Meetings. What school or other rooms may be used. Notice of room being required. police, by a Secretary of State; and in any other case, by the Local Government Board (s. 4 (1) (3) ). The opening words of this provision limit the privilege conferred upon the parochial electors and the Parish Council to the use of rooms situated in their parish, but in other respects the scope of the provision is exceedingly wide. Not only rooms in elementary schools, but every room maintainable out of local rates will be available for the purposes mentioned, except where a suitable public room vested in the parochial authorities exists. The room must be suitable for the purpose for which it is required. Board rooms and offices of Boards of Guardians, rooms under the control of the standing joint committee of the Quarter Sessions and the County Council for the purpose of the police and other matters, and rooms provided under any of the Adoptive Acts, will be at the disposal of the parochial electors and Parish Council. There is no provision in the Act with respect to the manner in which the parochial electors may avail themselves of the use of a room, but these electors can, as a body, act only in a Parish Meeting, and when the use of a room is required, a resolution directing the required notice to be given should be passed by the Meeting. In practice it would be found convenient that a standing resolution should be passed at each assembly of the Parish Meeting empowering a committee to take the necessary steps in preparation for the next assembly. The reasonable notice to the persons having control over the room required by section 4 (1) could be given by such committee. The Parish Council could direct their clerk to give the required notice. In every case the requisition for the use of the room must be made by the parochial electors or the Parish Council, as the provision which permits rooms to be used for local enquiries, committees, and meetings other than Parish Meetings or meetings of the Parish Council, confers no right on the persons conducting the inquiries, or forming the committees, or holding meetings, to themselves requisition a room. The reference to "meetings convened by the chairman of the Parish Meeting, or by the Parish Council," appears to cover ordinary public meetings, if convened by the chairman or Council. Parish Meetings. and meetings of the Parish Council are, it will be noticed, expressly mentioned as being purposes for which rooms may be used. The meetings as to allotments are restricted to meetings convened in the manner prescribed by the Allotments Act, 1890, or otherwise as prescribed by the Local Government Board, but the Act of 1890 prescribes no manner in which "public meetings to discuss any question relating to allotments" are to be convened. Section 5 of the Act' which authorises, under certain conditions, schoolrooms to 1 See page 372 of the Appendix. be used free of charge for such public meetings, requires a notice of Place of Meeting the intention to hold the meeting to be given to the school authorities Use of school or not less than six days before the meeting. It does not prescribe the manner in which the meeting itself is to be convened. In debate on the consideration of the Lords' amendments to the Local Government Bill on the 15th of February, 1894, Mr. Acland stated that the Education Department would issue as early as possible an indication of the interpretation they would apply to the word "reasonable," which would go into some detail. If, by reason of the use of the room for any of the purposes mentioned in the section, any expense is incurred by the persons having control over the room, or any damage is done to the room or to the building of which the room is part or its appurtenances, or the furniture of the room, or the apparatus for instruction, the expense or damage is to be defrayed as part of the expenses of the Parish Meeting or Parish Council or inquiry as the case may be; but when the meeting is called for the purpose of the candidature of any person, the expense or damage is to be reimbursed to the Parish Meeting or the Parish Council by the persons by whom or on whose behalf the meeting is convened (s. 4 (2) ). The expenses or damages will, in the case of an inquiry for parochial purposes, be defrayed as part of the expenses of the inquiry, but in all other cases they will be defrayed in the first instance as part of the expenses of the Parish Meeting or Parish Council, in accordance with the provisions of section 11 (4) of the Act.1 When a meeting for the purpose of the candidature of any person for the District or the Parish Council is convened, it is provided that the expense or damage shall be reimbursed to the Parish Meeting or the Parish Council by the persons by whom or on whose behalf the meeting is convened. This assumes that meetings for the purpose of candidature will be convened only at the request of persons interested, and the Act does not authorise the Parish Meeting or the Parish Council themselves to convene any such meeting unless at the request of persons who are personally responsible to them for any expense or damage incurred. For every use of the room, other than for an inquiry and any candidature, including meetings for allotments and any committee or officer appointed by a County or District Council to administer public funds within or for the purposes of the parish, the expenses or damages incurred are repayable out of the poor rate as part of the expenses of the Parish Council or Parish Meeting, as the case may be. The vestry of a parish have been accustomed as of right under the common law to meet in the vestry room attached to a church, and 1 See page 69. other room. Expenses or damage. Right of Parish Council or Parish in church or vestry room. F Place of Meeting even in the sacred edifice itself where there was no vestry room, or Vestry room of where it was insufficiently large for the meeting. But in parishes a church. where certain Acts were in force this common law right was subject to exceptions. Where the vestry was elected under the Vestries' Act, 1831 (1 & 2 Will. IV., c. 60), it was directed that if the vestry room was not sufficiently large and commodious, the vestry meeting should be held elsewhere within the parish, but not in the church or chapel (s. 29). In a parish where an order under the Vestries' Act, 1850, (13 & 14 Vict., c. 57), had been made1 after the expiration of twelve months from the making and publishing of the order, no meeting of the vestry was to be held in the church or chapel, nor, except in case of urgency and with the previous approval of the Local Government Board, in the vestry room attached to the church or chapel (s. 2). Meetings not to be held on 66 These Acts are rarely in force in rural parishes, and consequently the vestry in those parishes generally have the old common law right of meeting in the vestry room or church. Whether that right is transferred to the Parish Council or Parish Meeting is a matter of importance to many parishes. The general powers" of the vestry are transferred by section 6 (1) of the Local Government Act, 1894, to the Parish Council of a parish having a separate Parish Council, and by section 19 (4) of the Act to the Parish Meeting of a parish not having a separate Parish Council. Under the term "powers" are expressly included "rights, jurisdiction, capacities, privileges, and immunities by section 100 of the Local Government Act, 1888, which is made applicable to the Local Government Act, 1894, by section 75 (1) of the new Act. There seems no reason to doubt that among the rights and privileges of the vestry which are transferred to the Parish Council or Parish Meeting, as the case may be, is the right or privilege of meeting in the vestry or church. In a parish having a separate Parish Council, it will be that council and not the Parish Meeting who will have the right or privilege of using the vestry or church for their meetings; but in a parish not having a separate Parish Council, the right or privilege will, subject to the provisions of any grouping order, belong to the Parish Meeting. No Parish Meeting or meeting of a Parish Council is to be held in licensed premises premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquor, except in cases where no other suitable room is available for such meeting, either free of charge or at a reasonable cost (s. 61). In many rural parishes the only available room for parochial and other public business forms part of licensed premises. Where that is so, or where any other suitable room cannot be obtained except at an unreasonable cost, the prohibition in the section will not apply. Land. The important subjects of the powers of the Parish Council under Adoptive Acts. the adoptive Acts, and the acquisition of land by the Parish Council Acquisition of for the purpose of their duties, are separately treated in the two following chapters. Definition. Adoption by parish meeting Notice of Meeting and mode of adoption. CHAPTER V. The Adoptive Acts-General Provisions as to Adop tion and Execution-Transfer of Powers under— Provisions of respective Acts. THE title of "the Adoptive Acts" is given by section 7 of the Local Government Act, 1894, to the following Acts, inclusive of any Acts amending the same, namely, (a.) THE LIGHTING AND WATCHING ACT, 1833; (b.) THE BATHS AND WASHHOUSES ACTS, 1846 TO 1882; (d) THE PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS ACT, 1860; (e.) THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACT, 1892. The observations in this chapter almost exclusively relate to rural parishes, as the Act does not generally alter the mode of adoption or the execution of the adoptive Acts in urban districts. But certain provisions enable an urban district council to transfer to themselves the powers of any authority executing the Acts within their district, and direct that, after the appointed day, the approval of the urban district council must be obtained to the adoption of an Act for part of the district. General Provisions of the Local Government Act, 1894. The adoptive Acts come into force only where adopted, and, as from the appointed day, the power of adopting any of them in a rural parish belongs exclusively to the parish meeting (s. 7 (1)). Not less than fourteen days' notice of the Parish Meeting, at which it is proposed to adopt any of the adoptive Acts, must be given (Schedule 1, Part 1, r. 3). An Act is adopted by means of a resolution passed by the requisite majority at the Parish Meeting.' Some of the adoptive Acts can be adopted not only for a parish but for a part of a parish, and where that is the case, the Act may be adopted by a Parish Meeting held for that part (s. 7 (4)). In dealing with the subject of Parish Meetings, allusion has been made to the provisions relating to the holding of parish meetings for part of a rural parish." 1 See Chapter II. as to proceedings of Parish Meetings. |