Sect. 67.

NOTE.

Funds of county council.

treasurer on the order of a justice. The provisions of that Act are extended by 49 Vict. c. 20, to the burial of any dead human bodies found in or cast on shore from any tidal or navigable waters, and to any such body found floating or sunken in any such waters and brought on to the shore or bank thereof. The last-mentioned Act was passed in consequence of the decision in Woolwich (Overseers of) v. Robertson, 6 Q. B. D. 654; 50 L. J. M. C. 87.

As to the form of the order under 48 Geo. 3, c. 75, see R. v. Treasurer of the County of Kent, 22 Q. B. D. 603; 58 L. J. M. C. 71; 60 L. T. (N.s.) 426 ; 37 W. R. 619; 53 J. P. 279.

68.-(1.) All receipts of the county council, whether for general or special county purposes, shall be carried to the county fund, and all payments for general or special county purposes shall be made in the first instance out of that fund.

General and special county purposes are defined in the subsequent subsections of this section.

(2.) In this Act the expression "general county purposes means all purposes declared by this or any other Act to be general county purposes, and all purposes for contributions to which the county council are for the time being authorized by law to assess the whole area of their administrative county, and the expression "general county account" means the account of the county fund to which the contributions so raised are carried, and any costs incurred for a general county purpose shall be general expenses, and all costs incurred by the county council in the execution of their duties which are not by law made special expenses shall be general expenses.

Purposes declared by this Act to be general county purposes are found in s. 11, sub-s. (2), s. 23, sub-s. (2), s. 25, sub-s. (2), s. 35, sub-ss. (3), (5), s. 41, sub-s. (5), s. 42, sub-s. (3), s. 75, sub-s. (17), s. 76, sub-s. (4).

Where main roads are repairable by hundreds under s. 11 (13), ante, the expenses of maintenance are general county purposes under this section. See R. v. Dolby, [1892] 2 Q. B. 736; 61 L. J. Q. B. 826; 67 L. T. (N.s.) 619.

Other Acts declare various expenses to be expenses incurred for general county purposes. See, for instance, the Allotments Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Viet. e. 65), s. 6, post; the County Councils Association Expenses Act, 1890 (53 Viet. c. 3), post.

(3.) In this Act the expression "special county purposes means any purposes from contribution to which any portion of the county is for the time being exempt, and also includes any purposes where the expenditure involved is by law restricted to a hundred, division, or other limited part of the county, and the expression "special county account" means any account of the county fund to which contributions for special county purposes are carried, and any costs incurred for a special county purpose shall be special expenses.

(4.) If the moneys standing to the general county account of the Sect. 68 (4). county fund are insufficient to meet the expenditure for general county purposes, county contributions may be levied to meet the deficiency on the whole administrative county, and shall be assessed on all the parishes in the county.

(5.) If the moneys standing to any special county account of the county fund are insufficient to meet the expenditure for the special county purposes chargeable to that account, county contributions may be levied to meet the deficiency on any parishes in the county liable to be assessed to county contributions for those purposes.

(6.) Any precept for county contributions may include as separate items a contribution for general county purposes, and a contribution for any special county purpose or purposes, and subject as in this or any other Act mentioned, county contributions, whether for general or special county purposes, which are liable to be assessed on the parishes, shall be assessed on such parishes in proportion to the annual value thereof, as determined by the standard or basis for the county rate, and all enactments applying to such standard or basis or to county rate shall (save as altered by this Act) apply so far as may be consistently with the tenor thereof, to county contributions, and those enactments shall extend to all parishes within any borough which are liable under this Act to be assessed to county contributions.

As to the preparation of the standard or basis for the county rate, see s. 3 (i.), ante, p. 5. See also s. 33, ante, p. 72.

(7.) The county council shall keep such accounts as will prevent the whole administrative county from being charged with expenditure properly payable by a portion only of the county, and will prevent any sums raised in a portion only of the county being applied in reduction of expenditure properly payable by the whole or a larger part of the county, and will further secure any such exemption as above in this section mentioned, and will prevent any sums by law specifically applicable to any particular purpose from being applied to any other purpose.

(8.) In determining the amount of expenditure for any particular county purpose, general or special, a proper proportion of the cost of the officers and buildings and establishment of the county council may be added to the expenditure directly expended for that purpose.

The establishment charges are to be apportioned between the general and special county accounts.

(9.) County contributions may be made retrospective in order to raise money for the payment of costs incurred, or having become

Sect. 68 (9). payable at any time within six months before the demand of the contributions.

Borrowing by county Council.

This provision is similar to that contained in the Public Health Act, 1875, s. 210, as to general district rates. It is intended to prevent the raising of legal objections to county rates on the ground that they are retrospective. It will be remembered that retrospective rates are illegal. See R. v. Read, 18 L. J. M. C. 164; R. v. Bedlington (Overseers of), 48 J. P. 486.

69.-(1.) The county council may from time to time, with the consent of the Local Government Board, borrow, on the security of the county fund, and of any revenues of the council, or on either such fund or revenues, or any part of the revenues, such sums as may be required for the following purposes, or any of them, that is to say:

(a.) For consolidating the debts of the county; and

(b.) For purchasing any land or building any building, which the council are authorized by any Act to purchase or build; and

(c.) For any permanent work or other thing which the county council are authorized to execute or do, and the cost of which ought, in the opinion of the Local Government Board, to be spread over a term of years; and

(d.) For making advances (which they are hereby authorized to make) to any persons or bodies of persons, corporate or unincorporate, in aid of the emigration or colonisation of inhabitants of the county, with a guarantee for repayment of such advances from any local authority in the county, or the government of any colony; and

(e.) For any purpose for which quarter sessions or the county council are authorized by any Act to borrow,

but neither the transfer of powers by this Act nor anything else in this Act shall confer on the county council any power to borrow without the consent above mentioned, and that consent shall dispense with the necessity of obtaining any other consent which may be required by the Acts relating to such borrowing, and the Local Government Board, before giving their consent, shall take into consideration any representation made by any ratepayer or owner of property rated to the county fund.

As to borrowing by the London County Council, see s. 40, sub-s. (9), ante, p. 90, and the note to s. 70 (2), post, p. 136.

The power of borrowing in aid of emigration can only be exercised if a guarantee for repayment is given as provided by the text.

Section 3 (ii) transfers to the county council the powers of the quarter sessions in respect of the borrowing of money.

The chief purposes for which a county council as successor to quarter sessions may borrow are as follows: Shire halls, county halls, sessions houses,

NOTE.

and judges' lodgings, 7 Geo. 4, c. 63; 35 & 36 Vict. c. 7; station houses and Sect. 69 (1). strong rooms, 3 & 4 Vict. c. 88, s. 12; 38 & 39 Vict. c. 89, s, 40; county bridges, 4 & 5 Vict. c. 49; 8 & 9 Vict. c. 32; 43 & 44 Vict. c. 5; 44 & 45 Vict. c. 14; reformatory and industrial schools, 37 & 38 Vict. c. 47; militia storehouses, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 105.

County councils are also specially empowered to borrow under the Lunacy Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. 5), s. 274; the Highways and Bridges Act, 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 63), s. 1; the Small Holdings Act, 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c. 31), s. 19; the Isolation Hospitals Act, 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 68), s. 22; the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c. 57), s. 42; the Local Government Act, 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), s. 12 (2); the Light Railways Act, 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 48), s. 16. See these Acts, post.

A county council may also borrow for the purposes of the Allotments Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. 65), post, on the credit of the sanitary rates of the authority in whose default they act. See s. 4 of that Act.

As to borrowing for the purposes of adjusting property, debts, and liabilities, see ante, s. 62 (6).

The consent of the Local Government Board is necessary in all cases where money is borrowed under this section, except in the case of re-borrowing under sub-s. (3), infra. The provision as to representations by owners and ratepayers is worthy of attention.

It should be borne in mind that a statutory corporation have no power to borrow except such as is given to them by statute, and that the overdrawing of a banking account may amount to an unauthorized borrowing, in respect of which the auditor may surcharge. See R. v. Reed, 5 Q. B. D. 483; 49 L. J. Q. B. 600; 42 L. T. (N.s.) 835; 28 W. R. 787.

(2.) Provided that where the total debt of the county council, after deducting the amount of any sinking fund, exceeds, or if the proposed loan is borrowed will exceed, the amount of one-tenth of the annual rateable value of the rateable property in the county, ascertained according to the standard or basis for the county rate, the amount shall not be borrowed, except in pursuance of a provisional order made by the Local Government Board and confirmed by Parliament.

As to provisional orders, see s. 87, post.

(3.) A county council may also from time to time, without any consent of the Local Government Board, during the period which was fixed for the discharge of any loan raised by them under this Act or transferred to them by this Act, borrow on the like security such amount as may be required for the purpose of paying off the whole or any part of such loan, or if any part of such loan has been repaid otherwise than by capital money for re-borrowing the amount so repaid, and for the purpose of this section, "capital money " includes any instalments, annual appropriations, and sinking fund and the proceeds of the sale of land or other property,

Sect. 69 (3). but does not include money previously borrowed for the purpose of repaying a loan.

As to discharging loans out of the proceeds of the sale of land, see §. 65, sub-s. (3), ante.

(4.) All money re-borrowed shall be repaid within the period fixed for the discharge of the original loan, and every loan for re-borrowing shall for the purpose of the ultimate discharge be deemed to form part of the same loan as the original loan, and the obligations of the council with respect to the discharge of the original loan shall not be in any way affected by means of the reborrowing.

(5.) A loan under this section shall be repaid within such period, not exceeding thirty years, as the county council, with the consent of the Local Government Board, determine in each case.

(6.) The county council shall pay off every loan either by equal yearly or half-yearly instalments of principal, or of principal and interest combined, or by means of a sinking fund set apart, 38 & 39 Vict. invested, and applied in accordance with the Local Loans Act, 1875, and the Acts amending the same.

c. 83.

The Local Loans Act, 1875, is the 38 & 39 Vict. c. 83. The provisions of that Act as to a sinking fund are contained in ss. 13-16, amended by 48 & 49 Vict. c. 30. These Acts will be found set out in Lumley's Public Health, pp. 1018, 1201.

See further, as to the investment of sinking funds, the Trust Investment Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 32), s. 7.

(7.) Where a loan is raised for any special county purpose, the council shall take care that the sums payable in respect of the loan are charged to the special account to which the expenditure for that purpose is chargeable.

As to special county purposes, see s. 68, sub-s. (3), ante, p. 130.

(8.) Where the county council are authorized to borrow any money on loan they may raise such money either as one loan or several loans, and either by stock issued under this Act or by debentures or annuity certificates under the Local Loans Act, 1875, and the Acts amending the same, or, if special reasons exist for so borrowing, by mortgage, in accordance with sections two hundred 38 & 39 Vict. and thirty-six and two hundred and thirty-seven of the Public Health Act, 1875.

c. 55.

As to the Local Loans Act, see the note to sub-s. (6), supra.

As to the issue of county stock, see s. 70, post.

Sections 236 and 237 of the Public Health Act, 1875, are as follows:"236. Every mortgage authorized to be made under this Act shall be by deed, truly stating the date, consideration, and the time and place of payment,