INTROD. unprofitable to speculate upon whether this was intended Further powers of urban councils. Areas and boundaries. or not. Election orders have been issued by the Local Government Board for regulating the conduct of the first elections under the Act of London London vestrymen and auditors, and of members of the Woolwich Local Board. In order to remedy the anomaly which would have existed if the changes effected by the Act had been limited to rural parishes, the Local Government Board are enabled to give to urban district councils the power of appointing overseers and assistant overseers, any powers and duties of overseers, and any powers, duties, and liabilities, such as in a rural parish are conferred by the Act upon a parish council. These powers may be conferred on the urban council itself, or upon any representative body within the parish. Upon the county council, or the joint committee of two or more county councils when an area extends into two or more counties, falls the duty of providing for the simplification of areas and the adjustment of boundaries. The Act itself provides that a parish partly within a sanitary district shall be divided, but it is left to the county council to say whether the part or parts shall be united to other parishes or become distinct parishes, and in the latter event to give them names. The same power is given to county councils where a parish or a rural district extends into two counties; and they are also charged with the duty of dividing parishes into INTROD. wards, or uniting them for the purpose of the election of guardians and rural district councillors, and of fixing the number of parish councillors for each rural parish. These duties have, for the most part, been performed by the exercise of the powers conferred by the Act of 1888, as adapted by this Act, and by regulations of the Local Government Board made under this Act with a view to carrying its provisions into immediate effect. Important powers are also given to county councils for grouping parishes for the purpose of the election of parish councillors and for dissolving groups. tion of coun Among the supplemental provisions contained in Disqualificathe third part of the Act the section relating to the cillors. disqualification for the office of parish and district councillor and guardian may be noticed. The disqualifications include infancy, receipt of relief, holding of paid offices, convictions for crime, and interest in contracts. With regard to the last-named disqualification there are certain specified exceptions, and power is given to the county council to remove the disqualification in the case of a parish councillor if it is for the advantage of the parish. The Act provides for the creation of new urban Miscellaneous provisions. districts, committees of councils, joint committees, audit, local inquiries, place of meeting of parish or district councils, adjustment of property, debts, and liabilities, and the like. d 2 INTROD. Existing officers. Schedules. Provision is made for the transfer of officers to the new authorities and for the compensation of such as suffer loss by abolition of office or diminution of fees or salaries. The schedules contain rules for parish meetings, councils, and committees, and a long list of repealed enactments. " THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT, 1894. 56 & 57 VICT. CAP. 73. AN ACT to make further provision for Local Government in England and Wales. [5th March, 1894.] E it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: PART I. PARISH MEETINGS AND PARISH COUNCILS. Constitution of Parish Meetings and Parish Councils. 1. (1.) There shall be a parish meeting for every rural SECT. 1. parish, and there shall be a parish council for every Constitution rural parish which has a population of three hundred of parish meetings and esor upwards: Provided that an order of the county council tablishment in pursuance of Part III. of this Act (a.) Shall, if the parish meeting of a rural parish B of parish councils. SECT. 1. (b.) May provide for grouping a parish with some neighbouring parish or parishes under a common parish council, but with a separate parish meeting for every parish so grouped, so, however, that no parish shall be grouped without the consent of the parish meeting for that parish. "PARISH MEETINGS."-The parish meeting of any parish means the meeting of the "parochial electors" of that parish for the various purposes for which they are authorised to meet by the Act. "Parochial electors" are defined in section 2, sub-section (1), and provisions as to the procedure to be followed at parish meetings will be found in sections 2 and 45, and in Part 1 of Schedule I. "RURAL PARISH" is defined by sub-section (2) of this section to mean "every parish in a rural sanitary district." The parishes dealt with by the Act are civil as opposed to ecclesiastical parishes; the ecclesiastical area known as a parish is left untouched by its provisions. The word "parish" means, according to the definition given in the Interpretation Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 63), s. 5, "a place for which a separate poor rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be appointed" (see section 75, post). The area of a "rural sanitary district" is the poor law union, exclusive of any urban district or districts within it, that is to say, any union which is not coincident in area with, nor wholly included in, an urban district, with the exception of those portions (if any) of the union which are included in an urban district: Public Health Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55), s. 9. A rural parish may, therefore, be defined as a place situated within a poor law union but not within an urban district for which a separate poor rate can be made or a separate overseer appointed, either at the present time or after the constitution of the parish as such by virtue of this Act. Every such parish, it must be noted, is to have a parish meeting. In certain cases a parish meeting may exist for a part of a parish. See sections 18, 37, and 49. WHAT PARISHES WILL HAVE PARISH COUNCILS.-The obligation and the right to have a parish council are not so extensive. For this purpose rural parishes are divided by this sub-section into three classes, according to their population : (i.) Parishes which must have a parish council, viz.: parishes having a population of three hundred or upwards. (ii.) Parishes which may at their option have a parish council, viz.: parishes having a population of one hundred or upwards (but below three hundred). |