of the hereditaments must not exceed £20; in Liverpool, £13; in Manchester and Birmingham, L10; and in other places the value must not exceed £8. A Parish Council have greater facilities for the compulsory purchase of land than other Authorities have, and they have the additional privilege of being enabled to hire land compulsorily for allotments. It is to be expected that application for these powers of a Parish Council will often be made. Another subject for which the powers of a Parish Council will be coveted is the control of borough and other charities. In this matter the interests of the parishes composing the borough or district, as opposed to the interests of the whole borough or district, may have to be safeguarded. Transfer of powers relating to rural parishes. Where it appears to the Local Government Board that, by reason of Charities. the circumstances connected with any parish in a municipal borough (including a county borough), or other urban district divided into wards, or with the parochial charities of that parish, the parish will not, if the majority of the body of trustees administering the charity are appointed by the Council of the borough or district, be properly represented on that body, they may, by their order, provide that such of those trustees as are appointed by the Council, or some of them, shall be appointed on the nomination of the councillors elected for the ward or wards comprising such parish or any part of the parish (s. 33 (2)). Before making any order with respect to any charity the Local Government Board are required to consult the Charity Commissioners (s. 33 (7)). Section 14 of the Act does not require that a Parish Council should appoint a majority of the trustees of a parochial charity, but the Bill, as it left the House of Commons, made it obligatory upon the Parish Council to appoint, in the case of a non-ecclesiastical parochial charity, a sufficient number of additional trustees, so that the elective element should always be a majority of the body of trustees. The power of appointment was not confined to charities where there was no elective element. The reference in section 33 seems to have been intended to refer to the obligation which the Bill, as brought from the Commons, laid upon the Parish Council. In the Lords the provision in question was struck out, and the existing enactment in subsection (3) inserted, under which it is only where there is no elective element on the body of trustees of a non-ecclesiastical parochial charity that the Parish Council may appoint additional members. They are simply permitted and not required to appoint such members, and the number is not to exceed what the Charity Commissioners allow in each case. The Parish Council are required under subsection (2) to appoint trustees in the place of overseer trustees, and, if the charity is non-ecclesiastical, in the place of the churchwarden overseers also. The effect of section 33, read with section 14, seems to be that an order of the Local Government Board may confer upon a Town Council or other Authority, as the case may be, the powers of a Parish and London. Charities. Urban Councils Council' to appoint in certain cases trustees in the place of the overseers and churchwardens, and also to appoint trustees of a non-ecclesiastical parochial charity (that is the power referred to in section 14 (3)), and that in conferring such powers the Local Government Board may, where a district is divided into wards, and the effect of the exercise of these powers might be to enable the Authority to appoint a majority of the trustees, direct, if the circumstances seem such as to render it proper to do so, that the appointment be made by the councillors elected for the ward or wards comprising the parish whose charities are dealt with. It will not be obligatory on the Authority to exercise any power which may be conferred upon them of appointing additional trustees; but, if they do exercise the power, the number of trustees they may appoint will be such as the Charity Commissioners allow. No restriction is expressly placed upon the discretion of the Commissioners in the matter, but the general intention of section 14 (3) seems to be that the elective members should not be a majority of the whole body of trustees. In London, parishes only are divided into wards, and the districts under District Boards consist of grouped parishes, the respective Vestries of which elect the members of the District Boards. The provision in section 33 (2) as to districts divided into wards seems generally inapplicable to sanitary districts in the Metropolis. Vestries elected under the Metropolis Management Acts now exercise, as regards charities, the powers and duties which belonged to the open Vestry-In re Hayle's Estate (31 L. J., Ch. 612). Application of Act to Scilly Islands. The Local Government Act, 1894, is to be deemed to be an Act touching local government within the meaning of section 49 of the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), and a provisional order for the Scilly Islands may, on the application of the Council of the Isles of Scilly, and after such public notice as appears to the Local Government Board sufficient for giving information to all persons interested, be made accordingly (Local Government Act, 1894, (s. 74). Section 49 of the Local Government Act, 1888, which is printed at page 362 of the Appendix, authorised the Local Government Board to apply, by means of a provisional order, confirmed by Parliament, the provisions of that Act and of certain other statutes to the Scilly Islands; and accordingly by a provisional order of the Local Government Board, confirmed by the Local Government Board's Provisional Order, Confirmation (No. 6) Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. 176), a Council of the Isles of Scilly was established. The Isles are divided under the order into five civil parishes, for which overseers are appointed. The Council have some powers of a County Council under the order, and they act also as the Rural Sanitary Authority, and the Highway Authority for the Isles. Section 74 of the Local Government Act, 1894, will enable such of the provisions of the Act as may be suitable to the Scilly Islands to be applied to those Islands. CHAPTER IX. Accounts of District and Parish Councils and Parish Meetings Accounts-Audit of Accounts. DISTRICT AND PARISH COUNCILS AND PARISH MEETINGS. THE accounts of the receipts and payments of Parish and District Councils, and of Parish Meetings for parishes not having Parish Councils, and their committees and officers, are required to be made up yearly to the thirty-first day of March, or in the case of accounts which are to be audited half-yearly, then half-yearly to the thirtieth day of September and the thirty-first day of March in each year, and in such form as the Local Government Board prescribe (s. 58 (1)). The accounts of Local Boards and of Improvement Commissioners and of their respective officers, are at present made up and balanced to the 25th of March in each year. Period to which accounts to be made up. Local Boards and Improve ment Commissions. Borough accounts are now made up half-yearly to the 25th of March Boroughs. and 29th of September in each year. The audit is also half-yearly. Overseers. The accounts of guardians and their officers and of the overseers Guardians and and of every collector (which includes an assistant overseer) are required by the General Order for Accounts issued by the Poor Law Board on the 14th of January, 1867, to be made up and balanced to the 25th of March and the 29th of September in each year. provisions were applicable to the guardians acting as the Rural Sanitary Authority (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55, s. 248). These Highway Boards, Surveyors of Highways and Boards for the Highways. Repair of the Highways make up their accounts yearly to the 25th of March. Urban District Rural Councils, Section 58 (1) of the Local Government Act, 1894, applies to the accounts of both Urban and Rural District Councils, including Non-county boroughs other than county boroughs. The accounts of non-county Boroughs, boroughs will be made up to the 31st of March and 30th of Councils, September in each year, and the accounts of other Urban District Councils will be made up once a year to the 31st of March. Rural Parish Meetings. District Councils and their officers will make up their accounts halfyearly to the same dates as the Town Councils of non-county Boroughs. Parish Councils, and Parish Meetings, and their officers will make up their accounts yearly to the 31st of March. An assistant overseer is, unless appointed by a Board of Guardians, an officer of the Parish Accounts. Period to which to be made up. Assistant overseer. Guardians and overseers. Highway authorities. Forms will be prescribed. Inspection of Council (where there is a Parish Council (s. 81 (3) ), and his accounts will therefore be made up yearly to the same date as the accounts of that Council. The accounts of guardians and their officers and of the overseers and of any assistant overseer will, in a parish not having a separate Parish Council, until the Local Government Board make any order directing otherwise, continue to be made up and balanced to the 25th of March and the 29th of September. Where the transfer to the Rural District Council of the powers of Highway Authorities under section 25 (1) is postponed, the accounts of the Highway Authority will also, until otherwise ordered by the Local Government Board, be made up to the 25th of March in each year. Probably the Local Government Board will assimilate the period of making up the accounts of officers and authorities not affected by the Act to the dates fixed by the Act for the accounts of other authorities. Under section 73 of the Local Government Act, 1888, the "local financial year" ends on the 31st of March. That year is, under the Act, applicable to the accounts of County Councils, and the same year should apply to the accounts of every Local Authority. A form of accounts will have to be prescribed by the Local Government Board for the accounts of Parish and District Councils, and of Parish Meetings, and of their respective committees and officers. Every parochial elector of a rural parish is entitled at all reasonable times, without payment, to inspect and take copies of and extracts from all books, accounts, and documents belonging to or under the control of the Parish Council of the parish or Parish Meeting, or of the District Council of the district in which the parish is situated (s. 58 (4) (5)). The power of inspection conferred by this provision is in addition to the power to inspect accounts and other documents deposited seven clear days before the audit, see next page. Audit of Accounts. The accounts of Parish and District Councils and of Parish Meetings for parishes not having Parish Councils, and their committees and officers, except accounts audited by the auditors of a Borough (but inclusive of the accounts of a joint committee appointed by a District auditor. Borough Council with another Council not being a Borough Council) will be audited by a district auditor, and the enactments relating to audit by district auditors of accounts of Urban Sanitary Authorities and their officers, and to all matters incidental thereto and consequential thereon, will apply accordingly, except that in the case of the accounts of Rural District Councils, their committees and officers, the audit is to be half-yearly instead of yearly (s. 58 (2)). Sections 247, 249, and 250 of the Public Health Act, 1875, which relate to the audit of accounts of Urban Sanitary Authorities and their officers are printed at pages 323 to 325 of the Appendix. The Dates of audit. accounts are to be audited as soon as can be after the 31st of March, and, where the accounts are made up half-yearly, the 30th of September in each year by the District Auditors appointed by the Local Government Board under the District Auditors Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 6). The Authority whose accounts are audited, must pay a stamp duty Stamp duty. for accounts thus audited. The District Auditor will give notice to the Authority of the time and place at which the audit will be made, and after receiving that notice the Authority must give at least fourteen days' notice of that time and place, and also of the deposit of accounts they are required to make, by advertisement in one or more local newspapers. accounts, &c. A copy of the accounts, duly made up and balanced, together with Deposit of all rate books, account books, deeds, contracts, accounts, vouchers, and receipts, mentioned or referred to in such accounts, must be deposited in the office of the Authority, and must be open during office hours to the inspection of all persons interested, for seven clear days before the audit, and all such persons may take copies or extracts free of charge. For the purpose of the audit the District Auditor may, by summons, in writing, require the production of all books, deeds, accounts, &c., that he may deem necessary, and may require any person holding or accountable for such books, &c., to appear before him and sign a declaration as to their correctness. Production of books, &c. items. Any ratepayer or owner of property in the parish or district may be Objection to present at the audit, and may make any objection to the accounts before the District Auditor, and such ratepayers and owners have the same right of appeal against allowances by a District Auditor as is given in the case of disallowances. The District Auditor must disallow every item of account contrary Certificate of to law, and surcharge the same on the person making or authorising auditor. the making of the illegal payment; he must charge against any person accounting the amount of any deficiency incurred by the negligence or misconduct of that person, or of any sum which ought to have been, but is not, brought into account by that person. But he is not to disallow any expenses sanctioned by the Local Government Board. In every case of disallowance or surcharge, he must certify the amount due from such person, and on application by any party aggrieved, must state in writing the reasons for his decision in respect of such disallowance or surcharge, and also of any allowance which he may have made. auditor's decision Any person aggrieved by disallowance, may apply to the Queen's Appeal against Bench Division of the High Court for a writ of certiorari, to remove the disallowance into that court; or such person may appeal to the Local Government Board against the auditor's decision. Instructions have been issued by the Local Government Board for the guidance |