Where ves tries adopt c. 74, local elsewhere upon the adoption of this Act, vest in the local board (a) XLVII. In any district where a vestry adopts the Act provisions of passed in the tenth year of the reign of Her present Majesty, 10 & 11 Vict. chapter seventy-four, and intituled "An Act to encourage board to be the Establishment of Public Baths and Wash-houses," the sioners under local board may, at the option of the said vestry (b), be the commissioners for the execution of the said Act, and shall thereupon have all the powers, duties, rights, and obligations of commissioners under the said Act; the commis that Act. Sections of And all expenses incurred by the local board in carrying into execution the powers given to them by the said Act shall be defrayed out of general district rates, and all receipts. by them by reason of the exercise of such powers shall be carried to the district fund account (c). XLVIII. The sixty-first (d) and so much of the sixty11 & 12 Vict. second (e) sections of the Public Health Act, 1848, as c. 63 as to slaughter houses, repealed, (a) With regard to the transfer of liabilities, see Sinnott v. Whitechapel Board of Works, 22 Jur. 263. (b) These words are peculiar, but it was meant that if the vestry think fit, the power shall be referred to the local board, provided the latter be willing to accept the charge. The 29 & 30 Vict. c. 90, s. 43, gives an original authority to the local board, as it is there enacted that "local boards acting in execution of 'The Local Government Act, 1858, ' may adopt the Act to encourage the Establishment of Public Baths and Wash-houses,' and any Act amending the same, for Districts in adopt Baths which those Acts are not already in force; Local Board in certain cases may and Wash houses Acts. "And when they have adopted the said Acts they shall have all the Powers, Duties, and Rights of Commissioners under the said Acts; "And all expenses incurred by any local Board in carrying into execution the Acts referred to in this section shall be defrayed out of the General District Rates, and all receipts by them under the said Acts shall be carried to the District Fund Account." (c) The Acts referred to are 9 & 10 Vict. c. 74, and 10 & 11 Vict. c. 61, and are printed in the Appendix. The 10 & 11 Vict. c. 34, ss. 136-141, contained provisions for the establishment of public baths and wash-houses, open bathing places, and drying grounds. (d) See ante. (e) See ante. The slaughter-houses will be regulated by the provisions of 10 & 11 Vict. c. 34, incorporated herewith by sect. 45, empowers the local board to make byelaws, with respect to all slaughter-houses, shall be repealed. to be burial district, burial parts of the XLIX. In any district where a vestry of any one or more Local board parish or place comprised therein having a known or defined board of boundary (f) adopts the Act passed in the twentieth and though the twenty-first years of the reign of Her present Majesty, ground be chapter eighty-one, and intituled "An Act to amend the provided for Burial Acts," the local board may, at the option of such district only. vestry (g), be the burial board for the execution of the said Act within such parish or parishes, place or places, so adopting the Act as aforesaid, and shall thereupon have all the powers, duties, rights, and obligations of a burial board. under the said Act (h); And all expenses incurred by the local board in carrying into execution the powers given to them by the said Act shall be defrayed out of rates to be levied on such parish or parishes, place or places, so adopting the Act as aforesaid, in the same manner as general district rates are to be levied under the provisions of this Act (i); and printed in the Appendix, sect. 128, whereof will enable the local board to make byelaws for the purpose. Hence the provision in the former statute has been repealed. (f) Reference is here made to sect. 12 of this Act, ante. See the provisions relating to burials contained in 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, ss. 81, 82, 83, ante, and 21 & 22 Vict. c. 81, ss. 4, 5, 27, in the Appendix. (g) See note on sect. 47, ante. (h) Some burial boards have the fee simple of the burial ground vested in them, but there are no words to transfer this property to the local board of health; and if the burial board be not kept up, there will be some difficulty in dealing with the legal rights of property therein. In such cases it seems advisable that no change should be made. (i) See sect. 5, post. The difficulty of providing for these expenses has been met by the statute 23 & 24 Vict. c. 64, entitled "An Act to make further provision for the expenses of Local Boards of Health and Improvement Commissioners acting as burial boards." It was dated August 6th, 1860, and after reciting that by the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 81, "to amend the Burial Acts," it is provided that upon the petition of the local board of health of any district established under the Public Health Act, or upon the petition of any commissioners elected by the ratepayers and acting under or by virtue of the powers of any local Act Preamble. Expenses of local board constituted & burial board may be paid out Expenses of improvement com And all receipts by them, by reason of the exercise of such powers, shall be carried to the credit of such parish or parishes, place or places, so adopting the Act as aforesaid: of parliament for the improvement of any town, parish, or borough, stating that the district of such local board of health or of such commissioners is co-extensive with a district for which it is proposed to provide a burial ground, and that no burial board has been appointed for such district, and that an order in council has been made for closing all or any of the burial grounds within the said district, should be lawful for Her Majesty, with the advice of her privy council, in case Her Majesty see fit so to do, to order that such local board should be a burial board for the district of such local board, or that such commissioners should be a burial board for the district of such commissioners, and that thereupon such local board or such commissioners, as the case might be, should be a burial board for such district accordingly: and that under The Local Government Act, 1858, a local board may, at the option of the vestry, be the burial board in certain cases: And that it is expedient that such local boards and commissioners respectively, when constituted burial boards, should be authorized to provide for their expenses as thereinafter mentioned:" it was enacted as follows, "Any money required by any local board constituted a burial board for defraying the expense of carrying into execution the powers and provisions of the Burial Acts and of this Act in the district for which they may have been so constituted a burial board, or for paying any monies borrowed or annuities granted under the authority of the said Acts, or any interest on monies borrowed, or for providing a sinking fund for the repayment of such monies, may, if the local board so think fit, be paid out of the general district rates leviable within such district; and such local board may levy as part of the general district rate, or by a separate rate, under the name and designation of a burial rate to be assessed and recovered in like manner as a general district rate within the district for which they act as a burial board, such sums of money as shall be from time to time necessary for the purposes aforesaid, or any of them. "Any money required by any such commissioners as aforesaid who shall have been constituted a burial board for defraying the expense of carrying into execution the powers and provisions of the Burial Acts in missioners, the district for which they may have been so constituted a burial board, or when acting for paying any monies borrowed, or annuities granted under the authority as a burial board, may of the said Acts, or any interest or monies borrowed, or for providing a be paid out sinking fund for the repayment of such monies, may, if the commisof improve- sioners so think fit, be paid out of the improvement rate leviable within such district, and the commissioners as such burial board may levy as part of the improvement rate, or by a separate rate under the name and designation of a burial rate to be assessed and recovered in like manner as an improvement rate, such sums of money as shall be from time to time necessary for the purposes aforesaid or any of them. ment rate, or by a sepa rate rate. Separate be kept. "The local board and the commissioners respectively who may have accounts to been constituted a burial board shall keep distinct accounts of their receipts and expenditure in the exercise of their functions as such burial board; and where their expenses are defrayed by monies raised under the Provided (1) nevertheless, that in case the parish or parishes, place or places comprised in such district so adopting the Act as aforesaid shall have been declared a ward or wards for the election of members of the local board, and members shall have been elected by and for such ward or wards, the last-mentioned members shall form the provisions of this Act, such accounts shall be audited in the same manner as other accounts of the receipts and expenditure of such local board and commissioners respectively, and any surplus of the monies raised by any rate made under this Act, and of the income of any burial ground provided by means of monies raised or paid under the provisions of this Act, which may remain after payment of the expenses and monies which should be defrayed or paid under the Burial Acts, shall be applied in aid of the general district rate or improvement rate, as the case may be, levied within the district, which shall have been or might have been charged with a separate rate under this Act. "Where any parish or place has been divided into two or more parts As to apor districts for all or any ecclesiastical purposes, and any one of such pointment of parts has a separate burial ground, it shall not be lawful for the vestry burial boards or meeting in the nature of a vestry for such entire parish or place to without conappoint a burial board without the approval of one of Her Majesty's tary of state. principal secretaries of state. sent of secre With regard to the preservation of burial grounds, the 24 & 25 Vict. Local boards c. 61, s. 21, enacts "that all local boards of health constituted burial of health boards may from time to time repair and uphold the fences surrounding may repair fences surany burial ground which shall have been discontinued as such within rounding their jurisdiction, or take down such fences and substitute others in lieu burial thereof, and shall from time to time take the necessary steps for preventing grounds. the desecration of such burial grounds, and placing them in a proper sanitary condition; and where such burial boards are a local board of health, they may from time to time pass byelaws for the preservation and regulation of all burial grounds within their limits, and the expense of carrying this section into execution may be defrayed out of any rates authorized to be levied by any local board constituted a burial board." (1) It will be found that in many districts there are several separate parishes-some of these may have their distinct burial boards. It would be inconvenient that the burial board should be transferred to the local board of health, but that inconvenience can seldom be avoided. This proviso contemplates the case of a parish forming a ward in the district, and then enacts that the members of the local board elected by such ward shall form the burial board of such parish. It is by no means clear whether the option of the vestry must intervene; but it rather seems as though it must. The language here used is indeed unqualified, and this constitution of the burial board and that of the local board of health have the same element, viz., election by the ratepayers of the parish; yet this is but a proviso to a general proposition, in which the option of the vestry must intervene. Power of local board markets, of owners burial board for such parish or parishes, place or places so formed into a ward or wards as aforesaid, instead of the members of the said local board, and shall have all the like powers, duties, rights, and obligations of the burial board under said Act of the twentieth and twenty-first years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter eighty-one. L. The local board shall in non-corporate districts, with to establish the consent of the owners and ratepayers of the district, to with consent be expressed by resolution in the manner herein provided with respect to resolutions for the adoption of this Act (b), and in corporate districts, shall, with the consent of twothirds of the local board, have the power to do (c) the following things or any of them within their district: and ratepayers. (1.) To provide a market place, and construct a market To provide houses and places for weighing carts; (b) See section 13 of this Act, ante. (c) It will be seen that there is no compulsion upon the local board to act, notwithstanding the resolution of their constituents, and there must be the consent of two-thirds of all the members of the board, not of that of a meeting. (d) The 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 84, ante, enables the local board to purchase or take on lease land and premises by agreement; and section 75, post, incorporates the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1847, which contains special provisions in regard to the taking of lands otherwise than by agreement. Nothing is here said in regard to the charges incurred for these purchases and works; therefore they must be charged upon the general district rates. |