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may adopt

when boun

(6.) Any place the boundaries of which have been settled in Any place pursuance of the foregoing provisions shall thenceforth, this Act for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be a dary settled. place with a known and defined boundary, and may adopt this Act accordingly (ƒ);

And for the purpose of enabling it so to do, a summoning officer shall be appointed by the order settling the boundaries, whose duty it shall be forthwith (g) to take all such steps as may be necessary for convening a meeting of the ratepayers (h) to decide as to the adoption of this Act;

And if such officer dies, becomes incapable, neglects or refuses to perform his duties, the said secretary of state may, on the application of any four ratepayers, appoint another officer in his room.

APPEAL AGAINST ADOPTION OF ACT.

appeal, by

against reso

XVII. (1.) In cases where a resolution adopting this Act Power to has been passed in any place, if any number, being not petition, less than one-twentieth of the owners and (i) ratepayers lution to of such place (k), such twentieth to be one-twentieth in adopt this number of the owners and (i) ratepayers of the place,

(f) As to when it shall come into operation, see sect. 19. (g) This word is interpreted to mean "with all convenient speed." (h) The owners are omitted here, but doubtless it is not intended that they shall not be summoned. By sect. 13 they are empowered to vote thereat, as the place by the order of the secretary of state is put into the same position as one having known boundaries, and consequently all the provisions of sect. 11 apply to it.

(i) The owners and ratepayers must join in the petition, and if the reference be made to the objectors numerically, there must be onetwentieth of the owners and ratepayers taken together. In many places it will be almost impossible to determine this in any reasonable time. It is easy to ascertain the ratepayers, but in populous places it is very difficult to discover all the owners, and, unless they are all discovered, the proper numerical proportion cannot be determined. The difficulty will not be so great in reference to the property, as that can be ascertained from the poor rate with reasonable accuracy.

(k) This applies to the whole of the proposed district; therefore if all the owners and ratepayers of any particular part of it should object, their

Act.

taken together, or the owners and ratepayers in respect of one-twentieth of the rateable (z) property in the place, are desirous that the whole or any part of such place should be excluded from the operation of this Act, they may present a petition to one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, appealing (a) against such resolution, and praying that such exclusion may be made:

Such petition (2.) Such petition shall be presented within twenty-one days

to be presented to secretary of state.

secretary of

(b) from the date of the passing of the resolution appealed against, and shall, where the exclusion of part of a place only is prayed for, state,

(1.) The part of the place proposed to be excluded, accompanied with an explanatory plan; and

(2.) The reasons for such exclusion (c) :

It shall be subscribed (d) by the owners and ratepayers presenting the same:

Power to (3.) Upon the receipt of any such petition as aforesaid, the said secretary of state may direct inquiry (e) in the proposed district,

state to direct

inquiry to be

made.

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objection will be unavailing unless they constitute one-twentieth part of the whole proposed district.

(2) This means the property rateable to the poor rate, and according to Baker v. Marsh, 24 L. J. R. Q. B. 1, will doubtless be construed to apply to the net rateable value.

(a) In this case the petition will be an appeal.

(b) This time is extended to the expiration of six weeks from the date of any resolution adopting the Act by the 26 & 27 Vict. c. 17, s. 3. But in the case of the districts to which the Act, 26 & 27 Vict. c. 70, applied, the term was, for a time limited to the 1st July 1864, reduced to fourteen days, and the time of the notice provided for afterwards was reduced to seven days.

(c) The reasons for the exclusion are only required by the terms of this clause in the cases where a part of the district is sought to be excepted, but it is obviously necessary to show the grounds for the appeal in every case. (d) The subscription must be by the parties themselves. It is very doubtful whether an agent is competent to subscribe, within the legal meaning of this section. See Toms, app., Cuming, resp., 8 Scott,

N. R. 910.

(e) See, as to this, ss. 79, 80, post.

As to the genuineness of the petition (ƒ); and

As to the matters alleged in such petition:

(4.) Fourteen days notice of the time, place, and subject of Notice of such inquiry shall be given (g);

inquiry.

made by

secretary of

(5.) The said secretary of state shall make order with respect order to be to the matter in question on such appeal (h), and such order shall be binding on the place in respect of which state. it is made, and there shall be stated in such order the time at which this Act is to come into force (i).

secretary of state in case of alleged invalidity of

XVIII. It shall be lawful for any owner or ratepayer Appeal to who disputes the validity of the vote for (k) the adoption of this Act to appeal within fourteen days from the declaration of the vote (1) to one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries vote for of state, setting forth the grounds on which he disputes the this Act. validity of such vote, and it shall be lawful for any of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, on such appeal to

(f) This must mean not only as to the signatures, but as to the qualification of the persons signing.

(g) See note on sect. 16, No. 4, of this Act, ante.

(h) Apparently, the secretary of state may order that the Act shall not be adopted in the place at all.

adoption of

fault.

It will be a question whether a default in any of the preliminary As to de. matters will render the order of the secretary of state void. As the inquiry is only a matter which, in his discretion, he may order, any default therein would not do so, but a defect in the petition may have this effect. (i) It thus appears that the appeal will have the effect of postponing the commencement of the local board's powers. See further sect,

20, post.

Note, that though there is no provision here in reference to the costs of this appeal, as in sect. 16, nevertheless sect. 81 will enable the secretary of state to make an order relative thereto, which can be enforced as those on appeal.

(k) No appeal is given from the vote rejecting the adoption of the Act. This is unnecessary, because the proceedings may be renewed at any time.

(1) There was a doubt as to what was meant by the declaration of the Time from vote, but the 26 & 27 Vict. c. 17, s. 3, enacts that "appeals may be which the appeal may presented and had at any time before the expiration of six weeks from be made. the date of any resolution adopting the Act." When there is a poll it is presumed that the time will run from the declaration of the result of the poll. But this clause did not apply to appeals against resolutions of adoption in cases coming within the operation of 26 & 27 Vict. c. 70. See s. 7 of that Act.

direct inquiry (j) by any officer employed by him in the execution of this Act into the circumstances of the case, and to issue such order thereon as he may deem requisite to determine the questions (k) arising on such appeal, and as to the validity or invalidity of such vote (1).

GENERAL PROVISIONS IN RELATION TO ADOPTION.

Notice as to adoption of Act to be

XIX. Whenever a resolution adopting this Act has been passed in any place, notice thereof shall be given to one of Secretary of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state by the following persons; that is to say,

given to

state.

What questions are

In corporate boroughs, by the mayor:

In other places under the jurisdiction of such improvement commissioners as aforesaid, by the chairman of the board of commissioners:

In other places, by the summoning officer :

The notice so sent shall be in writing under the hand of the officer hereby required to give the same;

And it shall be the duty of such last-mentioned officer to

(j) See ss. 79, 80, post.

(k) It will be seen that the order will dispose of two sets of questions. 1st. Those arising on the appeal. 2nd. Those on the validity of the disposed of. vote. The first will relate to the qualification of the appellant, the due promptitude of the appeal, or the sufficiency of the statement, or something else of a like character. The second will involve all the inquiries arising out of the conduct of the election itself.

As to the

ness of the order.

(1) A provision somewhat similar exists in 5 & 6 Vict. c. 57, s. 8, in conclusive- regard to questions arising on the election of guardians. By sect. 81, post, this order of the secretary of state is declared to be binding and conclusive, and accordingly the Court of Queen's Bench decided Ex parte Bird, 1 E. & E. 931, that where an appeal had been made under this section, to the secretary of state, and he had given his decision, it was conclusive, though on the face of the order the ratio decidendi was doubtful. S. C. 28 L. J. Q. B. 223.

Nevertheless, if there have been some defect in the original proceedings so as to prevent the jurisdiction of the secretary of state, the order may, it is presumed, as in the cases of orders of justices, be impeached on such ground.

publish a copy of such notice in manner following; that is
to say,

By advertisement for three successive weeks in some
one or more of the newspapers circulated in the
place (m):

By causing a copy of such notice (n) to be affixed to the
principal doors of every church and chapel in such
place to which notices are usually affixed:

And when such notice has been so given (o) and the
time for such appeal (p) has expired, or such appeal
has been dismissed, a notice shall be published in the
London Gazette, by one of Her Majesty's principal
secretaries of state, that this Act has been adopted
within such place.

to the time

when this

Act shall

take effect.

XX. Whenever any resolution adopting this Act has Provision as been passed in any place this Act shall, at the expiration of two months (q) from the date of the passing of such resolution, or in the event of an appeal, or of a division of the district into wards as hereinafter provided (r), then at such time as may be mentioned in the order made on such appeal (8), or in the order setting out wards (t), have the force of law within such place (u);

(m) The question arises here, as on the previous sections, out of what funds the expenses of those proceedings are to come? There is no reference to the poor rate, neither is there any charge upon the future district rates, unless 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 30, ante, can be held to apply to those proceedings.

(n) See note on sect. 13 of this Act, ante.

(0) This means the notice to the secretary of state.

(p) Id est, the appeal provided for by ss. 17, 18 of this Act, ante.

(q) Id est, calendar months. In the 26 & 27 Vict. c. 70, which applied for a limited time to certain northern counties only, this time was by sect. 7 reduced to 21 days.

(r) See sect. 24, post.

(s) See sect. 17, No. (5) of this Act, ante.

(t) See section 24, No. (4), post.

(u) Previous to this time, therefore, nothing can be done under the Acts. Mr. Taylor, in his note upon this section, seems to consider that certain steps can be taken in the interval of the two months or other period; but it is difficult to hold that those steps, if they require the

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