an Act of Parliament passed for the supply of water to a town are to operate, namely, "to extend to and comprise the whole of the town and port of Cardiff and the parishes or places within and adjoining to such town in the county of Glamorgan," did not include anything "beyond the parishes or places within and adjoining the town of Cardiff," and that the word "port" was limited by the general context of the Act. (3)

With regard to a district any portion of which is bounded by District a river, McCannan v. Sinclair (4) may be referred to. In that bounded by a case in beating the boundary of the plaintiff's parish it had river. been customary to walk along the shore of the river, but in

(1) In re Todmorden, 30 L. J. Q. B. 305; 4 L. T. (N.S.) 509; 1 B. & S. (2) Reg. v. Musson, 8 E. & B. 900.

412.

(3) Cardiff (Mayor, &c.) v. Cardiff Waterworks Company, 33 L. T. 104; 5 Jur. (N.S.) 953. (4) 33 L. T. 221.

District

river.

beating the boundary of the adjoining parish they went along the bounded by a middle of the river in boats. The parish officers of plaintiff's parish were not aware that any parochial rights had been claimed beyond the margin of the river, and on a special case being stated for the opinion of the Court, it was held that the plaintiff's parish extended to the middle of the river, and that a steamboat-pier built on the bed of the river between high and low water-mark was therefore held rateable to the relief of the poor. After the boundaries have been settled, the place for the purposes of the Act is to be deemed to be a place with a known or defined boundary, and may adopt the Act accord21 & 22 Vict. ingly; and for the purpose of enabling it so to do, a summoning

Adoption of
Act after-

wards.

c. 98, s. 16.

officer shall be appointed by the order settling the boundaries, whose duty it shall be forthwith (i.e. with all convenient speed) to take all such steps as may be necessary for convening a meeting of the ratepayers to decide as to the adoption of the 34 & 35 Vict. Act; and if he dies, becomes incapable, neglects, or refuses to perform his duties, the Local Government Board may, on the application of any four ratepayers, appoint another officer in his room.

c. 70.

Partial adoption of Act by

local authorities invested

with powers of Town

Government.

21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 15. 34 & 35 Vict.

c. 70.

Provision for election of such local authorities

when elected for life at the time of adopt ing Local Government Act.

24 & 25 Vict. c. 61, s. 2.

§ 4. PARTIAL ADOPTION OF LOCAL GOVERNMent Act, Any corporation (i.e. municipal corporation) or body of commissioners exercising powers for sanitary regulations under a local Act may adopt any part or parts of the Local Government Act by resolution of the council or commissioners. Such resolution shall in every case be passed and forwarded to the Local Government Board as provided in the Act 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 19, post, p. 23, for the adoption thereof, and thereupon the part or parts of the Act named in the resolution are to be in force within the district comprised in the Local Act as fully and effectually as if such part or parts of the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, had been enacted in the Local Act. When the parts of the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, thus adopted confer any power of borrowing money, such power shall be exercised subject to the provisions of the Local Government Act with respect to borrowing.

66

The power of adopting any part of the Local Government Act, 1858, given as above mentioned, to any corporation or body of commissioners exercising powers for sanitary regulations under the provisions of any local Act, 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 Local Government Act, 1858, shall apply to such local authority: 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 elections prescribed by the Public Health Act, 1848, and the Local Government Act, 1858; 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 Public Health Act, 1848, and Local Government Act, 1858, and be conducted by the chairman of the local authority: 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.

§ 5. ABANDONMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT.

census,

of Local Government Act in certain

When a resolution adopting the Act has been passed in a Abandonment place in which the population, according to the then last is less than 3000, that resolution may at any time be rescinded by a subsequent resolution, passed in the same manner in which places. resolutions for the adoption of the Act are required to be 26 Vict. passed (ante, p. 14); but the rescinding resolution shall not c. 17, s. 4. be of any effect unless it is approved by the Local Government Board, and notice is published in the London Gazette of the passing of the resolution and of their approval thereof.

An appeal may be had from any such rescinding resolution Ib. in the same manner and subject to the same conditions, as nearly as may be, in and subject to which an appeal may be had against a resolution adopting the Act; and the provisions of the Local Government Act relating to an appeal against the adoption of the Act shall, with the requisite variations, apply to such an appeal (as to which see 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 17, post, page 24).

The notice of the rescinding resolution shall not be published until the expiration of the time limited for an appeal (twentyone days from the date of the resolution, 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 17), or until the determination of the appeal; but upon the publication thereof, the adoption of the Local Government Act shall be deemed to be avoided as from the date of that publication, and from the same date the Local Government Act shall cease to be in force within the district, and the district shall revert to the position in which it was before the adoption of the Local Government Act; so nevertheless that any contracts have been entered into by or on behalf of the Local Board of any such district may be enforced in the same manner In all respects as if the Local Government Act had continued in force in the district; and so far as may be necessary for the enforcement of such contracts, the Local Board and all their powers of levying money, shall be deemed to be continued. The power of adopting any part or parts of the Local Govern- Re-exercise ment Act, 1858, given by that Act and the Acts amending the of powers of same, shall not be exhausted by one adoption, but may be exeradoption. 26 Vict. c. 17, cised from time to time. S. 7.

that

may

See also 29 & 30 Vict. c. 106, s. 4, in Appendix: post.

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