an applicant, but that duty is transferred by the text to district councils, urban and rural, from the appointed day. An appeals lies from a refusal of a license to quarter sessions. (b.) The grant of pawnbrokers' certificates; PAWNBROKERS' CERTIFICATES.-These have been granted by justices in petty sessions under the Pawnbrokers Act, 1872 (35 & 36 Vict, c. 93), upon notice given in accordance with section 42 of that Act, and cannot be refused except on the ground that the applicant has failed to give satisfactory evidence of good character, or that his shop or any adjacent property of his is frequented by thieves or persons of bad character, or that he has failed to comply with the requirements of the Act as to notice (section 43). This duty is also transferred to district councils. An appeal from a refusal to grant a certificate lies to quarter sessions. (c.) The licensing of dealers in game; GAME DEALERS' LICENSES.-A game dealer's license has been granted by justices in special sessions under 1 & 2 Will, 4, c, 32, s. 18, and upon that license the person who obtains it is enabled to take out the excise license under 23 & 24 Vict. c. 90. The duty of the justices in special sessions as to the granting of these licenses is transferred by this section to the district councils. There is no appeal against the refusal of this license. (d.) The grant of licenses for passage brokers and emigrant runners; PASSAGE BROKERS AND EMIGRANT RUNNERS.-A passage broker is a person who sells or lets, or is concerned in the sale or letting of passages in any ship proceeding from the United Kingdom to any place out of Europe, and not being within the Mediterranean Sea. He must obtain a license which has been granted by the justices in petty sessions. An emigrant runner is a person other than a licensed passage broker or his bonâ fide salaried clerk who, within any port or place of shipping, or within five miles of the outer boundaries thereof, for hire or reward, or the expectancy thereof, shall, directly or indirectly, conduct, solicit, influence, or recommend any intending emigrant to or on behalf of any passage broker, owner, charterer, or master of a ship, lodging-house, hotel, or shopkeeper, money lender, or other dealer or chapman, for any purpose connected with the preparation or arrangements for a passage, or shall give or pretend to give to such intending emigrant assistance in any way relating to emigration. An emigrant runner also requires a license hitherto granted by justices in petty sessions which he obtains only upon the recommendation of an emigrant officer or of a chief constable or other head of police of the district or place. The Acts relating to passage brokers and emigrant runners are 18 & 19 Vict. SECT. 27. Note. SECT. 27. c. 119, ss. 3, 66-71, 75-81, and 35 & 36 Vict. c. 73, s. 5. The duty of the justices in granting these certificates is transferred by this section to the district council. Note. Sub-sect. (2). (e.) The abolition of fairs and alteration of days for holding fairs; FAIRS.-The Fairs Act, 1871 (34 Vict. c. 12), provides that upon representation duly made to him by the magistrates of any petty sessional districts within which any fair is held, or by the owner of any fair, that it would be for the convenience and advantage of the public that any such fair shall be abolished, the Home Secretary may, with the consent of the owner of the fair, order its abolition. The Fairs Act, 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. 37), enables the Home Secretary, upon the like representation, to order that any fair shall be held upon other days than those on which it used to be held. The representations which have hitherto been made by justices under these Acts will for the future be made by the district councils. Under both Acts advertisements of the representation and of the order (if any) of the Home Secretary must be published. (f) The execution as the local authority of the Acts relating to petroleum and infant life protection; when arising within a county district, shall be transferred to the district council of the district. PETROLEUM ACTS.-These Acts are under 34 & 35 Vict. c. 105; 42 & 43 Vict. c. 47; and 44 & 45 Vict. c. 67. In urban districts, the local authority for the execution of these Acts has hitherto been the corporation, the local board, or improvement commissioners, as the case may be, and in rural districts the justices in petty sessions. The local authority in every district will for the future be the district council. THE INFANT LIFE PROTECTION ACT is the 35 & 36 Vict. c. 38. It was passed for the purpose of regulating baby-farming, and it requires local authorities to keep a register of all persons authorised to receive children under the age of one year for the purpose of nursing or maintaining such children apart from their parents. The local authorities under this Act are, in boroughs, the councils, and, in counties, the justices in petty sessions, but will in future be the district councils in all cases. (2.) As from the appointed day, the powers, duties, and liabilities of quarter sessions in relation to the licensing of knackers' yards within a county district shall be transferred to the district council of the district. The term "county district" includes every urban and rural district whether a borough or not, ante, p. 126, section 21, sub-section (3). KNACKERS' YARDS.-The licenses above referred to are those granted by quarter sessions under 26 Geo. 3, c. 71, ss. 1, 2, 13. That section Note. provides that no person shall keep or use any house or place for the SECT. 27. purpose of killing any horses or other cattle which are not killed for butcher's meat without taking out a license for that purpose at the quarter sessions. A license under the Act is granted upon certificate under the hands and seals of the minister and churchwardens or overseers, or of the minister and two householders of the parish wherein the applicant for the license may dwell, that he is fit and proper to be trusted with the management or carrying on of the business. The 26 Geo. 3, c. 71, is amended by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 87, which provides that a license under the former Act shall continue for a year only, and may under certain circumstances be cancelled by quarter sessions. A license under the above Act is quite distinct from the slaughterhouse license granted by urban authorities under the Public Health Act, 1875, s. 169. In some cases both licenses have been necessary, but the necessity for this will practically disappear where both licenses have to be granted by the same body, that is, by the district council. (3.) All fees payable in respect of the powers, duties, Sub-sect. (3). and liabilities transferred by this section shall be payable to the district council. district 28. The expenses incurred by the council of an urban SECT. 28. district in the execution of the additional powers con- Expenses ferred on the council by this Act shall, subject to the of urban provisions of this Act, be defrayed in a borough out of council. the borough fund or rate, and in any other case out of the district fund and general district rate or other fund applicable towards defraying the expenses of the execution of the Public Health Act, 1875. EXPENSES OF URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL.-Section 209 of the Public Health Act, 1875, provides that "in the district of every urban authority whose expenses under this Act are directed to be defrayed out of the district fund and general district rate, there shall be continued or established, a fund called the district fund;" a separate account is to be kept of all moneys carried under the Act to the account of that fund, "and such moneys shall be applied by the urban authority in defraying such of the expenses chargeable thereon, under this Act as they may think proper." And section 210 provides that "for the purpose of defraying any expenses chargeable on the district fund which that fund is insufficient to meet, the urban authority shall from time to time, as occasion may require, make by writing under their common seal, and levy in addition to any other rate leviable by them under this Act, a rate or rates to be called ' general district rates.” ' It should be mentioned that the expenses of an urban authority under the Public Health Act, 1875, are payable out of their general district rate, except in the cases mentioned in section 207 of the same Act. L 38 & 39 Vict. c. 55. SECT. 29. Expenses of rural district council. 29. The expenses incurred by the council of a rural district shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be defrayed in manner directed by the Public Health Act, 1875, with respect to expenses incurred in the execution of that Act by a rural sanitary authority, and the provisions of the Public Health Acts with respect to those expenses shall apply accordingly. Provided as follows: (a.) Any highway expenses shall be defrayed as general expenses: EXPENSES OF RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL.-Provisions for the defraying of these expenses are contained in sections 229-232 of the Public Health Act, 1875. GENERAL AND SPECIAL EXPENSES.-Section 229 of the Public Health Act, 1875, provides as follows:-"The expenses incurred by a rural authority in the execution of this Act shall be divided into general expenses and special expenses. "General expenses (other than those chargeable on owners and occupiers under this Act) shall be the expenses of the establishment and officers of the rural authority, the expenses in relation to disinfection, the providing conveyance for infected persons, and all other expenses not determined by this Act or by order of the Local Government Board to be special expenses. "Special expenses shall be the expenses of the construction, maintenance, and cleansing of sewers in any contributory place within the district, the providing a supply of water to any such place, and maintaining any necessary works for that purpose, if and so far as the expenses of such supply and works are not defrayed out of water rates or rents under this Act, the charges and expenses arising out of or incidental to the possession of property transferred to the rural authority in trust for any contributory place, and all other expenses incurred or payable by the rural authority in or in respect of any contributory place within the district, and determined by order of the Local Government Board to be special expenses. "General expenses shall be payable out of a common fund to be raised out of the poor rate of the parishes in the district, according to the rateable value of each contributory place in manner in this Act mentioned. 'Special expenses shall be a separate charge on each contributory place. "The following areas situated in a rural district shall be contributory places for the purposes of this Act, that is to say :—(1) Every parish not having any part of its area within the limits of a special drainage district formed in pursuance of the Sanitary Acts or of this Act, or of Note. an urban district; and (2) Every such special drainage district as afore- SECT. 29. said; and (3) In the case of a parish wholly situated in a rural district, and part of which forms or is part of any such special drainage district as aforesaid, such portion of that parish as is not comprised within such special drainage district; and (4) In the case of a parish, a part of which is situated within an urban district, such portion of that parish as is not comprised within such urban district or within any such special drainage district as aforesaid." It may be mentioned here that a special drainage district may be formed under the Public Health Act, 1875, s. 277. It may consist of portions of several parishes, and the object of creating it is to throw upon its area the charges in connection with works of sewerage, water supply, or the like, which have been provided for its benefit as distinguished from the remaining area of the rural district. A contributory place may be a special drainage district, or a part of a parish excluded from such district. In the case of a parish partly within an urban district, the excluded portion is a separate contributory place. The manner in which the expenses are raised out of the several contributory places in the district is provided for by section 230 of the Public Health Act, 1875, which, so far as is now material, provides as follows:-"For the purpose of obtaining payment from the several contributory places within their district of the sums to be contributed by them, the rural authority shall issue their precept to the overseers of each such contributory place requiring such overseers to pay within a time limited by the precept the amount specified in such precept to the rural authority, or to some person appointed by them, care being taken to issue separate precepts in respect of contributions for general expenses and special expenses, or to make such expenses respectively separate items in any precept including both classes of expenses. "Where a contributory place is part of a parish as defined by this Act, the overseers of such parish shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be the overseers of such contributory place, and where any part of a contributory place is part of a parish the overseers of such parish shall for the like purposes be deemed to be the overseers of such part of such contributory place. "The overseers shall comply with the requisitions of such precept by charge, or the occupier of any land used as arable, meadow, or |