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ADDENDA.

Page 125, after the reference to "Worcestershire County Council v. Worcester Union," add :-"As to the rating of the official residence of the chief constable of a county, see Leicestershire County Council v. Leicester Assessment Committee, Times, April 23rd, 1898."

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Page 263, after the reference to "Burnett v. Berry," add:- "This case was followed in Jones v. Walters, 78 L. T. (N.s) 167; 14 T. L. R. 265."

Page 531, at end of note (u) add :-"This view of the commissioners was upheld by the court in Cumberland County Council v. Commissioners of Inland Revenue, Times, May 14th, 1898."

Page 619, add note to s. 22 of Local Government Act, 1894 :-"Where a person, who held the office of clerk to the justices for a division of a county, accepted the office of mayor, which, under this section, carried with it the position of justice, it was held that by his acceptance of the latter office he vacated the office of clerk to the justices. (Reg. v. Douglas, [1898] 1 Q. B. 560; 67 L. J. Q. B. 406; 78 L. T. (N.s.) 198; 62 J. P. 277.)”

PART I.

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ENGLAND

AND WALES) ACT, 1888.

(51 & 52 VICT. CAP. 41.)

An Act to amend the Laws relating to Local Government in
England and Wales, and for other purposes connected there-
with..
[13th August, 1888.]

BE it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the
authority of the same, as follows:-

PART I.-COUNTY COUNCILS.

Constitution of County Council.

ment of county

1. A council shall be established in every administrative county Establishas defined by this Act, and be entrusted with the management of the administrative and financial business of that county, and shall council. consist of the chairman, aldermen, and councillors.

This section contains in brief a statement of the effect of the Act. Its object is to create in every county a council elected by the persons registered as county electors. Such a council is to be elected in every administrative county as defined by s. 100, for some counties are divided and have a council for each division (see s. 46). To this council is transferred the whole of the administrative and financial business formerly exercised by courts of quarter sessions, together with some other powers and duties mentioned in the Act itself. The Act also contemplates the transfer at some future day to the county councils, by means of provisional orders, of many of the powers now exercised by departments of state. See s. 10, post. The council is to consist of a chairman, aldermen, and councillors, and its constitution is prescribed by the next section.

of council and

2. (1.) The council of a county and the members thereof shall Composition be constituted and elected and conduct their proceedings in like and election manner, and be in the like position in all respects, as the council of position of a borough divided into wards, subject nevertheless to the provisions of this Act, and in particular to the following provisions, that is to say:—

This provision is more fully carried out by s. 75, post, which incorporates with this Act the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, as to the constitution and election of the council. These provisions are hereafter

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chairman.

2

LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ENGLAND AND WALES) ACT, 1888

Sect. 2 (1). set out, and the modifications of them which are contained in this section and in s. 75 and elsewhere throughout this Act have been noticed under each section.

NOTE.

45 & 46 Vict c. 50.

(2.) As respects the aldermen or councillors

(a.) Clerks in holy orders and other ministers of religion shall not be disqualified for being elected and being aldermen

or councillors;

This provision prevents the application to county councillors of s. 12, sub-s. (1) (b), of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, post. It may be mentioned here that a woman cannot be elected a member of a county council. Beresford-Hope v. Lady Sandhurst, 23 Q. B. D. 79; 58 L. J. Q. B. 316; 61 L. T. (N.s.) 150; 37 W. R. 548; 53 J. P. 805; De Souza v. Cobden, [1891] 1 Q.B. 687; 60 L.J. Q. B. 533; 65 L. T. (N.s.) 130; 39 W. R. 454; 55 J. P. 375, 565; 7 T. L. R. 441.

(b.) A person shall be qualified to be an alderman or councillor who, though not qualified in manner provided by the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, as applied by this Act, is a peer owning property in the county, or is registered as a parliamentary voter in respect of the ownership of property of whatsoever tenure situate in the county;

The qualification of a councillor is that prescribed by s. 11 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, post. An alderman must by s. 14 of the same Act be a councillor or a person qualified to be a councillor.

This provision qualifies two classes of persons to be aldermen or councillors besides those qualified under the Municipal Corporations Act as applied by this Act. These are (1) peers owning property (presumably land, notwithstanding the definition in s. 100, post), and (2) ownership voters.

(c.) The aldermen shall be called county aldermen, and the

councillors shall be called county councillors; and a county alderman shall not, as such, vote in the election of a county alderman;

This prevents the application to county aldermen of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, s. 60, post, which enables aldermen other than outgoing aldermen to vote as members of the council at the election of aldermen. The meaning of the words "as such" is not clear. It has been suggested that they are inserted to provide for the case where an outgoing alderman has been elected a councillor, and ought therefore to be permitted to vote as a councillor. But in such a case by being elected councillor he would have ceased to be an alderman. See Reg. v. Bangor (Mayor, etc., of), 18 Q. B. D. 349; 56 L. J. Q. B. 326; 56 L. T. (N.S.) 434; 35 W. R. 158; 51 J. P. 51. It has also been suggested that it was intended to enable a councillor, who had himself been elected alderman, to vote for the other aldermen, but this is very doubtful. (d.) The county councillors shall be elected for a term of three years, and shall then retire together, and their places shall be filled by a new election; and

In this respect the election of county councillors differs from that of borough councillors, of whom one-third go out of office in each year. See the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, s. 13, post. The date of the triennial election was

originally under this Act November 1st, but the date is now altered to the Sect. 2 (2). beginning of March by the 54 & 55 Vict. c. 68, post.

(e.) The divisions of the county for the purpose of the election of county councillors, shall be called electoral divisions and not wards, and one county councillor only shall be elected for each electoral division:

When a borough is divided into wards, the number of councillors assigned to each ward must be three or a multiple of three, so as to admit of the retirement of one-third in each year. In a county one councillor only is to be returned for each electoral division.

(3.) As respects the number of the county councillors, and the boundaries of the electoral divisions in every county

(a.) The number of the county councillors and their apportion

ment between each of the boroughs which have sufficient
population to return one councillor and the rest of the
county, shall be such as the Local Government Board
may determine; and

The Local Government Board determined in the first instance the number of the councillors for each county, and apportioned them between boroughs having sufficient population to return one or more members and the rest of the county. Alterations in the number of county councillors and electoral divisions are made under s. 44, post.

(b.) Any borough returning one councillor only shall be an electoral division; and

(c.) In the rest of the county the electoral divisions shall be such as in the case of a borough returning more than one councillor the council of the borough, and in the rest of the county the quarter sessions for the county, may determine, subject in either case to the directions enacted by this Act; and in the case of elections after the first, to any alterations made, in accordance with the said. directions, in manner in this Act mentioned:

Where the Local Government Board assign one councillor to a borough that borough is to be an electoral division; where they assign more than one, the council of the borough must divide the borough into electoral divisions. The directions for the constitution of electoral divisions are contained in s. 51, post, and the future alteration of the boundaries of electoral divisions is provided for by s. 54, post.

NOTE.

(4.) As respects the electors of the county councillors— The persons entitled to vote at their election shall be, in a borough, the burgesses enrolled in pursuance of the Municipal 45 & 46 Vict. Corporations Act, 1882, and the Acts amending the same, and elsewhere the persons registered as county electors under the County Electors Act, 1888:

In a borough the electors will be the persons whose names are on the burgess roll; in a county the electors will be the persons whose names are on

c. 50.

51 & 52 Vict.

c. 10.

NOTE.

Sect. 2 (4). the roll of county electors. The persons who are qualified to be so enrolled are described in the notes to s. 9 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, post. Notwithstanding the provision in the text, a person whose name is on the register of county electors may not be entitled to vote. Thus it has been held that an elector, though registered in more than one division of the same county, is not entitled to vote in more than one division of the same county. Knill v. Towse, 24 Q. B. D. 186, 697; 59 L. J. Q. B. 455; 63 L. T. (N.S.) 47; 38 W. R. 521; 54 J. P. 789.

Transfer to county council of

(5.) As respects the chairman of the county council—

(a.) He shall be called chairman, instead of mayor; and

As to the election of mayor, see the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, s. 61, post. The chairman will not have such precedence in the county as the mayor has in a borough, for s. 15, sub-s. (5), of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, is not to apply to him. See s. 75, sub-s. (16) (b), post.

(b.) He shall, by virtue of his office, be a justice of the peace for the county; but before acting as such justice he shall, 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.

The oaths required by law to be taken by a justice, other than the oath of qualification, are the oath of allegiance and the judicial oath. See 31 & 32 Vict. c. 72, s. 6; 34 & 35 Vict. c. 48. The chairman is to be selected from among the aldermen or councillors or persons qualified to be such, and it will be seen from the notes to s. 9 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, post, that a person may be qualified to be a councillor without possessing any property qualification.

(6.) The county council may from time to time appoint a member of the council to be vice-chairman, to hold office during the term of office of the chairman, and subject to any rules made from time to time by the county council, anything authorized or required to be done by, to, or before the chairman may be done by, to, or before such vice-chairman.

The term of office of the chairman is one year. See s. 15 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, post.

This provision presumably supersedes s. 16 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, which enables the mayor to appoint a deputy.

The London County Council have power to appoint a paid deputy chairman under s. 88, post.

Powers of County Council.

3. There shall be transferred to the council of each county on and after the appointed day, the administrative business of the administra justices of the county in quarter sessions assembled, that is to say, all business done by the quarter sessions or any committee appointed by the quarter sessions, in respect of the several matters following, namely,

tive business of quarter sessions.

The appointed day is defined by s. 109, post.

Section 28, post, provides that the council shall have, as respects business transferred to them from quarter sessions, the same powers, etc., as the quarter sessions or any committee thereof had or were subject to. The same section

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