121). There is a similar provision in Section 104 of the Public Health Act, 1875.

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS. The County Council or a sanitary authority may appear before any court and institute proceedings by their clerk or any officer or member in like manner as authorities under the 1875 Act (see p. 112). The laying of the information is the institution of proceedings (Thorpe v. Priestnall, 1897, 1 Q.B. 159).

PROTECTION OF SANITARY AUTHORITY AND THEIR OFFICERS from personal liability is conferred by Section 124, which is in the same terms as Section 265 of the 1875 Act (p. 56).

APPEALS lie to the County Council against a notice or act of a sanitary authority other than the sanitary authority for the City of London (Section 126). Appeals from convictions or orders of a Court of Summary Jurisdiction under this Act lie to a Court of Quarter Sessions, but

there shall be no appeal to quarter sessions against a nuisance order, unless it includes a prohibition or closing order or requires the execution of structural works (Section 6 (2)).

The London County Council.

By virtue of the Local Government Act, 1888, the London County Council was established for the County of London. It consists of 124 councillors and 20 aldermen ; in all 144 members. The term of office of a councillor is three years, that of aldermen six years. The chairman is chosen by the Council from within or without the council and holds office for one year; the aldermen are elected by the councillors from within or without the council.

The population within the Administrative County of London is over 4 millions; and its area is about 120 square miles, comprising Hammersmith, Kensington, Paddington, Hampstead, St. Pancras, Islington, Stoke Newington, Hackney, Poplar, Fulham, Chelsea, Westminster, St.

Marylebone, Holborn, Finsbury, Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Stepney on the north of the Thames, and Wandsworth, Battersea, Lambeth, Southwark, Camberwell, Bermondsey, Deptford, Lewisham, Greenwich and Woolwich on the south of the river.

The London County Council is responsible for (a) Main Sewerage, and Sewage Disposal; (b) Protection against Fire; (c) Street Improvements (though the maintenance of highways falls on the borough councils and the City Corporation); (d) Tramways; (e) Bridges crossing the Thames (except City Bridges); (f) Roadways and Footways of the County bridges, the Thames tunnels and the Victoria Embankment, and the footways of the other Embankments of the Thames; (g) Parks and Open Spaces (118 in number comprising 5,000 acres), excluding those owned and maintained by the Government and the borough councils; (h) Licensing of Theatres for Stage Plays, Music and Dancing and Cinematographs, except those for which the Lord Chamberlain is the Licensing Authority; (i) Licensing of Slaughterhouses and Knackers' Yards annually; (1) Licensing of cowsheds annually and enforcing the Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Orders (in practice the borough councils enforce these Orders and register all persons in their boroughs engaged in the milk trade); (k) Housing of the Working Classes; (1) Clearance and improvement of insanitary areas where such clearances and improvements are of sufficient general importance to the County; in other cases the borough councils may exercise powers under the Housing Acts (see Chapter (VI b), ante); (m) Education, which throughout the whole County is within the jurisdiction of the County Council, and is controlled by a Statutory Committee of fifty members, to whom all powers except the power of raising a rate or borrowing money stand referred. Both Provided" and "Nonprovided" schools are governed by the local education authorities within the area of the County, consisting, as

to the various groups of " Provided" schools, of managers two-thirds of whom are to be appointed by the Metropolitan Borough Councils and one-third by the London County Council (Section 36, Education Act, 1921). "Nonprovided" schools are managed usually by a body of managers for each school, consisting of four foundation managers, and one nominee of the London County Council and one nominee of the metropolitan borough councils or of the City Corporation depending on the locality of the Non-provided school. "Central schools" in which a higher type of education is given are also maintained by the County Council; (n) Sanctioning all loans required by the metropolitan borough councils; (0) Raising money for excess of expenditure over income by means of Precepts served upon the various metropolitan borough councils.

THE LONDON (EQUALIZATION OF RATES) ACT, 1894, enables the London County Council to distribute the expenditure of all sanitary authorities (except the Port Sanitary Authority) incurred under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and in respect of lighting and streets, rateably over the Administrative County of London so as to equalize the rates as between the different parts of London. Consequently some boroughs, on an adjustment which takes place each half-year, receive from the central Equalization Fund a greater sum than they pay in ; others a lesser sum. Contributions to the Fund are determined by the London County Council in proportion to the assessable value of each parish; grants payable out of the fund are based on population. Thus, in 1918-9, Battersea, with an assessable value of £995,492, and a population of 166,898, contributed £24,887 to the Fund at 6d. in the £ and received a grant from the fund based on population of £41,924, that is to say, it received a net grant of £17,037, or 4.11d. in the £. On the other hand the City of Westminster, with an assessable value of £6,942,969, and a population of 162,205, contributed £173,574, and received

a grant of £40,262, thereby contributing a net sum of £133,312 to the Fund, equal to a rate of 4.61d. Thus the boroughs with higher assessable values and smaller populations lessen the burden on the boroughs with larger populations and smaller assessable values.

14-(1560A)

SECTION VI

CHAPTER VIII

Education

THE three principal statutory landmarks relating to public elementary education-the Elementary Education Act, 1870, and the Education Acts, 1902 and 1918, have now disappeared, and are replaced by the Education Act, 1921, which came into force on 1st October, 1922. The object of the new Act is to consolidate the enactments relating to education, and certain enactments relating to the employment of children and young persons. Throughout the Act, the same regard is paid to the principle of non-interference with the religious persuasions of parents so far as the religious education of their children is concerned, and the right of withdrawal of children from public elementary schools during the times appointed for the giving of religious instruction. The principal new feature appears to be the establishment of continuation schools for young persons (viz., those between 14 and 18) and the obligation of such young persons to attend these schools, provided they are not exempted as hereinafter mentioned. The Act contains 173 sections, and seven schedules. Only the salient provisions can be set out here. For helpful notes on the more important sections of the Act, see Local Government Law and Legislation, 1921, by W. H. Dumsday, Esq., Barrister-at-Law (Hadden, Best & Co.).

Definitions.

Unless the context otherwise requires

Elementary School" means (except in the case of courses of advanced instruction) a school or department