the electors; and in the case of such a parish the further power of petitioning the County Council is exerciseable by the Parish Council as well as by the electors.

In an urban district, however, the representation and the petition can only come from the six registered parliamentary electors or ratepayers resident in the district.

But the representation to the District Council is a condition precedent to the exercise of the power of petitioning, and the statement of facts which the petitioners are to make should include a reference to the prior representation as indicating a basis for the action of the petitioners.

For the proper investigation of matters arising upon such petitions the Allotments Act, 1890, provides for the appointment by the County Council of a Standing Committee. Annually, at the meeting for the election of chairman, the County Council are to appoint under the Local Government Act, 1888, a Standing Committee not exceeding onefourth of the whole council. For business relating to any district or parish wholly or partly situate in an electoral division, the county councillor representing that division is, if not already appointed, to be an additional member of the Committee. The petition is, as of course, and without any order of the Council, to be referred to the Standing Committee. The Committee, on being satisfied of the bona fides of the application, are forthwith to cause a local inquiry into the circumstances to be made and to report the result to the Council.

When this report has been received, it will rest with the County Council to decide whether they will proceed further under the Allotments Act, 1890, or whether they will have recourse to the new procedure authorised by section 9 of the Local Government Act, 1894.

It may be added that (1) in a rural parish having a Parish Council, procedure with a view to an order under section 9 of the Local Government Act, 1894, on the petition of parliamentary electors, or ratepayers, or of the Parish Council will not be available unless it can be shown that there has been failure on the part of the District Council to exercise their powers, and that land cannot be acquired on reasonable terms by voluntary agreement; and that (2) in the case of a rural parish not having a Parish Council, the procedure will not be applicable unless the parish meeting has under section 19 of that Act been invested with the powers in this particular of the Parish Council. For without a Parish Council or a meeting invested with its powers there will be nobody to whom the land acquired by the County Council can be assured under sub-section 14 of section 9 of the Local Government Act, 1894.

In relation to procedure under section 9, Article I. prescribes the notice to be given in the parish or in the district (if it be urban), and to the owners, lessees, and occupiers of the land proposed to be taken. Article II. prescribes the notice of the public inquiry; Article III. prescribes the mode of serving copies of Orders made by County Councils; Article IV. relates to the same subject and also to the

service of copies of the notices prescribed by Articles I. and II.; Article V. prescribes the period within which a memorial by a person interested, praying that an Order shall not become law without further inquiry, may be presented to the Local Government Board; and Article VI. prescribes adaptations of sub-section (2) of section 2, subsections (5), (6), (7), and (8) of section 3, and of section 11 of the Allotments Act, 1887, and section 3 of the Allotments Act, 1890.

(4.) With respect to case (iii), in which proceedings under the Allotments Acts, 1887 and 1890, are taken on the petition of the District Council, it may be said that the occasion for resorting to the procedure which section 9 of the Local Government Act, 1894, authorises, may arise at a stage in proceedings under the Allotments Act, 1887, at which the District Council are met by the difficulty that suitable land sufficient for allotments for their district or any parish in their district cannot be acquired by them by hiring or purchase by agreement at a reasonable price or rent, and subject to reasonable conditions.

At this stage the District Council, under section 3 (2) of the Allotments Act, 1887, may petition the County Council. On the receipt of such a petition it will be referred for investigation and report to the Standing Committee appointed by the County Council under section 3 of the Allotments Act, 1890.

Assuming that on the report of the Standing Committee the County Council consider that the case is one in which they should proceed under section 9 of the Local Government Act, 1894, it will be incumbent upon them in taking the various steps indicated in that enactment to observe the requirements of Articles I.-IV. of the Order. Articles V. and VI. also apply to cases in which District Councils are concerned. Local Government Board, May, 1895.

LIGHT RAILWAY (a).

RULES DATED SEPTEMBER, 1896, MADE BY THE BOARD OF TRADE
WITH RESPECT ΤΟ APPLICATIONS TO THE LIGHT RAILWAY
COMMISSIONERS FOR ORDERS AUTHORISING LIGHT RAILWAYS.*

Notice of Proposed Application.

1. Notice of intention to apply to the Light Railway Commissioners Notice by for an Order authorising a light railway, or for an amending Order, advertise

*Official Note.-These rules will regulate the procedure before the Light Railway Commissioners where a scheme for a light railway has been matured and it is intended to make a formal application for an Order.

The Commissioners will at all times be prepared to give every facility in their power for considering and maturing proposals for the construction of light railways to be submitted to them.

(a) See the Light Railways Act, 1896, ante, p. 720.

ment.

Rule 1.

Contents of notice.

Deposit with local authorities.

must be published by advertisement in each of two consecutive weeks in the month of April or of October, in at least one local newspaper circulating in the area or part of the area through which it is proposed to make the railway.

2. The notice must describe generally the line of the railway and its termini, and the lands proposed to be taken, stating the quantity and the purpose for which it is proposed to take them; it must state the proposed gauge and motive power of the railway; it must be subscribed with the name of the person, company, or council responsible for the publication of the notice (hereinafter referred to as "the promoters "); and must name a place where a plan of the proposed works and of the lands to be taken and a book of reference to the plan and a section of the proposed works may be seen at all reasonable hours, and where copies of the draft Order can be obtained on payment of not exceeding one shilling per copy.

The notice must state that objections should be made in writing to the Light Railway Commissioners in accordance with Rule 31.

3. Copies of the draft Order and of the plan and book of reference and section and of the estimate hereinafter mentioned must be deposited by the promoters during the month of May or of November, with the clerk of the county council, and of every borough, district, and parish council in or through whose county, borough, district, or parish, any part of the railway is proposed to be made; and shall be open to inspection during office hours.

With the above documents there must also be deposited a sheet or sheets of the ordnance map, on the scale of not less than one inch to a mile, with the line of railway indicated thereon, so as to show its general course and direction.

Deposits with 4. Copies of the draft Order and of all the above documents, must departments. government be deposited by the promoters during the month of May or of November, with the Board of Trade, and copies of the draft Order with the Treasury, the Board of Agriculture, the Postmaster-General, the Commissioners of Customs and of Inland Revenue, the Admiralty, the War Office, the Office of Woods and Forests, and the Office of Works, and with the Secretary for Scotland in the case of proposed railways in Scotland.

Plan.

Provided that as regards the provisions of this Rule and of Rules 1 and 3, in the year 1896 the month of November shall be substituted for the month of October, and the month of December for the month of November.

Plans, Book of Reference, and Sections.

5. Every plan must be drawn to a scale of not less than four inches to the mile, and must describe the lands intended to be taken, and the line or situation of the whole of the railway (no alternative line or work being in any case permitted), and the lands in or

through which it is to be made, or through which any communication Rule 5. to or from the railway shall be made.

of deviation.

6. Where it is the intention of the promoters to apply for powers As to limits to make any lateral deviation from the line of the proposed railway, the limits of such deviation shall be defined on the plan, and all lands included within such limits shall be marked thereon.

etc. on

7. Unless the whole of such plan shall be upon a scale of not less Buildings, than a quarter of an inch to every one hundred feet, an enlarged plan enlarged shall be added of any building, yard, courtyard, or land within the scale. curtilage of any building, or of any ground cultivated as a garden, either in the line of the proposed work, or included with the limits of the said deviation, on a scale of not less than a quarter of an inch to every one hundred feet.

8. The distances from one of the termini must be shown in miles Distances to be marked. and furlongs on the plan, and a memorandum of the radius of every curve not exceeding one mile in length, shall be noted on the plan in furlongs and chains.

9. Where tunnelling as a substitute for open cutting is intended, Tunnelling to be marked. the same shall be marked by a dotted line on the plan, and no work shall be shown as tunnelling in the making of which it will be necessary to cut through or remove the surface soil.

10. If it be intended to divert widen or narrow any public carriage Diversion of road, navigable river, canal, or railway, the course of such diversion roads, etc. and the extent of such widening or narrowing shall be marked on

the plan.

11. When a railway is intended to form a junction with an existing Case of junctions or authorised line of railway, the course of such existing or authorised with other line of railway shall be shown on the deposited plan for a distance lines. of 800 yards on either side of the proposed junction on the same scale as the scale of the general plan.

12. If it be intended to lay any part of the railway along a road or Case of rails along road. street, the plan shall show at what distance from an imaginary straight line drawn along the centre of such road or street it is proposed to lay th

13. The book of reference shall contain the names of the owners or reputed owners, lessees or reputed lessees, and occupiers of all lands and houses in the line of the proposed railway or within the limits of deviation as defined on the plan, and shall describe such lands and houses respectively.

The book of reference shall also contain the name of the road authority of any road or street along which it is proposed to lay any part of the railway.

Book of reference.

14. The section shall be drawn to the same horizontal scale as the Scale of sections. plan, and to a vertical scale of not less than one inch to every one hundred feet, and shall show the surface of the ground marked on the plan, the intended level of the proposed railway, the height of

Rule 14.

Vertical

measures to

be marked at change of gradient.

Height of railway over or depth under surface of roads, etc.

to be marked.

Cross sections in certain

cases.

Embankments and cuttings.

every embankment and the depth of every cutting, and a datum horizontal line, which shall be the same throughout the whole length of the railway or any branch thereof respectively, and shall be referred to some fixed point (stated in writing on the section), near one of the termini of the railway.

In every section the line of the railway marked thereon shall correspond with the upper surface of the rails.

15. Distances on the datum line shall be marked in miles and furlongs, to correspond with those on the plan; a vertical measure from the datum line to the line of the railway shall be marked in feet and inches, or decimal parts of a foot, at the commencement and termination of the railway, and at each change of the gradient or inclination thereof; and the proportion or rate of inclination between every two consecutive vertical measures shall also be marked.

16. Wherever the line of the railway is intended to cross any public carriage road, navigable river, canal, or railway, the height of the railway over or depth under the surface thereof, and the height and span of every arch of all bridges and viaducts by which the railway will be carried over the same, shall be marked in figures at every crossing thereof, and where the railway will be carried across any such public carriage road or railway, on the level thereof, such crossing shall be so described on the section, and it shall also be stated if such level will be unaltered.

17. If any alteration be intended in the water level of any canal, or in the level or rate of inclination of any public carriage road or railway, which will be crossed by the railway, then the same shall be stated on the section, and each alteration shall be numbered; and cross sections in reference to the numbers, on a horizontal scale of not less than one inch to every three hundred and thirty feet, and on a vertical scale of not less than one inch to every forty feet shall be added which shall show the present surface of such road, canal, or railway, and the intended surface thereof, when altered; and the greatest of the present and intended rates of inclination of the portion of such road or railway intended to be altered shall also be marked in figures thereon, and where any public carriage road is crossed on the level, a cross section of such road shall also be added; and all such cross sections shall extend for two hundred yards on each side of the centre line of the railway.

18. Wherever the extreme height of an embankment, or the extreme depth of any cutting, shall exceed five feet, the extreme height over or depth under the surface of the ground shall be marked in figures on the section; and if any bridge or viaduct of more than three arches shall intervene in any embankment, or if any tunnel shall intervene in any cutting, the extreme height or depth shall be marked in figures on each of the parts into which such embankment or cutting shall be divided by such bridge, viaduct, or tunnel.