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November, in the year 1894, or such later date or dates in that year as the Local Government Board may fix'.

SUPPLEMENTARY PROVISIONS.

ments.

The provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Applied enactVict., c. 50), and the enactments amending the same, with respect to; (1) the expenses of elections of councillors of a borough;

(2) the acceptance of office;

(3) resignation;

(4) re-eligibility of holders of office, and;

(5) the filling of casual vacancies, and;

(6) section 56 of that Act';

are, subject to the adaptations, alterations, and exceptions made by the Rules of the Local Government Board in relation to elections, to apply in the case of guardians and of district councillors of a county district not a borough, and of members of the Local Board of Woolwich, and of a vestry under the Metropolis Management Acts, 1855 to 1890, and any Act amending the same. But

(a.) the provisions as to resignation will not apply to guardians,
and district councillors of a rural district will be in the same
position with respect to resignation as members of a Board of
Guardians; and

(b.) nothing in the enactments applied by section 48 is to authorise
or require a returning officer to hold an election to fill a casual
vacancy which occurs within six months before the ordinary day
of retirement from the office in which the vacancy occurs, and
the vacancy is to be filled at the next ordinary election, and;
(c.) the rules may provide for the incidence of the charge for the
expenses of the elections of guardians being the same as
heretofore (s. 48 (4)).

Sections 34 to 40, 56 and 140 (1), Schedule III, Part III, R. 5, and Schedule V, Part II, R. 10., of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, which are the provisions referred to in this enactment, are printed at pages 329, 330, 337 and 338 of the Appendix. The application of those provisions will be subject to modifications made by the Local Government Board, and until the Rules are issued by that department it is not possible to say what will be the law on the subject to which the statutory provisions relate. A few principal requirements of the applied enactments may be mentioned. These provisions are not in any way made applicable to Parish Councils or Parish Meetings.

A later date will be fixed by that Board. Under the Parochial Electors (Registration Acceleration) Bill, which accelerates the dates for the preparation of the register of parochial electors in 1894, that register will not come into operation until the 22nd of November, 1894. Mr. Shaw Lefevre in introducing the Bill on the 19th of April, 1894, said that under its provisions it would be possible, to hold the first elections within a few days after the 22nd of November, 1894.

2 See page 224.

Expenses of election.

Non-acceptance of office.

Resignation.

Re-eligibility of office holders.

Casual vacancies.

Resignation of guardians.

Expenses of election of guardians.

Not applicable to rural district councillors.

Scale of expenses.

(1) The expenses of a municipal election are defrayed out of the borough fund (Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, s. 140 (1); Schedule III, Part III, R. 5; Schedule V, Part II, R. 10).

(2) Under section 34 of the same Act, a qualified person elected to an office must, if he does not by making a declaration (s. 35), accept office, pay a fine. The Council may by byelaw determine the amount of fine, but in no case is it to exceed £100.

(3) A similar fine is payable on resignation of office (s. 36). This will not be applicable to guardians and rural district councillors.

(4) A person ceasing to hold office is, unless disqualified, re-eligible (s. 37).

(5) On a casual vacancy, an election must be held in the same manner as an election to fill an ordinary vacancy, and the person elected will hold office only so long as the person in whose place he is elected would have held office. Non-acceptance of office creates a casual vacancy (s. 40).

The election is to be held within 14 days of notice of the casual vacancy being given to the mayor or town clerk (s. 66).

Under the Local Government Act, 1894, a casual vacancy occurring within six months before the ordinary day of retirement from the office in which the vacancy occurs, is not to be filled until the next ordinary election.

The Local Government Board may, under section II of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 37), accept the resignation of any person elected as a guardian tendered for any cause which they may deem reasonable.

Generally, the expenses of the election of guardians is payable out of the union fund, but where an election of guardians is contested, the expenses incurred in consequence of the contest are under Article 35 of the General Consolidated Order issued by the Local Government Board on the 14th of February, 1877, to be charged to the parish in which the expenses have been incurred.

The Rules may provide that the incidence of the expenses for an election of guardians may remain unaltered, but in rural parishes there will be no election of guardians as such (Local Government Act, 1894, S. 24 (3)). Only as regards urban parishes can this matter be dealt with by the rules under the provision in section 48 (4) (c).

The expenses of any election under the Local Government Act, 1894, are not to exceed the scale fixed by the county council, and if at the beginning of one month before the first election under the

I See page 232.

Act a county council have not framed any such scale for their county, the Local Government Board may frame a scale for the county, and the scale so framed will apply to the first election, and will have effect as if it had been made by the county council, but will not be alterable until after the first election (s. 48 (7)).

Section 48 is subject to any adaptations made by the rules of the Polls at Parish Local Government Board, to apply in the case of every poll conseMeetings. quent on a parish meeting, as if it were a poll for the election of parish councillors (s. 48 (8)).

The procedure at a poll consequent on a parish meeting, as determined by the rules, will probably be much simpler in character than the procedure at an annual election.

CHAPTER XIII.

Extent of

Repeals.

General Repeal of inconsistent provisions.

Effect of repealing section.

Repeals-Effect of Repeal.

THE Second Schedule of the Local Government Act, 1894,' contains a table of enactments which are expressly repealed as from the appointed day to the extent mentioned in the third column of the Schedule. The enactments repealed are provisions superseded, or practically repealed, by other provisions of the Act, and, where necessary, allusion has been made to the repeals in connection with the subjects to which the repealed provisions respectively relate. It is to be remembered that some of the provisions are repealed to a certain extent only; for instance, the provisions relating to vestries are repealed so far as they would otherwise relate to Parish Meetings and Parish Councils under the Act, and the provision in section 10 of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 106), which enables Corporations to vote as ratepayers by officers appointed for that purpose, is repealed so far as it relates to elections of guardians. That provision of the Act of 1867 may still have application where the owners and ratepayers vote, as in urban parishes and, in some instances, perhaps, in rural parishes also (see page 22).

Besides the express repeals contained in the Second Schedule, so much of any Act, whether public, general, or local and personal, as is inconsistent with the Local Government Act is also repealed (s. 89).

The effect of a repealing section of an Act depends upon section 38 of the Interpretation Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 63), which enacts that where any Act repeals and re-enacts, with or without modification, any provisions of a former Act, references in any other Act to the provisions so repealed, shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as references to the provisions so re-enacted; and where any Act repeals any other enactment, then unless the contrary intention appears, the repeal shall not

(a) revive anything not in force or existing at the time at which the repeal takes effect; or

(b) affect the previous operation of any enactment so repealed or anything duly done or suffered under any enactment so repealed; or

1 See page 290 of the Appendix.

(c) affect any right, privilege, obligation, or liability acquired, accrued, or incurred under any enactment so repealed; or (d) affect any penalty, forfeiture, or punishnient incurred in respect of any offence committed against any enactment so repealed; or (e) affect any investigation, legal proceeding, or remedy in respect of any such right, privilege, obligation, liability, penalty, forfeiture, or punishment as aforesaid ;

and any such investigation, legal proceeding, or remedy may be instituted, continued, or enforced, and any such penalty, forfeiture, or punishment may be imposed, as if the repealing Act had not been passed.

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