such union or parish, or the ratepayers of such parish in vestry assembled, as the case may be, shall express their consent to the reimbursement of such sum of money out of the funds of the union or parish so interested, the commissioners aforesaid may, if they think fit, by their order authorize the reimbursement of such sum of money by the guardians of the union or parish, or the overseers of the parish, as the case may require, in such manner as the said commissioners shall deem most advisable, so however that if the same be not repaid at once it shall be repaid by equal annual instalments not exceeding five; and all payments subsequently made in conformity with such order, but not otherwise, shall be allowed by the auditor in the accounts of the guardians, overseers, or other officers who shall make the payment in obedience to such order: provided always, that nothing herein contained shall apply to authorize the repayment of any sum of money which has been paid on any other account than that of the relief of the poor, or in respect of some matter chargeable upon or connected with the poor rate.

SECTION III.

Districts for Auditing Accounts.

Formation of the district, 132. Election of auditor, 133. Auditor's deputy, 134. Notice of the audit and inspection of accounts, 134. Audit, when, and who shall attend it, 135.

| Audit, how, 137.
Certificate, &c., 140.
Balances, and how recovered
and applied, 141.
Remedy for party grieved by
audit, 143.

Formation of the district.] By stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 32, it shall be lawful for the poor law commissioners from time to time, by order under their hands and seal, to combine the parishes and unions in England and Wales into districts for the audit of accounts, and from time to time to add any parish or union to any such district, or separate any parish or union therefrom. And the word "parish" here (by the interpretation clause) includes a city maintaining its own poor, and "union" includes any number of parishes incorporated for the relief of the poor under any local Act; therefore it was holden that Bristol, where the management of the poor of all the parishes is under one corporate body of governor and guardians by a local Act, might be included in a district for auditing, by the poor law commissioners (a).

(a) R. v. Bristol, 18 Law J. 132, m.; the same case in error, 19 Law J. 116, m.; and see R. v. The Go

vernors of St. Andrew, Holborn, et al., 6 Q. B. 78.

And in every district for which an auditor may be appointed under the provisions of this Act, the powers of justices of the peace and of all other persons to examine, audit, allow, or disallow accounts, shall, so far as relates to any accounts which such auditor is authorized to examine and audit, cease, and the same are hereby repealed (b).

But where any parish, which is not governed by a board of guardians constituted under stat. 4 & 5 W. 4, c. 76, or comprised in any union, but is governed by guardians or directors under a local Act, and contains a population exceeding twenty thousand persons, according to the last enumeration of the population published by the authority of parliament, have before the first day of January in this present year adopted and acted upon the provisions of an Act passed in the second year of the reign of King William the Fourth, intituled An Act for the better regulation of vestries, and for the appointment of auditors of accounts, in certain parishes of England and Wales-and that where any two or more parishes situated within the district of the metropolitan police, containing together a population exceeding twenty thousand according to the last enumeration of the population published by the authority of parliament, have been united for the purposes of rating or settlement under the provisions of any local Act, and are governed by guardians or directors under such local Act, and have not been comprised in any union formed under the provisions of the said first-recited Act, and have an auditor or auditors appointed and acting under any provisions of such local Act relating to the audit of accounts in such parishes-it shall not be lawful to include such parish or such two or more parishes respectively in any such district for the audit of accounts: provided always, that it shall be lawful for any assistant poor law commissioner to be present at any audit, as if the same were a meeting of a board of guardians or vestry, and to inspect, examine, and take copies or extracts from any books, accounts, or vouchers produced at such audits (c).

Election of auditor.] The chairman and vice-chairman of each board of guardians constituted under stat. 4 & 5 W. 4, c. 76, or any other Act,-or if there be no chairman or vicechairman of any guardians constituted under any other Act, then some two of their number to be selected by such lastmentioned guardians,—or, if there be no such body, then some two of the overseers to be selected by the overseers respectively acting within the district,-shall elect, at the time and in the manner to be prescribed by the said commissioners, a person to be the auditor of the district; but in any case in which there are two vice-chairmen appointed in any board of guardians,

(b) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 37.

(c) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 65.

such board of guardians shall elect one of the vice-chairmen, who shall vote in the election of such auditor; and the said commissioners shall have all the powers with regard to the salaries of the said auditors to be charged on the poor rates, and to all other matters relating to auditors for such districts, as they have under stat. 4 & 5 W. 4, c. 76, with regard to paid officers (f). And where a solicitor to one of the parishes in the district was chosen auditor, his audit of accounts, although including his own bill of costs, is not void, for he is bound to perform all the duties of his office (g).

The commissioners, when they make an order for the formation of a district for auditing, include in it directions for the election of the auditor, his continuance in office, his duties, and his remuneration, and in what proportions the different parishes shall contribute to it.

But where any union or unions and parishes have been already combined by the said commissioners under the provisions of stat. 4 & 5 W. 4, c. 76, for the appointment of an auditor, and such an auditor has been appointed, or where any person has been appointed auditor for more than one union, it shall be lawful for the said commissioners to continue such auditor in office, and such district shall be deemed to have been formed, and such unions to have been formed into a district, and such auditor to have been appointed respectively under this Act: provided also, that if the said commissioners subsequently add any parish or union to any district now formed or to be formed after the passing of this Act, or which is to be deemed to be formed under this Act, or separate any parish or union therefrom, such addition or separation shall not vacate the appointment of any auditor appointed previously to such addition or separation, but it shall be lawful for the commissioners to continue such auditor in office for such increased or diminished district without any re-election of such auditor (h).

Auditor's deputy.] The commissioners may at any time, upon sufficient cause being shown to them, authorize any person, selected by the auditor, to act temporarily as his deputy, and shall communicate to the several unions and places forming his district the name of the person so appointed to act as his deputy;-and such person shall thereupon be empowered to act in all respects, and with the same authorities, and subject to the same duties and liabilities, as the auditor himself is entitled or subject to.

Notice of the audit and inspection of accounts.] Such auditor shall give or send by post or otherwise to the said

(f) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 65.
(g) R. v. Great Western Rail-

way Co., 18 Law J. 145, m.

(h) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 37.

overseers or other officers fourteen days' notice of the said audit; but it shall not be necessary for the auditor to give or send separate notices to each of such overseers or other officers, and it shall be sufficient if it be proved that any one of them had notice (i). He shall also give to the clerk of the guardians fourteen days' notice, in writing, of the time and place he intends to commence the audit of the accounts of the union, and of the parishes therein (k). It shall also be advertised in some newspaper circulating in the county (1). And seven clear days at least before the day fixed for the audit of accounts, the overseers or other officers employed in any parish in carrying the laws for the relief of the poor into execution, and every collector or assistant overseer acting for such parish, shall cause their rate books and other accounts to be made up and balanced [to the 25th March and 29th September in each year (m)]; and the books so made up shall forth with be deposited at the house within the parish of some one of such overseers or other officers, or of such collector or assistant overseer, or at some other house within the parish: and notice shall forthwith be affixed at the usual place or places of giving parish notices, stating the time and place of audit, as notified by the auditor, and the place where the books are deposited; and such books shall on each of such days be open between the hours of eleven and three, for the inspection of every person liable to be rated to the relief of the poor; and if any such overseer or other officer, collector, or assistant overseer, neglect to make up such account, or alter such account, or allow it to be altered when so made up, or refuse to allow such inspection thereof, he shall be liable, on conviction thereof, to forfeit forty shillings; and if any such overseer or other officer, collector, or assistant overseer, refuse or wilfully neglect to affix such notice of audit, and of the time and place for the inspection of such accounts, as above provided, he shall be liable, on conviction thereof, to forfeit forty shillings (n).

Audit, when, and who shall attend it.] Every auditor shall audit the accounts of all the unions in his district, and of the parishes comprised therein, once in every half-year; that is to say, as soon as may be after the 25th day of March and the 29th day of September, respectively. Provided always, that if the auditor shall see fit, in any special case, with the consent of the poor law commissioners, to hold an extraordinary audit, either of the whole or of any portion of the accounts of any union or parish in addition to the ordinary audit, at any time between such two days, it shall be the duty of any person who would be or would have been accountable at the ordinary

(i) 7 & 8 Viet. c. 101, s. 33.
(k) Ord. 17th March, 1847, art. 33.
(7) 11 & 12 Vict. c. 91, s. 7.

(m) Ord. 17th March, 1847, art. 19. (n) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 33.

audit to account at such special audit in like form and manner as at such ordinary audit, so far as the same shall be applicable to such special audit; and the surcharge, allowance, disallowance or decision of the auditor on any item, or other matter, at such special audit, shall, so far as regards the provisions and regulations which may be contained in any order of the poor law commissioners, have the same effect as if the same were made or given at the ordinary audit of the accounts of such union or parish (0).

The officers of the union, and of the parishes in the union, who by law are bound to account to such auditor, shall attend at the time and place appointed by him for the audit of their accounts, and shall submit to the auditor all books, documents, bills, and vouchers containing or relating to their accounts; and the same shall at the time of the audit be open to the inspection of any owner of property or ratepayer interested in such accounts, but to such extent and in such manner only as will not in the judgment of the said auditor interfere with the audit (p).

Also, every person voluntarily undertaking to fulfil either wholly or in part the duties of any officer affected by this order, shall, so far as relates to the accounts prescribed by this order to be kept or presented by any such officer, keep and present such accounts in the same form and manner as any such officer is by this order directed to keep and present such accounts (q).

And if any person, being clerk to a board of guardians, master of the workhouse, or collector appointed by the guardians, or relieving officer, accountable under this order, shall resign his office or be removed therefrom before the audit of his accounts, such person shall lay before the board of guardians, at a time to be fixed by them, a true and complete account of all monies, matters, and things committed to the charge of, or collected, received, held, or distributed by such person on behalf of the union, or any parish therein, in such form as he would have had to produce them before the auditor at the end of the current half-year if he had so long continued in office; and shall deliver over all balances, books, papers, matters, and things in his hands, to the board of guardians, or to the person whom they may appoint to receive the same, subject always to the liability of such person to account to the auditor at an audit, and without prejudice to the power of the auditor to allow or disallow the account of such person or any charge therein, or to surcharge him in respect of any charge to which he might be liable (r).

(0) Ord. 17th March, 1847, art. 32. (p) Id. art. 34.

(q) Ord. 17th March, 1847, art. 47. (r) Id. art. 48.