lighthouse trust, or the commissioners of pol ce of a police burgh, or a par ochial board, or a school board), as are conferred by or in pursuance of any statute;

and such order shall make such exceptions and modifications as appear to be expedient, and also such provisions as appear necessary or proper for carrying into effect such transfer, and for that purpose may transfer any power vested in Her Majesty in Council.

(2.) Provided that before any such order is made, the draft thereof shall be approved, if it relates to the powers, duties, or liabilities of the Board of Trade, or any other Government department, by such Board or department, and approved, if it affects the powers, duties, or liabilities of any public body, corporate or unincorporate, by such public body; and every such provisional order shall be of no effect until it is confirmed by Parliament.

(3.) If any such powers, duties, or liabilities as are referred to in any provisional order under this section arise within two or more counties, they may be transferred to the county councils of such two or more counties jointly, and may be exercised and discharged by a joint committee of such councils.

XVI. Transfer of powers of county road trustees. With respect to the transference to the county council of the powers and duties of county road trustees, the following provisions shall have effect:

(1.) From and after the appointed day all local Acts of Parliament in so far as they relate to highways in any county in which the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, has not previously taken effect shall be repealed, and the said Act shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, take effect therein as if it had been adopted on the appointed day in terms of the sixth section thereof.

(2.) From and after the appointed day the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, shall have effect in every county, subject to the modifications following, and to such other modifications as are necessary for adapting the said Act to the provisions of this Act: (a.) All the provisions of the said Act in

regard to the constitution, qualification, and election or appointment of county road trustees shall be repealed, and the Act shall be read and have effect as if the county council and councillors were substituted for the county road trustees.

(b.) The county council shall, at their first

meeting in the month of May next after the passing of this Act, and thereafter annually at their meeting in the month of December, appoint from among their own number a committee, to be called the county road board, consisting of not more than thirty councillors. The county road board so appointed shall come in place, and shall have all the powers and duties of a county road board under the said Act, except in so far as in

consistent with the provisions of this Act, and shall appoint their own chairman.

(c.) For the purpose of the management and maintenance of highways, the county shall, except as hereinafter provided, be divided into districts in manner provided in this Act, and such districts shall be deemed to be districts for the purposes of the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878; and there shall be a district committee for each district, constituted as provided in this Act, which shall come in place and have all the powers and duties of a district road committee under the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, except in so far as inconsistent with the provisions of this Act: Provided that the district clerk appointed under this Act shall be deemed to be and shall discharge the duties of a district road clerk.

Sections sixteen, seventeen, and ninetyone of the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, shall be repealed from and after the appointed day, and sec. tion eighteen shall be repealed in so far as it relates to the qualification of members of the district committee therein mentioned and to the nomination of the chairman of such committee, and so much of sections twenty-four and fifty-eight as provides that proprietors only shall vote in regard to the construction of new roads and bridges, and be liable for the cost thereof, shall be repealed in regard to roads and bridges to be made, built, or rebuilt after the appointed day; and the cost of such construction shall be provided for in the same manner as the cost of maintenance of existing roads and bridges.*

(d.) The assessment for road debt under the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, or under any local Act of Parlia ment shall, until the debt is wholly repaid, be payable by owners only, subject to the provisions of the said Acts, and shall be included in the owner's consolidated rate: Provided that nothing contained in this Act shall derogate from the provisions of section forty of the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, in regard to the liability for road debts in detached parts of counties, and if any question shall arise as to the application of the last-mentioned provisions, it may be disposed of summarily by the sheriff of the county within which the lands and heritages are locally situated, and his decision shall be final.

XVII. Transfer of powers of parochial boar is under Public Health Acts.-With respect to the transference to the county council of the powers and duties of certain local anthorities under the Public Health Acts, the following provisione shall have effect:

(1.) For the purposes of the administration of the laws relating to public health, the county shall, except as hereinafter provided, be divided into districts in the manner provided in this Act, and there shall be a district committee for each such district constituted as provided in this Act.

(2.) A district committee shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be the local authority under the Public Health Acts, and as such shall have and may exercise within its district all the powers and duties and be subject to all the liabilities by this Act transferred to or conferred on the county council with respect to the administration of the laws relating to public health, except those relating to medical officers or sanitary inspectors for the county, and subject to the provisions follow. ing:

(a.) A district committee shall have
no power of raising money by
rate or loan:
(3.) The county council shall make
general regulations for the
government of a district com-
mittee, and such committee
shall conform to those regula-
tions:

(a) Any five ratepayers in the dis-
trict may appeal from any
proceedings or order of a dis-
trict committee to the county
council, who shall have power
to confirm or vary or rescind
such proceedings or order;
and such proceedings or order
shall be stayed pending the
appeal, but the power of appeal
hereby given shall not apply
to any proceedings for the
removal of a nuisance; and
nothing in this Act contained
shall affect or prejudice any
proceedings to enforce the pro-
visions of the Public Health
Acts, save only that when
necessary such proceedings
shall be taken by or against
the district committee instead
of against the parochial board
as local authority under the
said Acts. The medical officer
or the sanitary inspector of the
county or district may appeal
to the county council, and the
county council may on such
appeal make an order under
the Public Health Acts.*

(8.) The power of appointing officers under the Public Health Acts is hereby varied, so that it shall be lawful to appoint such officers either for the whole district or for any part thereof or parish therein as shall be deemed expedient. The officers so appointed shall have, as nearly as may be, within the arcas respectively assigned to them the same powers, duties, rights, and

tenure (if any) as the officers, as the case may be, of the existing local authority have within the area of the parish.

(4.) The sums necessary to meet any defi. ciency in respect of the expenditure under the Public Health Acts within any district shall be levied by the county council by a rate imposed on all lands and heritages within such district, or within any special drainage or water supply district within the meaning and subject to the provisions of the Public Health Acts.

Standing Joint Committee for County. XVIII. Standing joint committee of county council and commissioners of supply for certain purposes.—(1.) For the purposes in this section mentioned and with respect to the powers of borrowing transferred or conferred by this Act, or any other Act, there shall be a standing joint committee of the county council and the commissioners of supply, consisting of such number of county councillors not exceeding seven, as shall be appointed by the county council annually at their meeting in the month of May, and such number of commissioners of supply not exceeding seven, as shall be ap pointed by the commissioners of supply annually at their meeting on the same day. Six shall form a quorum of the committee, and the committee may act notwithstanding any vacancy upon it.

(2.) The sheriff of the county (or in his absence one of his substitutes to be by him nominated for that purpose) shall be ex officio a member of the said standing joint committee, and the committee shall elect one of their own number to be chairman thereof.

(3.) If any appointed member of such committee shall die, resign, or become disqualified, the vacancy may be filled up by the county council or commissioners of supply, as the case may be, by whom the member vacating office was appointed; any member of such committee may resign office by a writing under his hand addressed to the county clerk.

(4.) On the requisition of the chairman or of any two members of the standing joint committee, the county clerk (who shall without any further appointment or remuneration act as clerk of the committee) shall convene a meeting thereof, on not less than six days notice, by letter addressed to each member of

the committee.

FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN EXCHEQUER AND COUNTIES AND BURGHS.

XIX. Application of probate duty grant in year ending 31st March 1890.-All sums paid on account of the financial year ending the thirtyfirst day of March next after the passing of this Act in respect of the probate duty grant under the provisions of the Probate Duties (Scotland and Ireland) Act, 1888, to the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account shall, subject to the conditions set forth in the last-mentioned Act, be applied by or under the direction of the Secretary for Scotland in the following manner:(1.) In paying a sum of thirty thousand pounds for the relief of local taxation in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in such proportions and manner as may be from time to time directed by the Secretary for Scotland; (2.) In paying to every road authority who have received out of the Exchequer a contribution to the cost of roads, or to the successors of such authority, sums calculated in like manner and according to the like scale and regulations as in the financial year ending the thirtyfirst day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven; (3.) The balance shall be applied towards relief from the payment of school fees in the State-aided schools in Scotland and be distributed in such manner and in accordance with such conditions as may be set forth in a Minute of the Scotch Education Department to be forth with laid before Parliament; (4.) For the purpose of this section of this Act, the terms and expressions therein have the meanings assigned to them in the Probate Duties (Scotland and Ireland) Act, 1888;

(5.) From and after the thirty-first day of March next after the passing of this Act the Probate Duties (Scotland and Ireland) Act, 1888, shall, so far as it applies to Scotland, be repealed, without prejudice to the distribution of the moneys referred to in this section.

XX. Payment after 31st March 1890 of proceeds of duties on local taxation licences.-After the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March next after the passing of this Act, the Commissioners of Inland Revenue shall, from time to time, in such manner and under such regulations as the Treasury from time to time I

www

prescribe, pay into the Bank of England to such account (in this Act referred to as the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account) as may be fixed by the regulations, such sums as may be ascertained in manner provided by the regula by those Commissioners in Scotland on the tions to be the proceeds of the duties collected licences (in this Act referred to as local taxation licences) specified in the Schedule to this Act, and for the purposes of this section all penalties and forfeitures recovered in respect of the said duties shall be considered as part of the proceeds of the duties.

XXI. Grant of portion of probate duty after 81st March 1890.-After the financial year ending the thirty-first day of March next after the passing of this Act the Commissioners of Inland Revenue shall, from time to time, in such manner and under such regulations as the Treasury may from time to time prescribe, pay into the Bank of England to the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account such sums as may be ascer tained, in manner provided by the regulations, to be eleven hundredth parts of one half of the proceeds of the sums collected by them in respect of the probate duties, and for the purpose of this section "probate duties" means the stamp duties charged on the affidavit required from persons applying for probate or letters of administration in England, Wales, or Ireland, and on the inventory exhibited and recorded in Scotland, and also the stamp duties charged on such accounts of personal and moveable property as are specified in section thirty-eight of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1881, and also includes the proceeds of all penalties and forfeitures recovered in relation to such stamp duties. In the con. struction of sub-section (5) of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1889, the reference therein to section five of the Probate Duties (Scotland and Ireland) Act, 1888, shall be read as if it were a reference to this section.

XXII. Application of duties of local taxation licences and probate duty grant.-Until Parliament shall otherwise determine all sums from time to time paid to the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account shall be applied by or under the direction of the Secretary for Scotland in manner hereinafter mentioned (that is to say):

(1.) In paying a sum of ten thousand pounds to the county councils of the counties in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in proportion to the grants paid out of Exchequer to the Commissioners of Supply and County Road Trustees of each such county (excluding the burghs therein) during the financial year ending the thirty-first day of March next before the passing of this Act, the share falling to each county council to be applied to the relief of local taxation for the purposes of this Act in such county (excluding the burghs therein) in such manner as the county council shall determine ;* (2.) In distributing a sum of thirty-five thousand pounds among the road authorities in Scotland who, or whose

local rates.

predecessors, have received out of the Exchequer a contribution to the cost of roads, in like manner and according to the like scale and regulations, as nearly as may be, as in the financial year ending the thirty-first day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven;

(3.) In distributing a sum of one hundred and fifty-five thousand pounds among the police authorities in Scotland who, or whose predecessors, have received out of the Exchequer a contribution to the cost of the pay and clothing of the police, in like manner and according to the like scale and regulations, as nearly as may be, as in the financial year ending the thirty-first day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine.

(4.) In distributing a sum of twenty thousand pounds among the parochial boards in Scotland as a contribution to the cost of Poor Law medical relief and trained sick nursing in poorhouses, in like manner and according to the like scale and regulations, as nearly as may be, as in the financial year ending the thirty-first day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine; (5.) In distributing a sum of ninety thousand

five hundred pounds among the parochial boards in Scotland as a contribution to the cost of maintenance of pauper lunatics chargeable to such boards, in like manner and according to the like scale and regulations, as nearly as may be, as in the financial year ending the thirty-first day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine;

(6.) The balance shall be applied towards relief from payment of school fees in the State-aided schools in Scotland, and shall be distributed in such manner and in accordance with such conditions as may from time to time be set forth in the Scotch Education Code annually submitted to Parliament;

Repealed 1892.1

The determination of the Secretary for Scotland as to the distribution of sums under this section shall be conclusive.

So much of any enactment as requires or authorises payment out of the Exchequer of any local grant in substitution for which the Secretary for Scotland is by this Act required to make or direct the payments in this section mentioned, is hereby repealed as from the thirty-first day of March next after the passing of this Act, without prejudice to any right sccrued before that day.

XXIII. As to Secretary for Scotland's power respecting efficiency of police. If the Secretary for Scotland withholds, as respects the police of any police authority, his certificate under the Police Act, 1857, that the police of such authority has been maintained in a state of efficiency in point of numbers and discipline during the year ending on the fifteenth

day of March then last past, he shall, in lieu of directing payment of any sum under the provisions of this Act to such police authority, forfeit to the Crown, and shall pay into Her Majesty's Exchequer, and shall charge to the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account such sum as, had the police of such police authority been certified to be efficient, would have been payable towards the cost of the pay and clothing of such police during the said year.

XXIV. Supplementary provisions as to Local Taxation Account (Scotland).—(1.) The account of the receipts and expenditure of the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account shall be audited as a public account by the Comptroller and Auditor General, in accordance with such regulations as the Treasury may from time to time make.

(2.) If at any time, in any financial year, the moneys standing to the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account are insufficient to meet such sums as the Secretary for Scotland considers proper for the time being to pay thereout, the Secretary for Scotland may borrow tem porarily on the security of the said account, and of moneys becoming payable thereto, such sums as he requires for the purpose of meeting such deficiency, and the Bank of England may lend such sums, but all sums so borrowed shall be repaid with the interest thereon during the same financial year out of moneys payable to the said account.*

PART III. FINANCE.

Property, Funds, and Expenses of County Council.

XXV. Transfer of county property and lia bilities.-(1.) On and after the appointed day all such property as belongs or would, but for the passing of this Act, belong to or be vested in or held in trust for any authority whose powers and duties are by or in pursuance of this Act transferred to the county council of a county, shall pass to and vest in and be held in trust for such council, subject to all debts and liabilities affecting the same, and shall be held by the county council for the purposes for which such property is or would have been held, so far as such purposes are not modified by this Act; and if any question shall arise as to the heritable or moveable property of any parochial board as the local authority under the Public Health Acts, transferred by this Act, the same, failing agreement, may be determined by the Secretary for Scotland, but such determination shall have effect only until an adjustment by the Boundary Commission under or in pursuance of this Act.

(2.) The county council shall have full power to manage, alter, and enlarge, and, with the consent of the Secretary for Scotland, to alienate the lands and heritages transferred by this section, but shall from time to time provide such accommodation and rooms, and such furniture, books, and other things, for the transaction of the business of the county council, and of the quarter sessions, justices of the peace, and commissioners of supply, as

they respectively may from time to time reasonably require.

Provided that

(a.) The existing records of or in the custody of the court of quarter sessions shall, subject to any order of that court, remain in the same custody in which they would have been if this Act had not passed; and

(b.) The justices of any county may retain pictures or other property on the ground that the same have been presented to them or otherwise belong to them, and are not held for public purposes of the county, and any difference arising between the county council and the justices with respect to any such retention shall be referred to and determined by the Boundary Commis. sioners.

XXVI. Property, funds, and expenses of county council.-(1.) On and after the appointed day all debts and liabilities of any authority whose powers and duties are transferred by or in pursuance of this Act to the county council of a county shall become debts and liabilities of such council, and shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be defrayed by them out of the like funds out of which they would have been defrayed if this Act had not passed.

(2.) All receipts of the county council from whatever source shall be carried to the county fund, and all payments shall be made in the first instance out of that fund. Such receipts shall be paid into an incorporated or joint stock bank (including any branch thereof) for that purpose appointed by the county council, and such payments shall be made by cheques drawn, as in this Act provided, upon such bank.

"

(3.) In this Act "general county purposes means all purposes for which the county council are for the time being authorised by law to incur any expenditure, with the exception of (1) the management and maintenance of highways, (2) the administration of the laws relating to public health, and (3) any special purpose in respect of which the county has been or may be divided into divisions or districts under the provisions of any general or local Act of Parliament or of this Act.

(4.) If the county fund is insufficient to meet the expenditure, rates (in this Act referred to as the owners consolidated rate and the occupiers consolidated rate, and together as the consolidated rates) may be levied to meet such deficiency for general county purposes upon all rateable property in the county, or, in the case of expenditure for the management and maintenance of highways, the administration of the laws relating to public health, or other special purpose as herein-before mentioned, upon all rateable property within the several districts or parishes of the county, as the case may be, in the manner and subject to the conditions in this Act provided.

(5.) The county council shall keep such accounts of the county fund, and of the sums raised by rates, as will prevent a rate being

www

applied to any purpose to which it is not properly applicable.

(6.) The finance committee of the county council appointed under this Act shall prepare annually estimates of the receipts and expenses of the county fund and of the sums required to be raised to meet the deficiency of such fund for the expenditure chargeable thereon.

Rating.-Consolidation of Rates.

XXVII. Imposition and regulation of the con solidated rates.-(1.) The county council shall annually fix the rate in the pound of the rateable property which will be necessary to meet the deficiency in the county fund in respect of each branch of expenditure subject to its control, or for which it is responsible in whole or in part, and such rate shall be imposed upon all lands and heritages within the county, except that the rate for the management and maintenance of highways, the administration of the laws relating to public health, and any other special purpose as herein-before mentioned, shall be imposed upon all lands and heritages within each division or district or parish, as the case may be. The rate in respect of each branch of expenditure for which provision is made under an Act of Parliament in force at the passing of this Act shall be deemed to be imposed under the powers and subject to the provisions of that Act, except in so far as these are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act. The rate necessary in respect of any branch or branches of expenditure for which no provision is made as last mentioned shall be imposed as a general purposes rate under this Act.

(2.) Subject to the provisions hereinafter con tained the rates shall be equally divided between owners and occupiers, and the sum of all the rates so fixed and divided shall, as affecting owners and occupiers respectively, constitute the owners consolidated rate and occupiers consolidated rate, as the case may be, in respect of the lands and heritages situated therein.

(3.) The consolidated rates shall be imposed upon lands and heritages according to the annual value thereof as appearing on the valuation roll, but subject always to the provisions of the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1867, in regard to all assessments leviable under that Act.

(4.) Where at the passing of this Act any rate leviable by the commissioners of supply in respect of any such branch of expenditure is payable by owners only, without relief to the extent of one half against the occupiers, the following provisions shall have effect; that

is to say,

(1.) As soon as may be after the passing of this Act the sheriff shall ascertain and determine what has been during the ten years previous to the term of Whitsunday immediately preceding the passing of this Act the average amount in the pound of each such rate (in this Act referred to as the average rate), and shall cause his determination