Local Annual Budget.

LXXI. Annual budget of county council.At their meeting in the month of October in each local financial year every county council shall cause to be submitted to them the estimates, prepared as herein before provided by the finance committee, of the receipts and expenditure of such council (including those of the district committees) during that financial year, whether on account of property, contributions, rates, loans, or otherwise, and shall revise such estimates and authorise such expenditure and make such provision for meeting the same as they shall approve under the provisions herein before contained.

LXXIII. Proceedings of county council.-(1.) A county council shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, transact their business (including the hearing of appeals against or applications to be relieved from payment of rates) by means of general meetings of their body or committees as the council may think expedient. But the council shall not delegate any power of raising money by rate or loan: Provided that nothing in this Act shall derogate from the provisions of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts in regard to the appointment on committees under the said Acts of persons not being members of the local authority thereunder.

(2.) There shall be not less than three general meetings of the council annually, that is to say, in the months of May and October, and on anch days in these months as the county council may from time to time determine, and on the third Tuesday of December.

Provided that the first meeting of the county council in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety, for the ordinary discharge of its duties, shall take place on the first Thursday after the appointed day.

The general meeting in the month of May ahall be deemed to come in place of the annual statutory meeting of the commissioners of supply at the passing of this Act held in the months of April or May; and the general meeting in the month of October shall be deemed to come in place of the general or adjourned meeting of the con inissioners of supply and the annual general meeting of county road trustees at the passing of this Act held in the months of September or October

(3.) The quorum of the county council shall unless the council with the consent of the

Secretary for Scotland otherwise determilce,

one fourth of the whole number of the council

(4.) A county council may act notwith. standing any vacancy or vacancies cansed by insufficient election or otherwise, provided that a quorum exists.

(5.) The ordinary day of election of the convener of the county shall be the third Tuesday of December in each year. The election of convener shall be the first business transacted on the day of election.

In the absence from any meeting of the corvener and vice-convener of the county, such councillor as the councillors present shail choose shall be chairman of the meeting.

The chairman of a meeting shall have a casting vote as well as a deliberative vote; and when on the selection of the chairman of the meeting an equal number of votes is given for two or more persons, the meeting shall determine by lot which of these persons shall be the chairman of the meeting.

(6.) Where under any Act excepting the Police Act, 1857, relating to any business, powers, duties, or liabilities wholly or partly transferred by or in pursuance of this Act to the county council, provision is made for the appointment of any board, committee, or commissioners consisting wholly or partly of commissioners of supply, the county council shall annually appoint county councillors in lieu of the said commissioners of supply as the case may be; and the boards, committees, or commissioners constituted under the said Acts, as amended by this Act, shall have and discharge the powers and duties and be subject to the debts and liabilities conferred or imposed or resting upon them under the said Acts amended as aforesaid.

(7.) The county council may, subject to the provisions of this Act, make, vary, and revoke such regulations as they think fit with respect to the summoning, notice, time, place, management, and adjournment of their meetings, and generally with respect to the transaction and management of their business.

(8.) The councillors or members of districh committees appointed to represent a burgh or an electoral division consisting of a police burgh or part of a police burgh shall not act or vote in respect of any matters involving expenditure to which such burgh does not contribute or for which the lands and heritages in such burgh or police burgh are not assessed.

LXXIV. Proceedings of committees.-(1.) A county council appointing under this Act any committee may from time to time, subject to the provisions of this Act, make, vary, and revoke regulations respecting the quorum and proceedings of such committee; but, subject to such regulations, the proceedings and quorum and the place of meeting, whether within or without the county, shall be auch as the committee may from time to time direct, and the chairman at any meeting of the committee shall have a casting vote as well as a deliberative vote.

and for the allocation and payment of the expenses incurred under this subsection;

(3.) Where a special drainage district or special water supply district is wholly within a police burgh formed after the passing of this Act, the police commissioners of such police burgh shall become the local authority under the Public Health Acts for such special (district, [and the assessments in respect of the drainage and water supply shall be levied in the same manner as they were before such district was formed into a police burgh].

Repealed

1897.

LXXXII.-Payments to and by district committee.-All sums passed by the county council to the account of any district committee shall be paid into an account to be kept in name of the district committee with an incorporated or joint stock bank (including any branch thereof) for that purpose appointed by the county council; and all cheques on such account shall be signed by two members of the district committee nominated for that purpose by the committee, and be countersigned by the district clerk.

Officers.

LXXXIII. Clerk of the county council.-(1.) The clerk of supply in office at and after the passing of this Act shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, discharge all the duties of county clerk until the appointed day, and upon such day the clerk of supply in office shall become the clerk of the county council (in this Act referred to as the county clerk or clerk of the county council), and shall continue in office for twelve months after the first meeting of the council, unless he shall sooner vacate office by death, resignation, or disqualification. At the expiration of such period he shall continue in office during the pleasure of the county council.

(2.) In addition to any other rights and duties conferred or imposed on him by the council, the county clerk shall, after the ap pointed day and subject to the provisions of this Act, have and discharge the rights and duties now belonging to or devolving on the clerk of supply and county road clerk, and all things authorised or required to be done by or to the clerk of supply and county road clerk may be done by or to the county clerk.

Provided that the county council may continue in office the county road clerk in office at the appointed day, and such county road clerk shall act as county clerk in so far as regards the administration of the laws relating to highways, and after he ceases to hold office his duties as aforesaid shall devolve on the county clerk.

Provided also that the county council may appoint any assessor (not being an officer of Inland Revenue) in office at the appointed day to be collector of the consolidated rates.

(3.) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (1.) of this section, the county council may from time to time appoint a county clerk, treasurer, collector or collectors, assessors,

surveyors, and such other inspectors, officers, and servants as may be necessary and proper for the efficient execution of the duties of the county council, and may make regulations with respect to the duties of such county clerk, treasurer, collectors, assessors, surveyors, inspectors, officers, and servants. If it is deemed expedient one person may be appointed to fill two or more offices, and two or more persons may be appointed jointly to fill one office.

Provided that where the assessor is an officer of Inland Revenue any regulations made by the county council with respect to his duties shall be subject to the approval of the Treasury.

(4.) After the passing of this Act it shall not be lawful to appoint an officer of Inland Revenue to be assessor without the previously pointment made without such consent shall obtained consent of the Treasury, and an ap

have no force or effect: Provided that such consent shall not be necessary in the case of the reappointment as assessor for any county or burgh of any officer of Inland Revenue, who is at the passing of this Act assessor for such county or burgh.

(5.) It shall not be lawful to appoint a county councillor or the partner in business of a county councillor to any office or place of profit under the county council or any com. mittee in this Act mentioned; and the disqualification shall apply to any person and his partners in business during six months next after such person has ceased to be a county councillor.

(6.) The council shall pay to the county clerk, county road clerk, district clerk, treasurer, collectors, assessors, surveyors, inspectors, officers, and servants continued appointed or employed by them or by any district committee, such reasonable salaries, wages, or allowances as they think proper, and every such county clerk, county road clerk, district clerk, treasurer, collector, assessor, surveyor, inspector, officer, and servant shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, hold office during the pleasure of the council or district committee, as the case may be, by which he was appointed.

Provided that where the assessor is an officer of Inland Revenue the amount of the salary, wages, or allowances awarded to him shall b subject to the approval of the Treasury.

(7.) The council may at any time discontinue the appointment of any inspector, officer, or servant appearing to them not necessary to be reappointed; and may from time to time make such arrangements as they think necessary as to the offices required to be created of abolished.

LXXXIV. Duties of the clerks of the peace.The clerk of the peace in office at the passing of this Act shall, so long as he holds office, but without any additional remuneration therefor, act as clerk of the county council in so far as regards any business by this Act transferred from the justices of the peace assembled as herein before mentioned to and

vested in the county council, and after he ceases to hold office his duties as aforesaid shall devolve on the county clerk, and thereafter all things authorised or required to be done by or to the clerk of the peace in regard to such business may be done by or to the county clerk. When so acting the clerk of the peace shall act under the direction of the county council,

As to School Fees.

LXXXV. Payment of school fees from certain endowments. Wherever, under any scheme, provisional order, deed, or instrument, funds are allocated for the payment of school fees in any State-aided school in any standard of the Scotch Education Code, for which no school fees may hereafter be exacted, such funds shall, after the passing of this Act, be applied subject to regulations to be from time to time made by the governing body under such scheme, provisional order, deed, or instrument, with the approval of the Scotch Education Department.

Provided that nothing in this Act shall deprive any scholar of any advantage under any scheme, Provisional Order, deed, or instrument other than the payment of school fees.

Provided also, that nothing in this Act shall prejudice or affect any application to the Court of Session under any scheme or Provisional Order, or under the twentieth section of the Educational Endowments (Scotland) Act, 1882.

LXXXVI. Compensation to certain teachers for loss of school fees.-If under the provisions of this Act, or of anything made or done in pur. suance thereof, any teacher appointed previously to the passing of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872, shall be prejudiced in any right to school fees possessed by him at the passing of this Act, he shall, after the passing of this Act, be entitled to receive from the school board compensation in respect of any loss so sustained by him, and such compensation, failing agreement, may be determined finally by the sheriff, and shall be payable out of the school fund.

LXXXVII. Amendment as to fixing school fees. -Section fifty-three of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872, shall, from and after the passing of this Act, be read and have effect as if after the words "public schools" therein there were inserted the words "and subject to the provisions contained in the Scotch Education Code, or in any minute of the Scotch Education Department submitted to Parliament."

LXXXVIII. Payment of school fees by parochial boards abolished.-After the passing of this Act there shall be repealed

(1.) Section sixty-nine of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872, after the words "years of age"; and

(2.) Section twenty-two of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1878.

As to Expenses of Justices, &c.

LXXXIX. Expenses of justices, &c. to be pay. able out of county fund.-All expenses lawfully incurred by the quarter sessions or the justices out of sessions or the commissioners of supply of a county shall, so far as they are at the passing of this Act payable out of the county general assessment, continue to be so payable, and the county council of the county shall make provision for such payment accordingly.

As to Land and Buildings.

XO. Transfer of land, &c.-All land and buildings, roads and bridges, drainage and water supply works, and all other heritable subjects with their pertinents now vested in the commissioners of supply or county road trustees of any county or in any local authority under the Public Health Acts, in so far as their powers are by this Act transferred to the county council, or in any person on their behalf, and all interest in the same for any of the uses and purposes of the county or any division or district of the county or of any parish therein shall, on the appointed day. and without any new instrument or convey. ance, but subject to the provisions of this Act be transferred to and vested in that council for the same interests and purposes, and subject to the same conditions and restrictions for and subject to which the same are held by such commissioners of supply, county road trustees, local authority, or person on their behalf.

Provisional Orders.

XCI. Regulations as to provisional orders.With respect to provisional orders authorised to be made by the Secretary for Scotland under this Act the following enactments shall be made:

(1.) The Secretary for Scotland shall not

make any provisional order unless public notice of the purport of the proposed order has been previously given by advertisement in two successive weeks in some local newspaper circulating in the district to which such provisional order relates, and in the Edinburgh Gazette: (2) Before making any such provisional order the Secretary for Scotland shall consider any objections which may be made thereto by any persons affected thereby, and in cases where the subject matter is one to which a local inquiry is applicable shall cause to be made a local inquiry, of which public notice shall be given in manner aforesaid, and at which all persons interested shall be permitted to attend and make objections:

(3.) The Secretary for Scotland may submit to Parliament for confirmation any provisional order made by him in pur suance of this Act, but any such order shall be of no force whatever unless and until it is confirmed by Parlia ment:

(4.) If while the Bill confirming any such order is pending in either House