(2.) A separate Stock (Dividends) Fund Account of the County Fund and a separate Stock (Redemption) Fund Account of the County Fund shall be kept for every class of stock; the accounts for each class of stock being distinguished by number or otherwise.

(3.) In this Order the term "Dividends Fund Account and 'Redemption Fund Account" shall mean as well the Stock (Dividends) Fund Account, and Stock (Redemption) Fund Account under the Regulations, as the Stock (Dividends) Fund Account and the Stock (Redemption) Fund Account for any class of stock created and issued by a County Council under the provisions of this Article.

ARTICLE 2.-In any consolidation scheme, under Article 5 of the Regulations, loans previously raised by stock and loans included in any previous consolidation scheme, whether before or after this Order, may be included.

ARTICLE 3.-(1.) If money to be raised by the issue of stock is to be lent by the County Council, and to be repaid by instalments, or if in any other case the Board think fit, the Board may determine that the amounts of the several contributions to the Redemption Fund Account in respect of such stock (subject to any reduction thereof authorised under the Regulations) shall be determined by the provisions either of paragraph (a), paragraph (b), or paragraph (c) of this clause :(a.) The said amounts shall be the same as would, under the statutory

borrowing power, have been payable towards paying off the money represented by the stock, or to a non-accumulating sinking fund for the repayment of the same, if the same had been raised otherwise than by the issue of stock.

(b.) The said amounts shall be such equal annual amounts as will be sufficient, after payment of all expenses, to purchase the amount of stock at par within the time within which, under the statutory borrowing power or Order of the Board under the Regulations as hereby amended, the money represented by the stock is to be repaid.

(c.) If the statutory borrowing power in exercise of which the stock is issued does not determine the amounts to be paid towards paying off or to a non-accumulating sinking fund in respect of the money to be borrowed thereunder, or the period within which the same is to be repaid, or if the Board approve a scheme for the consolidation of all or any of the loans raised or to be raised by the issue of stock, the amounts of the several contributions shall be such equal annual amounts as will be sufficient, after payment of all expenses, to purchase the amount of stock at par within such time, not exceeding forty years from the first creation of the stock, as the Board shall determine.

(2.) Except as herein-after provided, the provisions of clause (1) of Article 11 of the Regulations, and so much of clause (4) of that Article as requires interest to be paid into the Redemption Fund

Account or any part of the money carried to that Account and applied in the redemption or purchase and extinction of such stock, and so much of Article 12 of the Regulations as requires the interest and annual proceeds arising from the investment of the sums standing to the credit of the Redemption Fund Account to be invested and accumulated shall not apply to contributions made to the Redemption Fund Account under this Article; provided that (without prejudice to the power reserved to the Board under clause (2) of Article 11 of the Regulations), if the Board shall at any time be of opinion that the contributions made to the Redemption Fund Account under this Article will not, in consequence of the depreciation of the securities in which the same are invested, be sufficient to redeem or purchase the amount of stock in respect of which such contributions are made as required by the Regulations as hereby amended, they may direct that the above-mentioned provisions of clause (4) of Article 11 and of Article 12 shall apply with such modifications as they may prescribe. Provided also, that so long as the above-mentioned provisions of Article 12 shall not apply, the interest and annual proceeds arising from the investment of contributions made to the Redemption Fund Account under this Article may be paid into the Dividends Fund Account, in reduction of the amount to be provided by contributions as required by Article 6 of the Regulations.

ARTICLE 4.-(1.) If the County Council create and issue stock for the purpose of raising any money to be paid under clause (2) of Article 14 of the Regulations, to the holder of any security for his consent to or for otherwise compensating him for the payment off or redemption of his security, or to the substitution of stock for his security, the period within which provision shall be made for the redemption of the amount of stock created and issued for that purpose shall be such period as the Board may determine, not exceeding the period within which the money representing the security paid off or redeemed or for which the stock is substituted is required to be paid off under the statutory borrowing power or under any Order of the Board prescribing the time within which such money is to be paid off or redeemed.

(2.) The amount of any payment under clause (2) of Article 14 of the Regulations which may be raised by the issue of stock shall not exceed the amount which the Board may by Order authorise to be so raised.

ARTICLE 5.-The following provisions shall be substituted for the last paragraph of Article 11 of the Regulations, and shall apply to stock issued before or after this Order :"When the County Council redeem or purchase and extinguish stock by the application of any part of the money carried to the Redemption Fund Account, the stock so redeemed or purchased and extinguished shall be deemed to be stock issued in respect of such one or more of the statutory borrowing powers

exercised by the issue of stock and, if in respect of more than one, in such proportions as the County Council shall before or within three months after the redemption or purchase direct, or in default of such direction, as the Local Government Board shall determine: Provided that no larger amount of stock shall be deemed to be redeemed or purchased and extinguished in respect of any statutory borrowing power than the amount which, according to the actual price of redemption or purchase, could be redeemed or purchased with the contributions paid into the Redemption Fund Account in respect of that borrowing power and the accumulations (if any) thereon."

ARTICLE 6. The words "the statutory borrowing power which the County Council could exercise for such other purpose" shall be substituted in Article 16 of the Regulations for the words "such last-mentioned statutory borrowing power." This amendment shall apply to stock issued before or after this Order.

ARTICLE 7.-The following shall be substituted for clause (5) of Article 23 of the Regulations:

The Registrar shall, after reasonable notice, and on delivery up of the old stock certificate, or on such proof that it cannot be produced, as the Registrar, with the approval of the County Council, may require, deliver to the purchaser a new stock certificate under the seal of the County Council.

ARTICLE 8.-Clause (1) of Article 51 of the Regulations shall be amended by the substitution for the words " including any sum paid by them for composition for stamp duty thereon and any other expenses," of the words "so far as they are."

ARTICLE 9.-These Regulations shall be read as one with the Regulations, and may be cited as "The County Stock Regulations. (Amendment), 1897," and with the Regulations as "The County Stock Regulations, 1891 and 1897," and the Regulations may be cited as "The County Stock Regulations, 1891."

Given under the Seal of Office of the Local Government Board, this twelfth day of June, in the year One thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven.

(L.S.)

HUGH OWEN,

HENRY CHAPLIN,

President.

Secretary.

LAND, COMPULSORY HIRING AND PURCHASE OF.

PARISH COUNCILS.

Compulsory Hiring of Land for Allotments (a).
Regulations and Adaptations under Section 10 of the Local
Government Act, 1894.

(GENERAL ORDER, MAY 20TH, 1895.)

To the County Council of every Administrative County in England and Wales, except the Administrative County of London; To each Parish Council in England and Wales;

And to all others whom it may concern.

Whereas by section 9 of the Local Government Act, 1894, it is enacted that

9.-(1.) For the purpose of the acquisition of land by a parish council the Lands Clauses Acts shall be incorporated with this Act, except the provisions of those Acts with respect to the purchase and taking of land otherwise than by agreement, and section one hundred and seventy-eight of the Public Health Act, 1875, shall apply as if the parish council were referred to therein.

"(2.) If a parish council are unable to acquire by agreement and on reasonable terms suitable land for any purpose for which they are authorised to acquire it, they may represent the case to the county council, and the county council shall inquire into the representation.

"(3.) If on any such representation, or on any proceeding under the Allotments Acts, 1887 and 1890, a county council are satisfied that suitable land for the said purpose of the parish council, or for the purpose of allotments (as the case may be), cannot be acquired on reasonable terms by voluntary agreement, and that the circumstances are such as to justify the county council in proceeding under this section, they shall cause such public inquiry to be made in the parish, and such notice to be given both in the parish and to the owners, lessees, and occupiers of the land proposed to be taken as may be prescribed, and all persons interested shall be permitted to attend at the inquiry, and to support or oppose the taking of the land.

"(4.) After the completion of the inquiry, and considering all objections made by any persons interested, the county council may make an order for putting in force, as respects the said land or any part thereof, the provisions of the Lands Clauses Acts

(a) As to compulsory purchase of land by parish councils (and by district councils for allotments), see the Order of May 22nd, 1895, post, p. 821; and in connection with the present Order, see the Order of May 21st, 1895, containing adaptations of the Lands Clauses Acts, post, p. 805.

with respect to the purchase and taking of land otherwise than by agreement.

"(5.) If the county council refuse to make any such order, the parish council, or, if the proceeding is taken on the petition of the district council, then the district council, may petition the Local Government Board, and that Board after local inquiry may, if they think proper, make the order, and this section shall apply as if the order had been made by the county council. Any order made under this sub-section overruling the decision of the county council shall be laid before Parliament by the Local Government Board.

"(6.) A copy of any order made under this section shall be served in the prescribed manner, together with a statement that the order will become final and have the effect of an Act of Parliament, unless within the prescribed period a memorial by some person interested is presented to the Local Government Board praying that the order shall not become law without further inquiry.

"(7.) The order shall be deposited with the Local Government Board, who shall inquire whether the provisions of this section and the prescribed regulations have been in all respects complied with; and if the Board are satisfied that this has been done, then, after the prescribed period

"(a.) If no memorial has been presented, or if every such memorial has been withdrawn, the Board shall, without further inquiry, confirm the order:

"(b.) If a memorial has been presented, the Local Government Board shall proceed to hold a local inquiry, and shall, after such inquiry, either confirm, with or without amendment, or disallow the order:

"(c.) Upon any such confirmation the order, and if amended as so amended, shall become final and have the effect of an Act of Parliament, and the confirmation by the Local Government Board shall be conclusive evidence that the requirements of this Act have been complied with, and that the order has been duly made, and is within the powers of this Act.

'(13.) Subsection (2) of section two, if the land is taken for allotments, and, whether it is or is not so taken, subsections (5), (6), (7), and (8) of section three of the Allotments Act, 1887, and section eleven of that Act, and section three of the Allotments Act, 1890, are incorporated with this section, and shall, with the prescribed adaptations, apply accordingly.

And whereas by sub-section (1) of section 10 of the said Act it is enacted that

"10.-(1.) The parish council shall have power to hire land for allotments, and if they are satisfied that allotments are required,