Officers of excise, and persons employed in collection or management of revenue of excise. The Postmaster-General and officers of the Post Office. Inspectors under the Factory and Workshops Act, 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 16). Men enrolled and officers and non-commissioned officers appointed under the Persons excused on the ground of conscientious scruples. The fine for non-acceptance may be determined by bye-law, but so that it does not in the case of Mayor or Chairman, exceed £100. In other cases, £50. If no bye-law has been made, the fine will be— In other cases, £25. A person who acts in office before making the declaration incurs a penalty for each act, not exceeding £50; The next question is, how vacancies in the Council may arise by the disqualification of a person during his tenure of office. If a Councillor, &c., loses his qualification during his office by ceasing to be enrolled and entitled to be enrolled as an elector, or as a non-resident, or in the last case by losing his property qualification, or by his acceptance of a contract, or place of profit disqualifying him, the office remains in fact full, and the office must be declared vacant by the High Court by quo warranto before there can be another election, and before his authority can be determined. However, if any person, after becoming disqualified, acts in office, he will be liable to a fine for each offence, not exceed ing £50, recoverable by action.2 If a member of a Council is adjudged bankrupt, or compounds by deed with his creditors, or makes an arrangement or composition with his creditors under the Bankruptcy Act, by deed or otherwise, or is (except in case of illness) continuously absent from the county or borough, being Chairman of a County Council or Mayor, for more than two months, or being County Alderman or County Councillor, for more than twelve months, or, being Town Councillor or Borough Alderman, for more than six months, he becomes disqualified, and ceases to hold office. In this case the Council must declare the office vacant, and signify the same by notice, signed by three members of the Council, and countersigned by the Clerk of the County Council or Town Clerk, as the case may be, and fixed, in the case of a borough on the Town Hall, and in other cases, in a proper place, and thereupon the office will become vacant. If a person becomes disqualified by absence, he will be liable to the same fine as for non-acceptance of office.1 1 Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, secs. 39, 225. R. v. Chester, 25 L.J., Q.B. 61. 2 Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, sec. 41. Vacancies. Resignation. Failure to hold Election on proper day.2 Where an office becomes vacant owing to a conviction for offences against election law, or in consequence of the report of an Election Court, it seems that the vacancy is complete on the conviction, or on the making of a report. Any person may resign his office by writing delivered by him to the Clerk of the County Council or Town Clerk, as the case may be, and thereupon the office will become vacant, and the person resigning will be liable to the same fine as for nonacceptance of office.1 If an election is not held on the proper day or, in the case of filling up a casual vacancy, within the appointed time, it may be held on the next day after that day, or after the expiration of the appointed time; but if that day also is passed over, application must be made to the High Court for a mandamus to hold the election on some subsequent day to be fixed by the Court. If an ordinary election is not held on the proper day, the persons who should have gone out of office will continue to hold office until the election is actually held. 1 Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, sec. 36. * See Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, sec. 70. CHAPTER VIII. CONCLUSION. Brief Summary of the Government of a Borough and of the provisions of the Local Government Act with respect to the Metropolis. IN our concluding chapter we propose, first to sum up what we have stated with regard to boroughs in the course of the work, and to give a brief account of borough finance, and secondly, to give the shortest possible sketch of the system of local government in the Metropolis. Boroughs may, after the appointed day, be divided into three classes, namely, county boroughs; other boroughs, the population of which according to the census of 1881, was over 10,000; and boroughs the population of which, according to that census, was under 10,000. Again, a borough, belonging to any one of these classes, may or may not have had, on the 13th August, 1888, a separate Court of Quarter Sessions, and the powers and duties of the Town Council will differ accordingly. The constitution of the Town Council is in all cases alike; in Chapters VI. and VII. we have sufficiently discussed the qualification and registration of burgesses and the election of members of a Town Council; in Chapter V. we have shown how the proceedings of a Town Council are conducted. We now proceed to mention the business transacted by the Town Council, which we have incidentally discussed. The Town Council of a county borough transact, or will, after the appointed day transact, the following business (1.) They act as Sanitary Authority under the Allotments Act, 1887, but with regard to them, the Local Government Board transact the business which in other cases is transacted by the County Council.1 (2.) They appoint Public Analysts.2 Council of a county borough. Business of Town (3.) They may oppose and also promote Bills in Parliament.1 (4.) They have certain powers under the Wild Birds Protection Acts, 1880 and 1881.2 (5.) They make bye-laws for the borough.3 (6.) They act as Local Authority under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts, and the Destructive Insects Act, 1877.4 (7.) If the borough has a separate Court of Quarter Sessions, the Town Council appoint a Borough Coroner. In the case of a county borough without a separate Court of Quarter Sessions, if the district of a County Coroner is wholly within the borough, the writ for his election will issue to the Town Council, who will appoint him. If the district of a County Coroner is partly within and partly without a county borough, the writ will issue to the County Council; but if the Town Council so require, a Joint Committee of the Town Council and the County Council may be formed to appoint the Coroner.5 (8.) The Town Council are a Local Authority under the Explosives Act, 1875.6 (9.) They have a right to appoint members of Boards of Conservators of Fisheries.7 (10.) The Town Council are a Local Authority under the Act of 1859, with regard to gas meters, if that Act has been adopted in the borough, except where they themselves are makers or sellers of gas, in which latter case the Justices of the borough must act.8 (11.) As Urban Sanitary Authority, the Town Council must maintain all highways in the borough. There is no distinction between main roads and other highways in a county borough. They must also maintain all borough bridges formerly maintainable by them, and also all public bridges within the boundaries of their borough, which were before the appointed day repairable by the county or a hundred, &c.o (12.) The Town Council are a Local Authority under the Local Stamp Act, 1869. 10 See the Municipal Corporations (Borough Funds) Act, 1872. (35&36 Vict. c. 91). 2 Ante, p. 116. Ante, p. 117, and see the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, sec. 23. Ante, pp. 118-133, 138. (13.) The Town Council must provide asylum accommodation for the lunatics of the borough, and will be chargeable with the costs of any pauper lunatics who may be found in the borough and whose settlement cannot be ascertained. Any existing arrangements with regard to lunatic asylums that the borough may have made before passing of the Local Government Act, 1888, are, however, to remain as far as possible unaltered.1 (14.) The Town Council of a county borough within twenty miles of London and Westminster, must grant music and dancing licences. This only, therefore, applies to Croydon and West Ham.2 (15.) The Town Council have to superintend the registration of parliamentary occupation voters within their borough, and if the borough is as to any part co-extensive with a parliamentary borough they have power to divide the parliamentary borough into polling districts.3 (16.) The Town Council must maintain a police force under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, but their police force may be consolidated with that of the county in which the borough is situated or of a county which the borough adjoins.* (17.) The Town Council of a county borough within ten miles of Charing Cross would have to license any race-course within the boundaries of their borough.5 (18.) The Town Council may contribute towards or erect Reformatory and Industrial Schools." (19.) The Town Council must undertake the registration of Charitable Gifts, Places of Religious Worship and Rules of Societies.7 (20.) They are, if they maintain a separate police force, a Police Authority under the Riot (Damages) Act, 1886.8 (21.) They enforce the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, 1876, as Sanitary Authority.9 (22.) The Town Council must grant Theatre Licences.10 (23.) They act as Local Authority under the Weights and Measures Act.11 In addition, of course, the Town Council transact much other business as Sanitary Authority, &c., into which it is beyond our scope to enter. 1 Ante, pp. 56-60, 161-165. 2 Ante, p. 165. 3 Ante, pp. 203, 204. 210, 211. 5 Ante, p. 172. Ante, pp. 65, 172. 7 Ante, p. 173. 8 Ante, p. 175. 9 Ante, pp. 176-180. |