Board for the recovery of expenses incurred by them in works of private improvement, the time within which such proceedings may be taken shall be reckoned from the date of the service of notice of demand. In all cases where the Local Board have incurred expenses Apportionfor the repayment whereof the owners of the premises for or in ment of respect of which the same are incurred is made liable, and such expenses expenses have been settled and apportioned by the surveyors as owners to be payable by payable by the owner, the apportionment is to be binding and conclusive conclusive upon the owner, unless within the expiration of three after three months from the time of notice being given by the Local Board months from notice given or their surveyor of the amount of the proportion settled by the to them of surveyor to be due he shall by written notice dispute the same. the amount. Persons wilfully injuring works or materials belonging to any 21 & 22 Vict. Local Board, in cases where no other penalty is provided by C. 98, s. 63. Penalty on the Public Health Act, 1848, or any Act incorporated there- injury to with, incur for every offence a penalty not exceeding £5, to be works, etc., recovered in a summary manner. of Local Ib. s. 66. By the Sanitary Act, 1866, s. 45, if any person wilfully Board. damages any works or property belonging to any Local Board he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £5. Every person who upon any examination on oath under the False evidence provisions of the Public Health Act wilfully and corruptly gives punishable as false evidence, is liable to the penalties inflicted upon persons perjury. guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury; and the word "oath 11 & 12 Vict. is c. 63, s. 147. to be construed to mean and include an affirmation in the case Ib. s. 2. Whosoever wilfully obstructs any superintending inspector, Penalty for or any member of the Local Board, or any officer or person em- obstructing ployed in the execution of the Acts, or destroys, pulls down, officers, defacing notice injures or defaces any Board upon which any bye-law, notice, or boards. other matter is inscribed, put up by the authority of the Local Ib. s. 148. Board, is liable to a penalty not exceeding £5. If the occupier Upon occuof any premises prevent the owner from obeying or carrying piers preinto effect the provisions of the Acts, any justice on application venting is by order in writing (schedule F) to require the occupier to works. permit the execution of the works, provided that they are neces- Ib. s. 148. sary for the purpose of obeying or carrying into effect the provisions of the Acts. If a person be charged under 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 148, with obstructing the works of a Local Board of Health he is not necessarily entitled to have the case dismissed by the justices because the obstruction took place in the assertion of a private right; nor are the justices warranted in refusing as frivolous an application to state a case under 20 & 21 Vict c. 43. (1) The following is the form of order to permit execution of works by owners :— (1) Reg. v. Pollard, 14 L. T. (N. S.) 599. execution of Form of order County of for execution [or Borough, etc.] Finality of order. Exemptions from stamp duty. Whereas complaint hath been made to me E. F., Esquire, one of Her Majesty's justices of the peace in and for the county [or borough, etc.] of by A. B., owner, within the meaning of the Public Health Act, 1848, of certain premises, to wit, a house [as the case may be] situate in street [as the case may be] in the parish of in the said county [or borough, etc.] that C. D., the occupier of the said premises, doth prevent the said A. B. from obeying or carrying into effect the provisions of the said Act in this, to wit, that he, the said C. D., doth prevent the said A. B. from [here describe the works generally, according to circumstances for in stance, thus:] constructing and laying down, in connection with the said house, a covered drain, so as to communicate with a [sewer or drain] of the Local Board of Health of the district of or a sewer, etc., which the Local Board of Health of the district of are entitled to use [as the case may require], such sewer being within one hundred feet of the said house; and whereas the said C. D., having been duly summoned to answer the said complaint, and not having shown sufficient cause against the same, and it appearing to me that the said works are necessary for the purpose of enabling the said A. B. to obey and carry into effect the provisions of the said Act, I do hereby order that the said C. D. do permit the said A. B. to execute the same in the manner required by the said Act. Given under my hand and seal, this year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and day of , in the With regard to orders of justices made under the Public Health and Local Government Acts, it should be borne in mind, that the justices having once made the order, i, e. put their hands and seal to the document, meaning it to be an order, cannot afterwards amend it in any way. (1) In this respect an order differs from a conviction, which may be returned to the sessions in a more formal shape when warranted by the facts, even though a copy of it has been delivered to the person convicted. (2) No deed, award, submission, instrument, contract, agreement, or writing made or executed by the Local Board, their officers or servants, under or for the purposes of the Acts, nor c. 63, s. 151. any appointment by the Local Board of any officer or person, chargeable with stamp duty. II & 12 Vict. Interpretation of terms. Ib. s. 2. Number. Gender. "Person." This would exempt from stamp duty a cheque drawn by the Local Board of Health upon their treasurer, as such a document would be an "instrument" within the meaning of the Act. The above exemptions from stamp duty are continued by the Stamp Act, 1870, 33 & 34 Vict. c. 97, s. 3. In the construction of the Public Health and Local Government Acts, Words importing the singular number include the plural, and words importing the plural include the singular number. Words importing the masculine gender include females; and The word "person" and words applying to any person or (1) Rex v. Cheshire 77., 5 B. & Ad. 439, individual apply to and include corporations, whether unless such meanings be repugnant to or inconsistent with the occur. INCORPORATED POWERS. The provisions of the Towns Police Clauses Act, 1847 Towns Police Clauses Act. 1. With respect to obstructions and nuisances in the streets 21 & 22 Vict. (ante, p. 330). 2. With respect to fires (ante, p. 342). 3. With respect to places of public resort (ante, p. 343). 4. With respect to hackney carriages (ante, p. 348). 5. With respect to bathing (ante, p. 262); are incorporated with the Local Government Act. c. 98, s. 44. The provisions of the Towns Improvement Clauses Act, Towns Im1847, with respect to the following matters, are also incor- provement porated with the Act: 1. With respect to naming the streets and numbering the houses (ante, p. 190). 2. With respect to improving the line of the streets and removing obstructions (ante, p. 185). 3. With respect to ruinous or dangerous buildings (ante, 4. With respect to precautions during the construction and 6. With respect to the prevention of smoke (ante, p. 327). 7. With respect to slaughter-houses (ante, p. 315). 8. With respect to clocks (ante, p. 193). Clauses Act. The provisions of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, except Lands the provisions relating to access to the special Act (ante, p. 434). Clauses The provisions of the Commissioners Clauses Act, 1847, with Consolidation respect to mortgages (ante, p. 425). Act, 1845. For the purpose of enabling the Local Board to establish Commismarkets, or to regulate markets established in corporate boroughs sioners before the constitution of a Local Board therein, the following Clauses Act. provisions of the markets and Fairs Clauses Act, 1847, corporated are in 1. With respect to the holding of the market or fair, and the protection thereof (ante, p. 305). 2. With respect to the weighing of goods and carts (ante, p. 307). 3. With respect to the stallages, rents, and tolls (ante, P. 309); and 4. With respect to bye-laws (ante, p. 311). 10 Vict. c. 16. Markets and Fairs Clauses Act. 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 50, Construction of terms for purposes of this Act, etc., in Acts hereinafter incorporated. 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 7. Powers of Sanitary Act, 1866, cumu lative. Subject to this provision, that all tolls leviable by the Local In the construction, for the purposes of the Local Government Act, of the Acts incorporated therewith, the expression "the Special Act" means the Public Health Act, 1848, as brought into operation within the district, and the Local Government Act; the "limits of the Special Act" means the "limits of the district;" "the passing of the Special Act" means the date of the coming in force of the Local Government Act, or, in the case of districts under the Public Health Act, 1848, the 1st September, 1848; and the Local Board, according to the tenor of the incorporated Act, is to be deemed to be the promoters of the undertaking, "Town Commissioners," Commissioners, or "undertakers;" and all penalties incurred under the incorporated Acts are to be recovered in the same way as penalties incurred under the Public Health Act, 1848, and be applied in aid of the purposes of that Act and the Local Government Act. Lastly, all powers given by the Sanitary Act, 1866, are to be deemed to be in addition to and not in derogation of any other powers conferred on any local authority by Act of Parliament, 29 & 30 Vict. law, or custom, and such authority may exercise such other powers in the same manner as if the Sanitary Act, 1866, had not passed. c. 90, s. 55. Sewage of Oxford and other towns on banks of River During the session of Parliament, 1866, a local and personal Act was passed for the purification of the River Thames, by the diversion therefrom of the sewage of Oxford, Abingdon, Reading, Kingston, Richmond, Twickenham, Isleworth, and Brentford, and for the collection and utilization of that sewage Ib. c. cccxix. (see also ante, p. 139). Further with reference to the River Thames. Thames, see ante, p. 142. 491 PART IV. CHAPTER I. REMOVAL OF NUISANCES. THE preceding parts of this work have application more par- Preliminary ticularly to districts in which the provisions of the Public observations. Health Act, 1848, or the Local Government Act, 1858, have been adopted by the inhabitants, or are otherwise in force. The Nuisances Removal Act and the Amending Acts require no adoption, but are in force generally throughout England; and under those Acts local authorities are constituted having authority in every parish and district to enforce measures for the removal of nuisances injurious to health. The constitution and powers of those local authorities will form the subject of the first chapter of this part of the work; but, as preliminary to the subject, it will be convenient to mention in this place that by the 23 & 24 Vict. c. 77, s. 1, the third, sixth, seventh, and ninth sections of the Nuisances Removal Act, 1855, have been repealed. It is not necessary to refer further to those repealed provisions, as the enactments substituted for them will be found in their proper places hereafter. In citing the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121, in other Acts of Parlia- Short title ment, and in legal instruments and other proceedings, it shall of Act. be sufficient to use the words "The Nuisances Removal Act 18 & 19 Vict. for England, 1855." C. 121, S. 4. "Nuisances Acts." By the Sanitary Act, 1866, the expression "Nuisances Re- Definition of moval Acts" shall mean the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121; 23 & 24 Vict. c. 77; and the 29 & 30 Vict. c. 90, s. 14, as amended by Removal the second part of the Sanitary Act, 1866; and that part of the Act shall be construed as one with the previous Acts above mentioned. authorities The Act of 1855 shall not be construed to affect the provi- Jurisdiction sions of any local Act, nor to impair, abridge, or take away of other any power, jurisdiction, or authority which may at any time be preserved. vested in any Commissioners of Sewers or of drainage, or in 18 & 19 Vict. relation to their proceedings, nor to impair any power of abat- c. 121, s. 43. ing nuisances at common law, nor any jurisdiction in respect of nuisances that may be possessed by any authority under the Smoke Act, 16 & 17 Vict. c. 128; or the Common Lodging Houses Acts, 14 & 15 Vict. c. 28 (1851), and 16 & 17 Vict. |