property situated within the rural district of a value sufficient to qualify them as elective guardians for the union, and the persons so nominated shall be entitled to act and vote as members of the rural authority, but not further or otherwise." This power will have to be exercised unless a temporary order is made in manner provided by the text. Where such order is made the provision as to separate accounts will have to be attended to.

It should be noticed that section 36, sub-section (1), provides for the county council dealing with every rural district which will have less than five elected councillors. In such a case, unless the county council for special reasons otherwise direct, the district is to be united to some neighbouring district or districts. If no order for uniting the district with a neighbouring district is made, and the county council direct, under section 36, that such union shall not be made, the provision in the text will become applicable.

SECT. 24.

Note.

(6.) The said provisions of section nine of the Public Sub-sect. (6). Health Act, 1875, shall apply to the district council of a rural district to which they apply at the passing of this Act.

RURAL DISTRICT WITH LESS THAN FIVE COUNCILLORS.-These provisions have been set out in the notes to the preceding sub-section.

It should be observed that section 9 of the Act of 1875 is of wider application than the provision in sub-section (5), which is limited to cases in which rural districts are divided by reason of their being in two counties. The case to which section 9 applies is one in which one or more urban districts have been created within a union, leaving only a small rural district outside.

(7.) Every district council for a rural district shall be Sub-sect. (7). a body corporate by the name of the district council with the addition of the name of the district, or if there is any doubt as to the latter name, of such name as the county council direct, and shall have perpetual succession and a common seal, and may hold land for the purposes of their powers and duties without licence in mortmain.

INCORPORATION OF RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL.-This provision may be compared with section 3, sub-section (8). It will be observed that the district council have a common seal, while a parish council have not.

Urban district councils are incorporated by section 7 of the Public Health Act, 1875.

The county council must give the rural district a name when the old district has been divided by or under this Act.

SECT. 24.

Note.

SECT. 25. Powers of

matters.

Hitherto there has been no need of this provision, for the board of guardians was already a corporate body, and by section 9 of the Public Health Act, 1875, the guardians were declared to be the same body as the rural sanitary authority.

25. (1.) As from the appointed day, there shall be transferred to the district council of every rural district district council all the powers, duties, and liabilities of the rural with respect sanitary authority in the district, and of any highway to sanitary and highway authority in the district, and highway boards shall cease to exist, and rural district councils shall be the successors of the rural sanitary authority and highway authority, and shall also have as respects highways all the powers, duties, and liabilities of an urban sanitary authority under sections one hundred and forty-four to one hun38 & 39 Vict. dred and forty-eight of the Public Health Act, 1875, and

c. 55,

those sections shall apply in the case of a rural district and of the council thereof in like manner as in the case of an urban district and an urban authority. Provided that the council of any county may by order postpone within their county or any part thereof the operation of this section, so far as it relates to highways, for a term not exceeding three years from the appointed day or such further period as the Local Government Board may on the application of such council allow.

POWERS TRANSFERRED TO RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL.— (1.) Powers, &c., of a rural sanitary authority. These arise chiefly under the Public Health Act, 1875, and the Acts amending that Act; also under other Acts which impose duties and confer powers upon a rural sanitary authority as such. All these Acts will be found in "Lumley's Public Health."

(2.) Powers of a highway authority. This must be read subject to the proviso in the text under which the transfer of highway powers may be postponed. But whether the provisions as to highway powers come into operation at once or are postponed this is one of the most important provisions in the Act, for it practically abolishes highway authorities as such. At the present time, there are four classes of highway authorities in the country :-(1.) The urban authority of an urban district are the highway authority for that district. This applies to boroughs, improvement Act districts, and local board districts. (2.) In highway parishes, that is to say, parishes not comprised in an urban district or a highway board district, the highway authority is the surveyor of highways, who is appointed annually by the vestry under the Highway Act, 1835. (3.) In highway districts, that is to say, in districts comprising a number of parishes grouped together for the purpose of highway

Note.

administration under the Highway Acts, 1862 and 1864, the highway SECT. 25. authority is the highway board. Its members consist of waywardens elected by the vestries of the several parishes, townships, or places comprised within the district. (4.) Under the Act of 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 77), in some cases where the rural sanitary district is coincident with the highway district the rural authority may be constituted the highway board and exercise within the district all the powers of the highway board. The effect of the provision in the text is to abolish the last three classes of highway authorities and to make the rural district council the highway authority for the rural district. The effect of the application of sections 144 to 148 of the Public Health Act, 1875, is as follows:- The rural district council will have all the powers, duties, and liabilities of surveyors of highways, and will further have all the powers which are given by the Highway Acts to the inhabitants in vestry assembled of any parish within that district. The inhabitants of the rural district are not to be liable for rates for roads without their district. The rural district council may agree with any person for the making of new public roads, and they are to have powers to agree for the making of public bridges under or over railways or canals. They are also to have power to enter into agreements with any persons liable to repair any road with the view to the taking over by them of the maintenance, repair, cleansing, or watering of such street or road.

If an order is made postponing the operation of the section so far as it relates to highways, provision will have to be made for the election of highway boards in the interval. See section 84, sub-section (4), post.

(2.) Where a highway repairable ratione tenuræ Sub-sect. (2). appears on the report of a competent surveyor not to be in proper repair, and the person liable to repair the same fails when requested so to do by the district council to place it in proper repair, the district council may place the highway in proper repair, and recover from the person liable to repair the highway the necessary expenses of so doing.

HIGHWAY REPAIRABLE RATIONE TENURÆ. The liability to repair a highway ratione tenure exists where an individual or corporation is bound to repair a highway by reason of a condition attached to his tenure of certain lands. The extent of that liability has been under discussion in some recent cases, such as Reg. v. Barker, 25 Q. B. D. 213; 59 L. J. M. C. 105; 62 L. T. (N.S.) 578; 54 J. P. 615. The text affords a simple remedy for enforcing the liability. There must be a report of a competent surveyor (not necessarily the surveyor of the district council), and there must be a failure on the part of the person liable to put the highway into proper repair. The person liable is probably the owner of the land, though, hitherto, it has been necessary to indict the occupier. See Reg. v. Barker, supra.

The expenses appear to be recoverable by action only.

SECT. 25.

Sub-sect. (3).

(3.) Where a highway authority receives any contribution from the county council towards the cost of any highway under section eleven, sub-section (10), of the 51 & 52 Vict. Local Government Act, 1888, such contribution may be made, subject to any such conditions for the proper maintenance and repair of such highways, as may be agreed on between the county council and the highway authority.

c. 41.

Sub-sect. (4).

Sub-sect. (5).

CONTRIBUTIONS OF COUNTY COUNCILS.-The Local Government Act, 1888, s. 11, sub-section (10), provides that the county council may, if they think fit, contribute towards the cost of the maintenance, repair, enlargement, and improvement of any public highway or public footpath in the county, though the same is not a main road. The text amends this provision by enabling the county council to impose terms and conditions upon making such contributions.

(4.) Where the council of a rural district becomes the highway authority for that district, any excluded part of a parish under section two hundred and sixteen of the Public Health Act, 1875, which is situate in that district, shall cease to be part of any urban district for the purpose of highways, but until the council become the highway authority such excluded part of a parish shall continue subject to the said section.

:-Where

The Public Health Act, 1875, s. 216, provides as follows:part of a parish is included in an urban district, and the excluded part was, before the constitution of that district, liable to contribute to the highway rates for such parish, such excluded part shall (unless, in the case of an urban district constituted before the passing of this Act (11th August, 1875) a resolution deciding that such excluded part should be formed into a separate highway district has been passed in pursuance of the Local Government Act, 1858, Amendment Act, 1861), or unless such excluded part has been included in a highway district, under the Highway Acts, for all purposes connected with the repairs of highways and the payment of highway rates, be considered to be and treated as forming part of such district. This provision will now cease to operate when the rural district which includes the "excluded part" becomes the highway authority by virtue of this Act.

(5.) Rural district councils shall also have such powers, duties, and liabilities of urban sanitary authorities under the Public Health Acts or any other Act, and such provisions of any of those Acts relating to urban districts

shall apply to rural districts, as the Local Government SECT. 25. Board by general order direct.

See the note to the next sub-section.

It is to be observed that the text enables the Local Government Board to confer on rural authorities generally powers which are at present exercisable only by urban authorities, and that not merely under the Public Health Act but under any other Act. Therefore, the Local Government Board might by general order extend to rural authorities the provisions of such Acts as the Technical Instruction Acts which at present are administered only by county councils and urban authorities. (6.) The power to make such general orders shall be Sub-sect. (6). in addition to and not in substitution for the powers conferred on the Board by section two hundred and seventysix of the Public Health Act, 1875, or by any enactment applying that section; and every order made by the Local Government Board under this section shall be forthwith laid before Parliament.

POWER TO CONFER URBAN POWERS UPON RURAL DISTRICT COUNCILS.-Under section 276 of the Public Health Act, 1875, the Local Government Board may confer upon any rural authority urban powers, that is to say, powers which the Public Health Act itself confers only upon urban authorities. This power is frequently exercised for the purpose of enabling a rural authority to make up private streets under section 150 of the Public Health Act, 1875, and to give powers with reference to scavenging and cleansing. The jurisdiction of the Local Government Board in these respects is not taken away, but that board may, in addition, by general order, that is to say, by an order applicable to all rural authorities, confer upon the rural district councils any urban powers. At the present time, orders under section 276 of the Public Health Act, 1875, are special, that is to say, they are addressed to a particular rural authority, having regard to the circumstances of that authority.

The provisions as to laying the orders before Parliament will only apply to the general orders made under the preceding sub-section.

Section 5 of the Public Health Act, 1890, may be referred to as an example of an enactment applying section 276 of the Public Health Act, 1875.

(7.) The powers conferred on the Local Government Sub-sect. (7). Board by the said section two hundred and seventy-six, or by any enactment applying that section, may be exercised on the application of a county council, or with respect to any parish or part of a parish on the application of the parish council of that parish.

Under section 276 of the Public Health Act, 1875, the application