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THE

LAWS RELATING TO PUBLIC

HEALTH.

SANITARY WORKS.

APPLICATION OF POWERS (a).

PUBLIC HEALTH AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACTS.

PRIOR to the passing of the Public Health Act, 1848, works of sanitary (b) improvement in any town could only be carried out under the authority of a special local Act of Parliament, to facilitate the enactment of which was passed the Towns Improvement Clauses Act, 1847. By the Public Health Act (11 & 12 Vict. c. 63) the Queen was empowered to issue Orders in Council, on the recommendation of a General Board of Health; or the Board might issue Provisional Orders, to be confirmed by Parliament, under the title of Public Health Supplemental Acts, for applying the provisions of the general Act to the places therein specified.

By the Local Government Act, 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. 98), which incorporates the main provisions of the Public Health

(a) In accordance with the plan which the author has laid down, a compendious analytical digest of the several enactments is given in the text, so arranged that all the provisions under each head shall be brought together. But all the statutes so digested will be found entire in the Appendix, where a strict chronological order has been observed; and any one of these may readily be found by reference to the Contents or Index.

(b) From sanitas-health. This word is sometimes less correctly written "sanatory."

Act, 1848, all the powers of the General Board were either abrogated or transferred to the Secretary of State (ss. 8, 13, et seq.). In lieu of the application of the Act to any District, after inquiry by a Central Authority on petition of a certain proportion of the ratepayers, the principle of the Local Government Act is, that the Local Authorities, owners and ratepayers of any district may adopt the Act (s. 12) on giving notice, and subject to appeal from dissentients to the Secretary of State; and, with reference to Provisional Orders for the purchase of land or alteration of boundaries in certain cases, subject also to the confirmation of Parliament by Local Government Supplemental Acts (ss. 75, 77, 78). The two Acts are to be construed together, and the provisions of each applicable to all matters arising under the other (s. 4) (a).

Under the Local Government Act a Local Board of Health may be constituted in any borough (b) by resolution of the Council assembled for the purpose; and in other places by Improvement Commissioners, where such exist, or (where no such Board), by owners and ratepayers; but a month's notice of meeting of such Council, or Board, and of the purpose thereof, must be given in the usual manner, and two-thirds of the members present must concur in the resolution (s. 12). Such meeting is to be summoned, on the requisition of twenty ratepayers or owners, by the Mayor, the chairman of the Commissioners, the Churchwardens or Overseers, as the case may be ; or, in case of refusal or neglect, by any person appointed by the Secretary of State (s. 13). The requisitionists may be required to give security for costs, in case the Act be not adopted within the district (24 & 25 Vict. c. 61, s. 1). Where no such

;

(a) Where it had been enacted that "All the powers and provisions [of a former Act] for the carrying the said Act into execution, shall be as good, valid, and effectual for carrying this Act [the Act in question] into execution, as if the same had been respectively repealed and re-enacted in the body of this Act," it was held that any enactment contained in the former is embodied in the latter (R. v. Fell, 1. B. & Ad. 380). It is apprehended that the same would be the case where two or more Acts are to be construed as one Act.

(b) "Borough" shall include all places mentioned in 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 76, or duly incorporated by subsequent charter, 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 2.

Council or Board exists, the summoning officer must fix, and give notice of, such meeting by advertisement, and at the usual churches and chapels. The meeting shall choose a chairman, and may be adjourned from day to day. The chairman is to propose the adoption of the Act, and the meeting decide for or against the same. A poll may be demanded, to be taken by voting papers according to the form and manner prescribed. If there be no poll, a declaration by the chairman will, in the absence of proof, be sufficient evidence of the decision ;—any person forging, altering, destroying, purloining or interrupting the proper distribution of voting papers may be imprisoned not exceeding three months, with or without hard labour (21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 13). Except with the sanction of the Secretary of State, a small place included within a greater—though each be otherwise authorised,-is not entitled to adopt the Act, unless the greater place has refused to adopt the same (s. 14) (a).

The District of any Local Board of Health adjoining a highway district is to be deemed within such last-mentioned district for the purpose of any meeting of the Highway Board (26 Vict. c. 17, s. 6). Any Commissioners or other Local Authority exercising powers for sanitary regulations or town improvement under a local Act, may adopt any part of the Local Government Act, by resolution, to be forwarded to the Secretary of State, subject to certain restrictions as to borrowing and retirement and election of members (s. 15 ; and 24 & 25 Vict. c. 61, s. 2). Nor will this power of adopting part of the general Act be exhausted by one adoption, but may be continued from time to time (26 Vict. c. 17, s. 7). One tenth of the ratepayers of any place having no defined boundary may petition the Secretary of State to settle the same; who may direct inquiry, after notice, and make orders thereupon, and as to

(a) The boundaries of a district within a larger one may, under s. 14 of the Local Government Act, be settled by the Secretary of State; but this cannot be done until the greater place has refused to adopt the Act (Ex parte Matlock, Bath District, 31 L. J. Q. B. 177).

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