Note.

SECT. 56. rights distinct from the rest of the parish the county council may order that the consent of a parish meeting held for that part shall be required for any such acts of the parish council affecting those rights as may be specified in the order. Where a joint committee of members of the parish council and of representatives of the part of the parish has been appointed under the provision in the text it would seem that it will be unnecessary to obtain an order of the county council under section 37.

Sub-sect. (3).

Sub-sect. (4).

SECT. 57.

Joint committees.

Cases in which such a committee may usefully be appointed will arise where an adoptive Act has been adopted by a part of a parish. See sections 7, sub-section (7), and 53, sub-section (1), and notes, ante. As to the powers of a parish council in relation to recreation grounds, buildings, and parish property, see sections 6, sub-section (1), (c) (iii.), and 8, sub-section (1), (a) (b) (d), and notes, ante.

A committee appointed at the request of a parish meeting for a part of a parish under this sub-section will, of course, be a committee of the parish council and subject to the provisions of sub-sections (1) and (3).

(3.) With respect to committees of parish and district councils the provisions in the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect.

Part 4 of the First Schedule deals with the proceedings of committees of parish or district councils, but merely empowers the appointing council to frame regulations as to the quorum, proceedings, place of meeting, and area of authority of a committee, and subject to such regulations enables a committee to regulate its own quorum, proceedings, and place of meeting, and gives a second or casting vote to the chairman of the committee. See Schedule I., Part 4, post.

The rules applicable to committees of local authorities contained in Schedule I. of the Public Health Act, 1875, are repealed by this Act. See Schedule II., post.

(4.) This section shall not apply to the council of a borough.

COMMITTEES OF BOROUGH COUNCILS.-Section 200 of the Public Health Act, 1875 (set out in the note to sub-section (1), ante), still applies to the appointment of committees by councils of boroughs.

57. (1.) A parish or district council may concur with any other parish or district council or councils in appointing out of their respective bodies a joint committee for any purpose in respect of which they are jointly interested, and in conferring, with or without conditions or restrictions, on any such committee any powers which the

appointing council might exercise if the purpose related SECT. 57. exclusively to their own parish or district.

JOINT COMMITTEES OF PARISH AND DISTRICT COUNCILS.Under this sub-section joint committees may be appointed by two or more district councils, by two or more parish councils, and by any number of parish and district councils for any purpose in which the appointing councils are jointly interested. Such purposes are numerous and amongst many others which might be mentioned are the intercommunication of the sewers of adjoining districts which may be the subject of agreement between district councils (Public Health Act, 1875, s. 28); the supply of water by one district council to the council of an adjoining district (ib., section 61); and the protection of rights of way (ante, p. 138, section 26); the exercise by the council of a parish of any power which is exercisable outside that parish, such as the acquisition of a right of way (section 8, subsection (1), (g), ante, p. 52); the doing or contributing to the expense of doing any of the matters specified in section 8 (see section 8, sub-section (1), (k)); the adoption or rejection of plans for the sewerage or water supply of a parish which are under the consideration of a district council (see section 16, sub-section (3), and note, ante, p. 108). It will be noticed that very large powers may be conferred upon a joint committee by the appointing councils under the present clause.

(2.) Provided that a council shall not delegate to any Sub-sect. (2). such committee any power to borrow money or make any

rate.

It will be observed that the power to make contracts is not reserved, as it is in the case of a committee authorised by a district council to exercise their powers under the Public Health or Highway Acts (section 56, sub-section (1) ).

(3.) A joint committee appointed under this section Sub-sect. (3). shall not hold office beyond the expiration of fourteen

days after the next annual meeting of any of the councils who appointed it.

As to the annual meetings of parish and district councils, see note to section 56, sub-section (1), ante.

The period of fourteen days mentioned in the text is, it is presumed, considered sufficient to provide against a joint committee holding office after the annual meeting of any of the councils who appointed it.

(4.) The costs of a joint committee under this section Sub-sect. (4). shall be defrayed by the councils by whom it is appointed

in such proportions as they may agree upon, or as

SECT. 57. may be determined in case of difference by the county council.

Sub-sect. (5).

SECT. 58. Audit of accounts of district and parish councils and inspection.

Sub-sect. (2).

(5.) Where a parish council can under this Act be required to appoint a committee consisting partly of members of the council and partly of other persons, that requirement may also be made in the case of a joint committee, and shall be duly complied with by the parish councils concerned at the time of the appointment of such committee.

The reference is to section 56, sub-section (2), ante.

Where a parish council is about to join in appointing a joint committee with power to perform duties in relation to a part of the parish having a defined boundary and separate interests, the council will be bound, upon the request of a parish meeting held for the part, to appoint a representative or representatives of that part to sit upon the joint committee.

58. (1.) The accounts of the receipts and payments of parish and district councils, and of parish meetings for parishes not having parish councils, and their committees and officers, shall be made up yearly to the thirty-first day of March, or in the case of accounts which are required to be audited half-yearly, then half-yearly to the thirtieth day of September and the thirty-first day of March in each year, and in such form as the Local Government Board prescribe.

MAKING UP ACCOUNTS.-The accounts in a borough are audited half yearly under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, s. 26, and this applies to the accounts of the corporation as urban sanitary authority. See the Public Health Act, 1875, s. 246.

The accounts of an urban authority other than the council of a borough are yearly audited under the Public Health Act, 1875, s. 246. The accounts of a board of guardians are audited half yearly (General Order for Accounts, 14th January, 1867), and this is applied to the guardians in their capacity as rural sanitary authority (Public Health Act, 1875, s. 248). No alteration is made by this Act in this respect. See the next sub-section.

(2.) The said accounts shall, except in the case of accounts audited by the auditors of a borough (but inclusive of the accounts of a joint committee appointed by a

borough council with another council not being a borough SECT. 58. council), be audited by a district auditor, and the enactments relating to audit by district auditors of accounts of urban sanitary authorities and their officers, and to all matters incidental thereto and consequential thereon, shall apply accordingly, except that in the case of the accounts of rural district councils, their committees and officers, the audit shall be half-yearly instead of yearly.

DISTRICT AUDITORS.-The principal enactments here incorporated are those contained in the Public Health Act, 1875, ss. 247 and 250, as amended by the District Auditors Act, 1879, section 5 of which provides that the Local Government Board may make the necessary regulations as to the audit of accounts. The sections of the Act of 1875 thus incorporated are as follows:

"247. Where an urban authority are not the council of a borough, the following regulations with respect to audit shall be observed; (namely,)

"(1.) The accounts of the receipts and expenditure under this Act of such authority shall be audited and examined once in every year, as soon as can be after the twenty-fifth day of March, by the auditor of accounts relating to the relief of the poor for the union.

"(3.) Before each audit such authority shall, after receiving from the auditor the requisite appointment, give at least fourteen days' notice of the time and place at which the same will be made, and of the deposit of accounts required by this section, by advertisement in some one or more of the local newspapers circulating in the district; and the production of the newspaper containing such notice shall be deemed to be sufficient proof of such notice on any proceeding whatsoever.

"(4.) A copy of the accounts duly made up and balanced, together with all rate books, account books, deeds, contracts, accounts. vouchers, and receipts, mentioned or referred to in such accounts, shall be deposited in the office of such authority, and be open, during office hours thereat, to the inspection of all persons interested for seven clear days before the audit, and all such persons shall be at liberty to take copies of or extracts from the same, without fee or reward; and any officer of such authority duly appointed in that behalf neglecting to make up such accounts and books or altering such accounts and books, or allowing them to be altered when so made up, or refusing to allow inspection thereof, shall be liable to a penalty not exeeeding five pounds.

SECT. 58.
Note.

"(5.) For the purpose of any audit under this Act, every auditor may, by summons in writing, require the production before him of all books, deeds, contracts, accounts, vouchers, receipts, and other documents and papers which he may deem necessary, and may require any person holding or accountable for any such books, deeds, contracts, accounts, vouchers, receipts, documents, or papers to appear before him at any such audit or any adjournment thereof, and to make and sign a declaration as to the correctness of the same; and if any such person neglects or refuses so to do, or to produce any such books, deeds, contracts, accounts, vouchers, receipts, documents, or papers, or to make or sign such declaration, he shall incur for every neglect or refusal a penalty not exceeding forty shillings; and if he falsely or corruptly makes or signs any such declaration, knowing the same to be untrue in any material particular, he shall be liable to the penalties inflicted on persons guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury.

"(6.) Any ratepayer or owner of property in the district may be present at the audit, and may make any objection to such accounts before the auditor; and such ratepayers and owners shall have the same right of appeal against allowances by an auditor as they have by law against disallowances.

"(7.) Any auditor acting in pursuance of this section shall disallow every item of account contrary to law, and surcharge the same on the person making or authorising the making of the illegal payment, and shall charge against any person accounting the amount of any deficiency or loss incurred by the negligence or misconduct of that person, or of any sum which ought to have been but is not brought into account by that person, and shall in every such case certify the amount due from such person, and on application by any party aggrieved shall state in writing the reasons for his decision in respect of such disallow. ance or surcharge, and also of any allowance which he may have made.

"(8.) Any person aggrieved by disallowance made may apply to the Court of Queen's Bench for a writ of certiorari to remove the disallowance into the said court, in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as are provided in the case of disallowances by auditors under the laws for the time being in force with regard to the relief of the poor; and the said court shall have the same powers with respect to allowances, disallowances, and surcharges under this Act as it has with respect to disallowances or allowances by the said auditors; or in lieu of such application any person so aggrieved may appeal to the Local Government Board, which board shall have the same powers in the case of the appeal as it possesses in the case of appeals against allowances, disallowances, and surcharges by the said poor law auditors.