THE

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT,

1894.

(56 & 57 Vict. c. 73.)

INTRODUCTION.

General effect of Local Government Act, 1894, in regard to Parochial and other Local Authorities.

THE key-note of modern social legislation is its trust in local authorities. Year after year, for the past few generations, the burden of duties imposed by statute on those authorities has steadily grown, and at the present day their control is felt in almost every department of human life. But, except in the case of municipal boroughs, the organisation of local authorities was not developed equally with their duties so as to keep them thoroughly in touch with the changed circumstances of the times. Whilst comparatively few sessions passed by without some reform or other of our parliamentary system of government being made, the statute book for many years did practically nothing to introduce similar principles into local administration. The chaos of overlapping areas and authorities was added to rather than diminished, and privilege reigned supreme in local elections. The Municipal Reform Act, 1835, organised boroughs upon a popular basis, and although it was followed by numerous other statutes relating to municipal boroughs, which were consolidated and amended by the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, the essential features of the municipal system of election have now existed for nearly sixty years. It was the successful working, for almost two generations, of that system of popular election and government which recommended its adaptation to the County Councils established by the Local Government Act, 1888. The principles then applied to the government of counties have now been extended and carried out to their logical conclusion by the measure which Mr. Fowler has succeeded in placing on the statute book, and an important step has been taken towards the simplification of areas of local government, and the concentration in the hands of the new Parish and District Councils of the powers and duties sometimes exercised in those areas by several concurrent authorities.

Before dealing in detail with the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1894, a brief reference to the local authorities who are more

A

or less affected by those provisions may be serviceable. From the ancient Open Vestry in which the inhabitants of rural parish and township have met since time immemorial, down to the modern Rural Sanitary Authority, the Act has dealt impartially with the constitution. and duties of existing authorities for the purpose of securing a uniform system of popular local government under the County Councils established by the Local Government Act, 1888. The measure during its passage through Parliament was popularly called the Parish Councils Bill; but as a matter of fact the establishment of Parish Councils, although given the first prominence in the Act, is supplemented by provisions of scarcely less importance relating to Boards of Guardians and District Councils. Numerous duties in connection with the adjustment of areas and boundaries and other matters are also imposed on County Councils for the general purpose of bringing the Act into operation.

OPEN VESTRIES.

The meeting of inhabitants in Open Vestry for the business of the parish dates from a very early period, but there would be no advantage for the present purpose in discussing at length any question whether the origin of the Vestry is to be attributed to the meeting of the inhabitants of townships for civil purposes, or to the meeting of parishioners for ecclesiastical purposes. A meeting held primarily for one purpose would no doubt be utilised for the other, and when it is remembered that the distinction between secular and religious business was not so marked in early times, there is no reason for surprise that the Parish Vestry has for centuries past had powers and duties that relate to both civil and ecclesiastical affairs. In either its civil or religious aspect the Vestry is a venerable institution, and the transfer of its civil business to Parish Meetings and Councils under the new Act may in some minds give rise to a pardonable sentiment of regret. The ancient Vestry will not altogether disappear, but will still be summoned for ecclesiastical affairs, such as the election of churchwardens, and, in some parishes, matters connected with the administration or distribution of certain ecclesiastical charities. Every ratepayer who has paid all rates except those due within three months preceding the vestry meeting is entitled to attend the vestry meeting, and to have one vote for every £25 of the rateable value of his qualifying premises, but the maximum number of votes for each ratepayer is six. Under the Local Government Act, 1894, there is no plurality of votes at parish meetings or elections.

SELECT AND OTHER VESTRIES.

In some parishes Select Vestries, consisting of a limited number of persons, exercised the powers of the Open Vestry at common law. Custom often determined the constitution of these bodies. Under the Vestries Act, 1831, long known as Hobhouse's Act, which might be

adopted by the parishioners of parishes in a city or town with not less than 800 rated householders, Vestries were chosen by the ratepayers without plurality of votes. Vestries in some other places were constituted under local Acts. The London Vestries established under the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, possess, in addition to the ordinary powers of Vestries, very extensive powers of local government.

In modern times the powers of the Parish Vestry have been restricted chiefly to giving consent to certain administrative acts. Until the passing of the Local Government Act, 1894, the general tendency of legislation for over a century has not favoured parochial authorities; but now that the parish organisation has been remodelled on a truly popular basis the Parish bids fair to regain something of its old prestige as an integral part of our rural system of government. The Vestry in urban parishes remains as it was, and in rural parishes only are most of the civil powers of the Vestry transferred by the Act of 1894 to the Parish Council, or in parishes not having a separate Parish Council to the Parish Meeting subject to any provisions that may be made by a grouping order if the parish is grouped with any other parish or parishes under a common Parish Council. The Act confers additional powers on the new parochial authorities, and gives them more effective control over the parish officers.

HIGHWAY AUTHORITIES.

The management of highway business in rural districts has previously to the passing of this Act afforded instances both of administration by single parishes, and by a group of parishes under a common authority. Formerly by the common law each parish maintained its own highways; but modern highway management is to a great extent regulated by statutes beginning with the Highway Act, 1835. Parishes for highway purposes are in many cases not co-terminous with civil parishes, and a civil parish often comprises more than one highway parish. In a parish separately maintaining its own highways the ratepayers in vestry annually elect one or more unpaid Surveyors, or appoint a paid Surveyor to maintain and repair the Highways. Highway Parishes might on application to the justices in quarter sessions be united into a district under a common Highway Board, consisting of "waywardens" elected by the vestries of each parish in the Highway District, and of such of the county justices as resided in the District. An elected Highway Board of five to twenty members might also be formed for parishes with a population of over 5,000 inhabitants. Besides Surveyors of Highway Parishes and Highway Boards for separate or for united highway parishes in rural districts, Rural Sanitary Authorities, in cases where their district was co-terminous with a Highway Board District, might by order of Quarter Sessions or of their successors (the County Council) exercise the powers of a Highway Board. The new Act provides for the ultimate transfer to

1 See page 47.

A 2

Rural District Councils of the powers and duties of these existing highway authorities. It does not affect the administration of highways in Urban Districts, which remains as now in the hands of the Councils of those Districts.

BOARDS OF GUARDIANS.

As regards Boards of Guardians, the principal changes are such as not to effect their duties in connection with the administration of the laws relating to the relief of the poor, and these remain untouched by the Act. Although for the most part parishes are grouped together, generally around some conveniently situated market town, into "unions" for poor law purposes under a common Board of Guardians, there are important parishes not in union for which a separate Board of Guardians is constituted. In some instances local acts regulated the election and constitution of the body administering the poor law, but where the general law was in force the same provisions applied to the constitution of the board, whether it was elected for one parish only, or for a union of parishes. Under the Poor Law Acts a Board of Guardians was composed of elected members and ex-officio members. The elected members by an order of the Local Government Board had to be rated to the poor rate of some parish in the union (or of the parish if not in union) upon an annual rateable value of not less than £5, whilst the ex-officio members were justices of the peace resident in the union or parish, and acting for the division of the county in which the parish or any part of the union was situated. The elected guardians were chosen by the ratepayers and owners of property in the respective parishes, and plural votes were allowed, namely, one vote for every £50 of rateable value, with a maximum number of six votes. A person who owned the premises he occupied was entitled to vote both as owner and occupier, so that if rated sufficiently he might have given as many as twelve votes in all. The election was conducted by means of voting papers, which were left at the residences of the voters and afterwards collected from them. The new Act abolishes ex-officio guardians and the plural vote, directs that the elections shall be conducted under the provisions of the Ballot Act, and largely increases the electorate.

SANITARY AUTHORITIES (URBAN AND RURAL).

Urban Sanitary Authorities were of three kinds; in Municipal Boroughs, the Town Council; in Districts under Improvement Acts, the Improvement Commissioners; and in Local Government Districts, the Local Board. The Act makes no change so far as the constitution and election of Town Councils are concerned. Improvement Commissioners were elected according to the local act under which the Commission was constituted. The election of a Local Board was conducted in the same manner as that of a Board of Guardians, and the scale of voting for owners and ratepayers was the same. A member of a Local Board had to be a resident in or within seven