CIRCULAR. elections under the Act of members of the local board and of the vestries respectively, including any appointment of returning officers required by rules made by the Board under the Act. (Section 79 (1) and (10).) 19th March, 1894. After the vestrymen first elected under the Act come into office, no person is ex officio to be chairman of any of the vestries under the Metropolis Management Acts (section 31 (1)), but each of the vestries, except those electing district boards, and each of the district boards and the local board of Woolwich must, at their first meeting after the annual election of members, elect a chairman for the year, and the chairman so elected will, unless a woman or personally disqualified by any Act, be by virtue of his office a justice of the peace for the county of London, but before acting as such justice he must, if he has not already done so, take the oaths required by law to be taken by a justice of the peace, other than the oath respecting the qualification by estate. (Sections 22 and 31 (2).) The provisions of section 41 of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, enabling a district board to elect a chairman of the meeting, will apply only in the case of the absence of the chairman of the district board elected under the new Act. (Section 31 (2).) Nothing in any local and personal Act is to prevent any vestry in the county of London from holding its meeting at such time as may be directed by the vestry. (Section 31 (3).) Certain provisions of the Metropolis Management Acts which are inconsistent with, or are superseded by the provisions above referred to, are repealed by section 89 and the Second Schedule to the new Act. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, The Clerk to the Vestry or District Board or to the Local Board of Woolwich. HUGH OWEN, Secretary. County Councils, except the Council for the Scilly Local Government Board, Whitehall, S.W., SIR, I am directed by the Local Government Board to draw the attention of the County Council to certain provisions of the Local Government Act, 1894, and especially to those under which powers and duties will devolve on the County Council for the purpose of bringing the Act into operation within the county. Every parish in a rural sanitary district, and in the case of a parish which is partly within a rural sanitary district, the part within such district will be for the purposes of the Act a rural parish. For every rural parish there will be a parish meeting, and for every rural parish which, according to the census of 1891, has a population of 300 or upwards, there will be a parish council, which will be elected by the parliamentary and county electors registered in the portions of the parliamentary and county registers relating to the parish. The parish meeting will consist of these persons who are in the Act described as the parochial electors. It is not necessary for the present purpose to set out all the powers which will be possessed by a parish council, but in connection with the duties that will devolve on the county council, it may be noticed that most of the powers of the vestry, in other than ecclesiastical affairs, will be transferred to the parish council, and that where the Lighting and Watching Act, 1833, the Baths and Washhouses Acts, 1846 to 1882, the Burial Acts, 1852 to 1885, the Public Improvements Act, 1860, and the Public Libraries Act, 1892, or any of these Acts (which are referred to as the adoptive Acts), have been put in force in a rural parish before the parish council come into office, that council will be the authority for executing the Acts, if they are in force in the whole of the parish. Section 53 of the Act provides means whereby the parish council may become such authority in a case where the Acts are in force in part of the parish only. The Act makes important alterations in the qualification, mode of election and retirement of guardians, and confers on county councils new powers in relation to certain matters connected CIRCULAR. 24th March, 1894. CIRCULAR. with this subject, which will be explained in a later part of this circular. 24th March, 1894. Urban sanitary authorities will as from the appointed day be called urban district councils, and their districts will be called urban districts, but the style or title of a town council will not be altered. The mode of election of urban district councillors will, except in a borough, differ from that at present in force, and certain powers are given to county councils in connection with the retirement of urban district councillors. These will be referred to hereafter. For every existing rural sanitary district wholly comprised in one county there will be a rural district council, whose district will be called a rural district, and where a rural sanitary district is situate in more than one county, such portion of it as is situate in each county will, save as otherwise provided in pursuance of the Act, or of any other Act, be as from the appointed day a rural district. District councillors will be elected for every parish or other area for the election of guardians in a rural district. They will be elected by the parochial electors, and will be the representatives of that parish or area on the board of guardians, and guardians as such will not be elected for that parish or area. The provisions of the Act with respect to the qualification, election, term of office, and retirement of guardians will apply to rural district councillors. Hence the powers of the county council in relation to these matters, so far as guardians are concerned, will apply in the case of rural district councillors also. Rural district councils will be substituted for rural sanitary authorities, and will have all the powers and duties of those authorities. They will have certain new powers and duties under the Act, but except in connection with highways, it is unnecessary to draw the attention of the county council to any of these powers or duties. The provisions as to highways are dealt with in a later part of this circular. The provisions which should first receive the attention of the county council are those contained in Part III. of the Act, which relate to areas and boundaries. The Act contemplates that every parish and, as a general rule, every rural district shall be wholly within one administrative county, and that, also as a general rule, every parish shall be wholly within one rural or urban district. With a view to secure this result, and to provide for the settling of incidental administrative arrangements consequent on the alterations of areas which are made by the Act itself, very important duties have been imposed on county councils. Section 83 makes it the duty of every county council to exercise CIRCULAR. all such of their powers as may be requisite for bringing the Act into full operation within their county as soon as may be after the passing of the Act. The first elections under the Act are to be held on the 8th November next, or such later date or dates in the present year as the Board may fix, and the persons elected are to come into office on the second Thursday next after their election, or such other day not more than seven days earlier or later as may be fixed by or in pursuance of rules made by the Board under the Act in relation to their election. (Section 84.) It is important that alterations which may affect the preparation of the lists of voters should be made sufficiently early to enable the lists to be properly prepared, and it is consequently provided by sub-section (3) of section 84 that every division into wards or alteration of the boundaries of any parish or union or district which is to affect the first election shall, if parishes or parts for which the registers of parochial electors will be made are affected, be made, so far as practicable, before the 1st of July next. Many of the provisions of the Act referred to in this circular are to take effect from the "appointed day." Subject as mentioned in the Act, this day, for the purpose of elections, is defined as the day or respective days fixed for the first elections under the Act, or such prior day as may be necessary for the purposes of giving notices or doing other acts preliminary to such elections, and for the purpose of the powers, duties, and liabilities of councils or other bodies elected under the Act, or other matters not specifically mentioned, it will be the day on which the members first elected come into office. The powers and duties of county councils, so far as they may have to be exercised either before or in connection with the first elections, may be classified under the following heads :-I.-Areas and Boundaries. II. Parish Councils. III.-Guardians and District Councillors. IV.-Highways. V. -Miscellaneous. 24th March, 1894. I.-AREAS AND BOUNDARIES. Sub-section (1) of section 36 provides as follows : For the purpose of carrying this Act into effect in the case of (a.) Every parish and rural sanitary district which at the passing of this Act is situate partly within and partly without an administrative county; and CIRCULAR. 24th March, 1894. (b.) Every parish which at the passing of this Act is situate partly within and partly without a sanitary district; and (c.) Every rural parish containing a population of less than 200 ; and (d.) Every rural sanitary district which at the passing of this Act has less than five elective guardians capable of acting and voting as members of the rural sanitary authority of the district; and (e.) Every rural parish which is co-extensive with a rural sanitary district; every county council shall forthwith take into consideration every such case within their county; and whether any proposal has or has not been made as mentioned in section 57 of the Local Government Act, 1888, shall as soon as practicable, in accordance with that section, cause inquiries to be made and notices given, and make such orders, if any, as they deem most suitable for carrying into effect the present Act in accordance with the following provisions, namely :— (i.) The whole of each parish, and, unless the county council for special reasons otherwise direct, the whole of each rural district shall be within the same administrative county; (ii.) The whole of each parish shall, unless the county council for special reasons otherwise direct, be within the same county district; and (iii.) Every rural district which will have less than five elected councillors shall, unless for special reasons the county council otherwise direct, be united to some neighbouring district or districts. By sub-section (11) of section 36 it is provided that, where at the passing of the Act a rural sanitary district or parish is situate in more than one county, a joint committee of the councils of the several counties comprising the district or parish shall act under the section. The appointment by each county council of representatives on the joint committee is to be made within two months after request from any other of the councils interested. If any of the councils fail to appoint members of the committee within that period, the members actually appointed are to act. Any question relating to the constitution or procedure of the joint committee, as to which the councils concerned are unable to agree, is to be determined by the Board. The first case mentioned in section 36 is that of a parish in |