Hiring for Allotments. Report of arbitrator. Compensation on Management of allotments. Size. This provision will afford evidence on which to base the amount of compensation due under subsection (7), on the determination of any tenancy created by compulsory hiring. The custody of the public books, writings, and papers of the parish has been previously dealt with on page 70. On the determination of any tenancy created by compulsory hiring a single arbitrator appointed in accordance with the provisions of section 3 of the Allotments Act, 1887, is empowered to determine as to the amount due by the landlord for compensation for improvements, or by the Parish Council for depreciation, and such compensation is to be assessed in accordance with the provisions of the Agricultural Holdings (England) Act, 1883 (46 & 47 Vict. c. 61), (Local Government Act, 1894, s. 10 (7)). Where the tenancy is created by voluntary hiring, the provisions of the Agricultural Holdings (England) Act, 1883, would apply on the determination of the tenancy. In case of difference as to the amount and mode and time of payment of compensation, the difference is to be settled by a referee or by two referees and an umpire (46 & 47 Vict. c. 61, ss. 8, 9). In the case of a compulsory hiring, a single arbitrator appointed as provided above, will determine the amount due by the landlord for compensation for improvements, or by the Parish Council for depreciation. The Act of 1883 does not provide for depreciation except as a set-off by the landlord against a claim for compensation (46 & 47 Vict. c. 61, s. 7), but compensation is by section 10 (7) of the Local Government Act, 1894, to be assessed according to the Act of 1883. There are three classes of improvements mentioned in the first schedule of 46 & 47 Vict. c. 61, for which compensation may be claimed subject to the observance of the conditions required. Part I of the Schedule enumerates improvements to which the consent of the landlord is required before the improvement is made; they consist of permanent works, such as laying down permanent pasture, making fences, planting orchards, &c. Part II mentions only one improvement, namely, drainage, in respect of which notice to the landlord is required before the work is done. Part III enumerates improvements to which the consent of the landlord is not required; they are the application of manure and other ameliorators of the soil, such as lime, clay, &c. Sections to 8 of the Allotments Act, 1887, are to apply to any 5 allotment hired by a Parish Council in like manner as if that Council were the sanitary authority and also the allotment managers, subject to the following provisions : The Parish Council— (a) may let to one person an allotment or allotments exceeding one acre, but, if the land is hired compulsorily, not exceeding in the whole four acres of pasture or one acre of arable and three acres of pasture; and (b) may permit to be erected on the allotment any stable, cow house, or barn; and Hiring for Allotments. Pasture. (c) shall not break up, or permit to be broken up, any permanent Buildings. pasture, without the assent in writing of the landlord (s. 10 (6)). The same sections are made applicable to land acquired for allotments, and assured to the Parish Council under section 9 (14); but in the case of land hired by a Parish Council the provisions of these sections will be modified as stated above. The sections, of which the text is given at pages 358 to 360 of the Appendix, confer full powers for the improvement and adaptation of land for allotments, and for the management of the allotments. By section 7 of the Allotments Act, 1887, one person is not permitted to hold any allotment or allotments acquired under that Act exceeding one acre, and no building other than a toolhouse, shed, greenhouse, fowl house, or pigstye is to be erected on any part of any allotment. If any such other building is erected, the District Council must forthwith pull it down, and sell and dispose of the materials. In the case of land hired by a Parish Council for allotments the restriction as to the area let to one person is removed altogether where the hiring is by agreement, and is relaxed to the extent mentioned in section 10 (6) of the Local Government Act, 1894, where the hiring is compulsory. Whether the hiring is by agreement or compulsory, the Parish Council may permit the erection of a stable, cowhouse, or barn. The power of the Parish Council to deal with the land in the manner indicated in section 10 (6) might, however, be modified by the express terms of a hiring by agreement. The enactment, so far as it is permissive, simply removes or modifies statutory restrictions, and confers no absolute right on the Parish Council, irrespective of obligations which they may have voluntarily incurred to the person from whom the land has been hired. There is no definition, for the purpose of the assent in writing of the landlord for the breaking up of permanent pasture, of the expression "landlord," but it no doubt means the person entitled to receive the rent, as in subsection 10. A report of any proceedings under sections 9 and 10 is required to be annually laid before Parliament by the Local Government Board (s. 10 (11)), and that Board are also to lay before Parliament any order made by them under section 9, overruling the decision of the County Council not to make an order for the compulsory acquisition of land (s. 9 (5) ). Report to proceedings Parliament of under sections and 10. 9 Qualification and election. No ex-officio members. Two exceptions. Aldershot. Guardians under local Acts. CHAPTER VII. Constitution, Term of Office and Proceedings of Boards A THOROUGH revolution is effected by the Local Government Act, 1894, in the qualification of electors, the mode of election, and the qualification of members of Boards of Guardians and of the new District Councils (other than Town Councils) in whom are merged Urban and Rural Sanitary Authorities.1 With the exception of two authorities there will be no ex-officio or nominated members of any of these authorities (Local Government Act, 1894, ss. 20 (1), 23 (1)). In the City of Oxford, the Corporation of the Guardians remains as constituted under their local Act, and only those members who are elected by the ratepayers of parishes will be elected under and subject to the provisions of the new Act (s. 60 (6)). The ex-officio and other members who represent the University and colleges will be unaffected by the Act. Nothing in the Act is to affect any powers of the Secretary of State under the Public Health Supplemental Act for Aldershot, 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. 22), or the position of persons nominated under those powers (s. 59 (6)). The Home Secretary under this provision nominates three members of the Urban District Council of Aldershot. BOARDS OF GUARDIANS. Subject to the retention of their privileges by the University of Oxford, the provisions relating to guardians apply to every Board of Guardians throughout the kingdom, including Guardians of Unions within the Administrative County of London and County Boroughs (s. 30), whether constituted under the general law or under a local Act. Where under any local and personal Act guardians are elected for districts, whether called by that name or not, the provisions of the Act with respect to the election of guardians apply as if each of the districts were a parish (s. 60 (4) ). 1 See Introduction pages 4 and 5 as to the former provisions relating to the election and constitution of Boards of Guardians and Urban and Rural Sanitary Authorities. 2 See the definition of " Board of Guardians," page 8. 1 The parochial electors of a parish are the electors of the guardians for the parish, and if the parish is divided into wards for the election of guardians, the electors of the guardians for each ward are such of the parochial electors as are registered in respect of qualificacations within the ward (s. 20 (3)). Boards of Guardians. Electors Each elector may give one vote and no more for each of any One man one vote number of persons not exceeding the number to be elected (s. 20 (7)). The election is to be, subject to the provisions of the Act, con- Mode of election ducted according to Rules framed by the Local Government Board (s. 20 (5)). guardians. No person is qualified to be elected or to be a guardian unless Qualifications of he is a parochial elector of some parish within the union, or has during the whole of the twelve months preceding the nomination (s. 75 (2)) resided in the union, or in the case of a guardian for a parish wholly or partly situate within the area of a borough, whether a county borough or not, is qualified to be elected a councillor for that borough, and no person is to be disqualified by sex or marriage for being elected or being'a guardian. So much of any enactment, whether in a public, general, or local and personal Act, as relates to the qualification of a guardian is repealed (s. 20 (2)). The wording of this provision is not so clear as it might be with respect to the third qualification mentioned, but there is no sufficient ground for holding that in the case of a guardian for a parish, wholly or partly within a borough, the qualification prescribed is exclusive of the other two qualifications. It is simply an additional alternative. A person may, therefore, be elected and be a guardian (1) If he is a parochial elector of some parish within the union; or (2) If he has during the whole of the twelve months preceding the election resided in the union; or (3) If in the case of a guardian for a parish wholly or partly situate within the area of a borough he is qualified to be elected a councillor for that borough. A guardian qualified under the first or third alternative only would vacate his office if at any time he ceased to be so qualified. women The expression "parochial elector," when used with reference to a Position of parish in an urban district, or in the county of London, or any county borough, means any person who would be a parochial elector of the parish if it were a rural parish (s. 75 (2)), and a married woman may be registered as a parochial elector under section 43, whether a parish is in a borough or not. A feme sole may also be a parochial elector, Boards of Guardians. Position of women. Clergymen. Term of office and retirement. as she may be on the Local Government Register of Electors. If registered as a parochial elector, a woman, whether married or single, may be elected a guardian. She is also qualified if she has resided for the specified time in the union. But in the case of the third alternative qualification for a guardian of a parish wholly or partly in a borough, namely, the being qualified to be elected a councillor for that borough, the position of a woman under the Local Government Act is not at all satisfactory. The Act expressly provides that no person shall be disqualified by sex or marriage for being elected or being a guardian, whilst it makes no provision for placing a women in the nonresident list of persons qualified to be elected councillors of the borough. That list comprises those persons, who being occupiers of property within the borough, and having been rated and paid rates for the qualifying period, reside more than seven miles and within fifteen of the borough. They are not entitled to be enrolled as burgesses because they reside more than seven miles from the borough, but they are qualified to be elected councillors, if their names are entered in the separate non-resident list, which is subject to revision in the same manner as the burgess list. Women cannot be placed in the list, as they are not qualified to be elected councillors of a borough ; and under the Local Government Act, in spite of the provision removing the disqualification of sex and coverture they cannot apparently be elected guardians for a parish wholly or partly in a borough, if they rely on the fact that if men they would be entitled to be placed upon the non-resident list. This is a defect in the Act, but any other conclusion is only possible by a straining of its language. A woman to be elected as a guardian, whether for a parish within or without a borough, must rely on one of the first two alternative qualifications, namely, that she is a parochial elector or a resident in the union. A person in holy orders, or the regular minister of a dissenting congregation, cannot be qualified under the third alternative, as he is disqualified for being elected or for being a councillor of a borough [Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, (45 & 46 Vict. c. 50) s. 12]. Ordinarily the term of office of a Guardian will be three years, and one-third, as nearly as may be, of every Board of Guardians will go out of office on the 15th day of April in each year, and their places be filled by the newly-elected guardians; but (a) Where the County Council on the application, on or after the appointed day,' of the Board of Guardians consider that it would be expedient to provide for the simultaneous retirement of the whole of the Board, they may direct that the members shall retire together on the 15th of April in every In some instances County Councils have already made orders under this provision of section 20 (6) of the Local Government Act, 1894, but it is submitted that the opening words of section 20 clearly govern the whole of the section, so that no action under it can properly be taken before "the appointed day," which for this purpose is the day on which the guardians first elected under the Act came into office, see page 6. |