10-(4.) Where any of the adoptive Acts, or any local or other Act, does not extend to the whole borough, any rate required to meet the expenses incurred under the Act shall, subject to the provisions of any scheme under this Act, be levied together with, and as an additional item of, the general rate over the area to which the Act extends.

Adoptive and other Acts not extending to whole Borough.-See sect. 16 (1) (d), Lon. G. A., post, and sect. 4 (2), ante.

As to the adoption of any adoptive Act by a council for the rest of their borough, see sect. 4 (4), ante.

Special Rates. For a list of special rates made in parishes in the county of London, see L. C. C. Return of "Rates made in 1898-99," No. 417, pp. 8, 9; remark also the footnotes to the tables at pp. 4 to 7.

Section 11.

OVERSEERS AND COLLECTION OF RATES.

11. Provisions as to overseers and collection of rates.]—(1.) After the appointed day the council of each borough shall be the overseers of every parish within their borough, and shall appoint such officers as may be required to assist in the transaction of the business, and shall defray the expenses of and incidental to the performance of the duties, of overseers. Provided that the town clerk of each borough shall have the powers and duties and be subject to the liabilities of overseers with respect to the preparation of lists of voters and of jury lists in the borough, and any document required to be signed by overseers may be signed by the town clerk.

Overseers of the Poor.-The persons and bodies who were, at the passing of this Act, overseers of the poor in the metropolis were variously,—overseers; the vestry; governors and directors of the poor; guardians of the poor; overseers, governors and directors of the poor; trustees of the poor; local guardians of the poor; churchwardens, overseers of the poor and trustees; rector, churchwardens and overseers of the poor and vestrymen; local board of health; under treasurer; and steward.

Duties of Overseers.-The more important of the duties devolving upon "the overseers," which will become part of the powers and duties of the borough councils, comprise :

Assessment and rating; Rate collection.—It may be stated in general terms that the law as to the valuation of property for the purposes of rating is for the most part contained in the Union Assessment Acts, 1862 to 1880. These Acts are in force in their entirety throughout England and Wales, with the exception of the administrative county of London and ten other places. Parts of them are in force in the administrative county of London, but the general law differs from that in the rest of the country to the extent to which it is modified by the Valuation (Metropolis) Acts.

The authority to tax or rate persons for the relief of the poor springs

from sect. 1 of the Poor Relief Act, 1601 (43 Eliz. c. 2), and the rule for ascertaining the value of the hereditaments assessable to the rate is (for London) laid down by sect. 4 of the Valuation Act, 1869. By this Act the term "hereditament means "any lands, tenements, hereditaments, and property which are liable to any rate or tax in respect of which the valuation list is by the Act made conclusive;" the term " 'gross value" means "the annual rent which a tenant might reasonably be expected, taking one year with another, to pay for an hereditament, if the tenant undertook to pay all usual tenant's rates and taxes and tithe commutation rentcharge, if any, and if the landlord undertook to bear the cost of the repairs and insurance and the other expenses, if any, necessary to maintain the hereditament in a state to command that rent"; and the term "rateable value "the gross value after deducting therefrom the probable annual average cost of the repairs, insurance, and other expenses as aforesaid": 32 & 33 Vict. c. 67, s. 4.

means

The whole body of the law of assessment may be said to have arisen from the judicial interpretation of these terms with respect to the varying circumstances of every description of assessable property.

The practical mode of ascertaining the rateable value of hereditaments for the purpose of the poor rate is for the most part determined by the machinery which the Union Assessment Acts and the Valuation (Metropolis) Acts set up.

For further information on this subject reference should be made to Mayer's "Law of Rating," Penfold's "Law of Rating," and Glen and Macmorran's "Poor Law Statutes."

Beerhouses and other licensed premises.-Under the Wine and Beerhouse Acts, 1869 and 1870 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 27, s. 7, 33 & 34 Vict. c. 29, s. 4), every person intending to apply to the justices for a certificate is required, twenty-one days at least before he applies, to give notice in writing of his intention to one of the overseers of the parish in which the house or shop in respect of which his application is to be made is situate, and to the superintendent of police of the district. Under sect. 40 of the Licensing Act, 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. 94), notice of an intended transfer of a licence has similarly to be given fourteen days prior to the special sessions appointed by the justices for granting such transfers. These notices will, it is assumed, be addressed after the "appointed day" to the borough council concerned or their town clerk. The requirement that such notices shall be given seems to imply that the borough councils will have a locus standi at the hearing of the applications before justices.

Burial of drowned persons, under the Burial of Drowned Persons Acts, 1808 and 1886 (48 Geo. III. c. 75, and 49 & 50 Vict. c. 20). Under sect. 1 of the principal Act, the duty was cast, under penalty (sect. 7), on the churchwardens and overseers of the parish where any dead human body had been cast on the sea shore, to remove within twelve hours and to inter the same in a decent manner in the parish churchyard. The Act of 1886 extended this to bodies cast on shore from any tidal or navigable waters, and to bodies found floating or sunken in any such waters and brought on to the bank or shore thereof. Notice has to be given to a police constable. Persons giving notice to the churchwardens, &c. of the finding of any such body are entitled to a reward not exceeding five shillings. Expenses incurred under the Acts are reimbursable by the county council: see sect. 6 of 1808 Act, and Reg. v. Kent (Treasurer), 22 Q. B. D. 603; 58 L. J. M. C. 71.

Charities.-Overseers as such are sometimes trustees of parochial charities. The L. G. B. have not hitherto, when making orders under sect. 33 of the L. G. A., 1894, conferred upon vestries the power to appoint vestrymen trustees in place of overseer trustees given to parish councils by sub-sect. 2 of sect. 14 of that Act. But now see sect. 23 (4) of this Act, p. 168, post.

Disorderly houses, gaming houses, &c.-For the encouragement of the prosecution of these common nuisances the Disorderly Houses Acts, 1751 and 1818 (25 Geo. II. c. 36, ss. 5, 6 and 7, and 58 Geo. III. c. 70, s. 7), were passed. By these Acts, upon two ratepayers (i.e., two inhabitants of a parish "paying scot and bearing lot therein ") giving notice in writing "to any constable (or other peace officer of the like nature where there is no constable) of such parish," of the existence of any disorderly house, the constable, &c. and the two inhabitants must go before a justice and enter into a recognizance to prosecute. Whereupon such constable or other peace officer shall be allowed all the reasonable expenses of such prosecution, to be paid by the overseers out of the poor rate. And upon conviction the overseers shall forthwith pay 107. to each of the two inhabitants. Under the Act of 1818, a copy of the notice to be given to the constable under the former Act was also to be given to the overseers, who might themselves enter into recognizances to prosecute, thereby, apparently, affording an opportunity to the overseers to save the cost of the constable's prosecution. The proceedings under these Acts were by indictment, but they are equally applicable to proceedings under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 69, s. 13 (2)), which enables summary proceedings to be taken against

brothel-keepers, and provides (sect. 13) that the Acts of Geo. II. and Geo. III. shall be deemed to apply to prosecutions under that Act. Upon this it has been decided that it is optional either to comply with the preliminaries set forth in the 25 Geo. II. c. 36, and 38 Geo. III. c. 70, so as to secure a reward, or to omit those preliminaries and prove the case in the ordinary way under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, dispensing with such rewards: Kerwin v. Hines, 50 J. P. 230. There are, therefore, three courses open to the overseers. They may proceed by indictment under the old statutes, or they may proceed summarily under the Act of 1885 after having taken the preliminary steps under the old statutes, and in either of these cases a reward is paid, or they may proceed summarily under the Act of 1885 independently of the old statutes, and in this case a reward is dispensed with Reg. v. Newton and others, (1892) 1 Q. B. 648.

It is an essential part of the procedure that notice should be given to a constable or other peace officer of the parish. An inspector of metropolitan police is not a parish constable within the meaning of the Acts: Garland v. Ahrbeck, 5 T. L. R. 91. It is difficult, therefore, to see how the prescribed proceedings can be taken in a parish for which there is no parish constable. If the two inhabitants themselves prosecute, they are not entitled to the rewards, and the overseers cannot pay them: Clarke v. Rice, 1 B. & Ald. 694. There is no provision authorising overseers of their own motion to expend money in watching suspected houses with a view to a prosecution.

In connection with this subject the provisions of the Vagrancy Act, 1898, must be borne in mind: 61 & 62 Vict. c. 39.

Lunatics. The overseers have also duties imposed upon them by the recent Lunacy Acts, 1890 and 1891 (53 Vict. c. 5, and 54 & 55 Vict. c. 65), with regard to lunatics or alleged lunatics. They are required to apprehend any person (whether pauper or not) wandering at large and deemed to be a lunatic, and take him, or cause him to be taken, before a justice (1890 Act, ss. 15 and 16), and if so directed, see that he is conveyed to a proper institution (ib., ss. 13 and 16; 1891 Act, s. 2(1)). Under sect. 20 of the Act of 1890, if they are satisfied that it is necessary for the public safety, or the welfare of any alleged lunatic, that he should be placed under care and control, they may remove him to the workhouse of the union in which he is. They must also give notice to a justice, being a "judicial authority" under the Acts, of any knowledge that may come to them of any person, not a pauper and not wandering at large, being cruelly treated or neglected, &c.

As the Acts impose similar duties on relieving officers and constables,