LOCAL INQUIRIES.

Regulations as to Inquiries and Notices under Section 57 of the Local Government Act, 1888, ante, p. 111 (14th September, 1889).

To the County Councils for the several Administrative Counties in England and Wales;

And to all others whom it may concern.

Whereas by sub-sections (1), (2), and (3) of section 57 of the Local Government Act, 1888, it is enacted as follows :—

57.-(1.) Whenever a county council is satisfied that a primâ facie case is made out as respects any county district not a borough, or as respects any parish, for a proposal for all or any of the following things; that is to say,

"(a) the alteration or definition of the boundary thereof;

“(b) the division thereof or the union thereof with any other such district or districts, parish or parishes, or the transfer of part of a parish to another parish;

"(c) the conversion of any such district or part thereof, if it is a rural district, into an urban district, and if it is an urban district, into a rural district, or the transfer of the whole or any part of any such district from one district to another, and the formation of new urban or rural districts:

"(d) the division of an urban district into wards; and

"(e) the alteration of the number of wards, or of the boundaries of any ward, or of the number of members of any district council, or of the apportionment of such members among the wards,

"the county council may cause such inquiry to be made in the locality, and such notice to be given, both in the locality, and to the Local Government Board, Education Department, or other Government department as may be prescribed, and such other inquiry and notices (if any) as they think fit, and if satisfied that such proposal is desirable, may make an order for the same accordingly.

"(2.) Notice of the provisions of the order shall be given, and copies thereof shall be supplied in the prescribed manner, and otherwise as the county council think fit, and if it relates to the division of a district into wards, or the alteration of the number of wards or of the boundaries of a ward, or of the number of the members of a district council, or of the apportionment of the members among the wards shall come into operation upon being finally approved by the county council.

"(3.) In any other case the order shall be submitted to the Local Government Board; and if within three months after such notice

of the provisions of the order as the Local Government Board. determine to be the first notice, the council of any district affected by the order, or any number of county electors registered in that district or in any ward of that district, not being less than onesixth of the total number of electors in that district or ward, or if the order relates only to a parish, any number of county electors registered in that parish, not being less than one-sixth of the total number of electors in that parish, petition the Local Government Board to disallow the order, the Local Government Board shall cause to be made a local inquiry, and determine whether the order is to be confirmed or not."

And whereas by sub-section (4) of section 87 of the said Act it is enacted that

"Where any matter is authorised or required by this Act to be prescribed, and no other provision is made, declaring how the same is to be prescribed, the same shall be prescribed from time to time by the Local Government Board."

And whereas in regard to the matters required by the said section 57 to be prescribed no provision other than that contained in the said. section 87 is made, declaring how such matters are to be prescribed :

Now therefore, We, the Local Government Board, in pursuance of the powers given to Us in that behalf, do, by this Our Order, and until We shall otherwise Direct, Prescribe and Determine as follows, with respect to the Inquiries to be made and the notices to be given for the purposes of the said section 57 of the Local Government Act, 1888, the manner of giving such notices, and the several other matters to be prescribed and determined for the purposes of the said section; that is to say,

ARTICLE I.-(1.) Prior to any Order being made by a County Council in regard to a proposal for all or any of the things specified in subsection (1) of section 57 of the Local Government Act, 1888, a local Inquiry, at which all persons interested may attend and be heard, shall be held in regard to the proposal as the Council may direct, either by a Committee of the County Council, or by some Person appointed by the County Council to hold such Inquiry.

(2.) If the proposal relate to one or more County Districts, the said Inquiry shall be held at some convenient place in such district or in one of such districts; and if the proposal relate to a parish or parishes, the said Inquiry shall be held either in such Parish or in one of such Parishes, or at such place in the neighbourhood as may, in the opinion of the Committee or Person by whom the Inquiry is to be held, be most convenient for the purpose.

(3.) Before the day when the Inquiry is to be held, public notice of the purport of the proposal, and of the day, time, and place fixed for the Inquiry in regard to it, shall be given by the County Council by advertisement in two successive weeks in some local newspaper circulating in the locality to which the proposal relates.

ARTICLE II.-At least fourteen days before the day when the Inquiry is to be held, a printed Notice of the purport of the proposal, and of the day, time, and place for the Inquiry shall also be published in the manner herein-after described, and shall be sent to the several Government Departments and Local or other Authorities herein-after specified; that is to say,—

(1.) A copy of the said Notice shall be posted as a bill or placard in such places in the County District or Districts or Parish or Parishes interested in the proposal as are ordinarily made use of for posting public or parochial notices.

(2.) In any case where the proposal relates to the alteration of or other dealing with any Sanitary District, a copy of the Notice shall be sent by the County Council to the Sanitary Authority of such District.

(3.) In any case where the proposal relates to the alteration of or other dealing with any Parish a copy of the Notice shall be sent by the County Council to the Overseers of the Poor of such Parish; to the Guardians of the Poor of the Union in which such Parish is comprised; to the School Board (if any) for such Parish or for any part thereof; to the Highway Authority or Authorities of the Parish; to the Burial Board (if any) for such Parish or for any part thereof; and to the Urban Sanitary Authority (if any) in whose district such Parish or any part thereof is comprised.

(4.) A copy of the Notice shall be sent by the County Council to any Local Authority which, in the opinion of the County Council, is specially interested in the proposal.

(5.) A

copy of every such Notice shall be sent by the County Council to the Local Government Board; and in any case where the proposal relates to all or any of the things mentioned in paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of sub-section (1) of section 57 of the said Act, a copy of the Notice shall be sent by the County Council to the Public Works Loan Commissioners, the Director General of the Ordnance Survey at Southampton, and to the Registrar General; and in any case where the proposal relates to the alteration or definition of the boundary of any Parish a copy of the Notice shall be sent to the Education Department. ARTICLE III.-Public notice of the provisions of any Order made by a County Council under sub-section (1) of section 57 of the said Act shall be given by the County Council by advertisement in two successive weeks in some local newspaper circulating in each District or Parish affected by the Order; and the first of such advertisements shall be published within fourteen days after the making of the Order.

The said advertisement shall contain either a copy of the Order or a statement of the effect of the Order, and shall also contain a statement of the time and place or places during and at which copies of the Order may be inspected by any owner or ratepayer in any area affected by

the Order during a period of one month from the date of the first publication of such advertisement, and the Order shall be open for such inspection during such period.

ARTICLE IV. A copy of any Order made as aforesaid by a County Council shall, at any time while copies of the Order are open to inspection as aforesaid, and, in the case of an Order which requires to be confirmed by the Local Government Board, at any time before the confirmation of the Order by the Local Government Board, be supplied by the Clerk to the Council to any owner or ratepayer in any area affected by the Order, upon payment by such owner or ratepayer of a sum not exceeding threepence for each hundred words of manuscript if the copy of the Order be in writing, or upon payment of a sum not exceeding threepence for a printed copy of the Order.

ARTICLE V.-On or before the date of the first publication of the advertisement in pursuance of Article III. hereof of the provisions of any Order made as aforesaid, and, in the case of any such Order which does not require to be confirmed by the Local Government Board, one month at least before the Order is finally approved by the County Council under the said sub-section (2) of section 57 of the said Act, three copies of the Order shall be forwarded to the Local Government Board and to each of the other Government Departments to whom a copy of the Notice of the Inquiry relative to the proposed Order was, by Article II. of this Order, required to be sent; a copy of the Order shall also be sent to each of the Local or other Authorities to whom a copy of such Notice was so required to be sent, and a copy shall also be posted in like manner as the Notice of the Inquiry was, in pursuance of the same Article, required to be posted.

ARTICLE VI. The first advertisement in pursuance of Article III. hereof of the provisions of any Order made by a County Council under the said sub-section (1) of section 57 of the said Act shall be deemed to be the "first notice" for the purposes of sub-section (3) of that section

ARTICLE VII.-The expression "County Council" in this Order shall include a Joint Committee appointed under section 81 of the said Act by any County Councils of Administrative Counties for the purpose of dealing under section 57 of the said Act with a matter in which such Councils are jointly interested.

Given under the Seal of Office of the Local Government Board, this Fourteenth day of September, in the year One thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine.

(L.S.)

HUGH OWEN,

Secretary.

CHAS. T. RITCHIE,

President.

LOCOMOTIVES ON HIGHWAYS (a).

Regulations (9th November, 1896).

To the County Councils of the several Administrative Counties in England and Wales;

To the Councils of the several County Boroughs in England and Wales;

To the Sanitary Authorities of the several Sanitary Districts in the Administrative County of London ;

To the Urban District Councils of the several Urban Districts in England and Wales ;

To the Rural District Councils acting as the Highway Authorities in Rural Districts in England and Wales;

And to all others whom it may concern.

Whereas by section 6 of the Locomotives on Highways Act, 1896 (b) (herein-after called "the Act"), it is enacted that—

"(1.) The Local Government Board may make regulations with respect to the use of light locomotives on highways, and their construction, and the conditions under which they may be used.

‘(2.) . . . All regulations under this section shall have full effect notwithstanding anything in any other Act, whether general or local, or any bye-laws or regulations made thereunder." And whereas by section 2 of the Act it is enacted that

"During the period between one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise, the person in charge of a light locomotive shall carry attached thereto a lamp so constructed and placed as to exhibit a light in accordance with the regulations to be made by the Local Government Board."

And whereas by section 7 of the Act it is enacted that—

"A breach of any

regulation made under this may, on summary conviction, be punished by a fine not exceeding ten pounds."

Act,

Now therefore, in pursuance of the powers given to Us by the Act, and by any other Statutes in that behalf, We, the Local Government Board, Do by this Our Order make the following Regulations with respect to the use of Light Locomotives on Highways, and their construction, and the conditions under which they may be used, and Direct that the same shall have effect on and after the Fourteenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and ninety-six :—

ARTICLE I.-In this Order

The expression "carriage" includes a waggon, cart, or other

vehicle.

(a) See as to the construction of wheels of locomotives on highways the Order of November 26th, 1897, post, p. 856, which Order does not, like the Order here set out, apply to "Light Locomotives." See as to this the circular of the Local Government Board, post, pp. 855, 856.

(b) Ante, p. 717.