respectively substituted in the Municipal Corporations Acts for the years, days, times, places, officers, and persons therein mentioned, and the persons so nominated shall have the like powers, and be subject to the like obligations and penalties, as the officers and persons mentioned in those Acts for whom they are respectively substituted.

(3.) Subject to the provisions of the charter authorized by this section, the Municipal Corporations Acts shall, on the charter coming into effect, apply to the municipal borough to which they are extended by the charter; and, where the first mayor aldermen and councillors, or any of them are named in the charter, shall apply as if they were elected under the Municipal Corporations Acts, and, where they are not so named, shall apply to their first election.

Scheme or continuance or abolition of and adjustment of rights of existing Local Authority and Officers.

213.-(1.) Where a petition for a charter is referred to the Committee of Council, and it is proposed by the charter to extend the Municipal Corporations Acts to the municipal borough to be created by the charter, the Committee of Council may settle a scheme for the adjustment of the powers, rights, privileges, franchises, duties, property, and liabilities of any then existing local authority, whose district comprises the whole or part of the area of that borough, either with or without any adjoining or other place, and also of any officer of that authority.

(2.) The scheme, so far as it appears to the Committee of Council to be necessary or proper for carrying into effect the said adjustment as regards any local authority existing at the time of the making of the scheme, may contain provisions for the continuance of that authority, or for the abolition total or partial of that authority, or for the creation of another authority or authorities, and the alteration of the district of the existing local authority, and the union or other relation of the existing local authority and the authority or authorities so created, and for the continuance, modification, transfer, vesting, and extension to the whole of the borough of all or any of the powers, rights, privileges, franchises, duties, property, and liabilities of the existing local authority, and may contain such provisions as appear to the Committee of Council to be necessary or proper for

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fully carrying into effect any such adjustment and provisions as aforesaid.

(3.) The scheme, when settled by the Committee of Council, shall be published in the London Gazette, and shall not be of any effect unless confirmed as hereinafter mentioned.

(4) Where, within one month after the publication of the scheme in the London Gazette, a petition against it by any local authority affected thereby, or by not less than one-twentieth of the owners and ratepayers of the borough (such twentieth to be one-twentieth in number of the owners and ratepayers of the borough, taken together, or the owners and ratepayers in respect of one-twentieth of the rateable property in the borough) the owners and ratepayers in all cases to include women not under coverture has been received by the Committee of Council, and is not withdrawn, the scheme shall require the confirmation of Parliament, and the Committee of Council may, if they think fit, submit it to Parliament for confirmation; but otherwise, at any time after the expiration of the said month, or after the withdrawal of any petition that has been presented, the Committee of Council may, if they think fit, submit the scheme for confirmation, either to Parliament or to Her Majesty in Council, and in the latter case it shall be lawful for Her Majesty to confirm the scheme by Order in Council.

(5.) A scheme, when confirmed by Parliament or by Order in Council, shall have full operation with, in the former case, such modifications, if any, as are made therein by Parliament, as if the scheme were part of this Act.

(6.) A local authority for the purposes of this Part means a sanitary authority (not being the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of a borough subject to the Municipal Corporations Acts), also the corporation of a borough not subject to the Municipal Corporations Acts, a burial board, trustees, commissioners or other persons who, as a public body and not for their own profit, act under any Act for paving, lighting, supplying with water or gas, cleansing, watching, regulating or improving any town or place, or for providing or maintaining a cemetery or market in or for any town or place, and any commissioners, trustees, or other persons (not being justices) maintaining any police force, and any other authority not in this section excepted, and not being a school board, and having powers of local government and of rating for public purposes.

(7.) The district of a local authority for the purposes of this section means the area within which such authority can exercise any powers or rights.

For definition of "local authority" see sub-section 6 of this section; and for definition of "district of local authority," see sub-section 7.

As to procedure for scheme on grant of new charter, see Seventh Schedule, p. 231.

The scheme, when settled, besides being published in the London Gazette, is to be published by advertisement, or placard, or handbills, or otherwise as the committee of council think best calculated for giving notice thereof to all persons interested.

Where a scheme is submitted to Parliament for confirmation, the Committee of Council may introduce a Bill for the confirmation of the scheme. Before the Bill is introduced the Committee of Council may alter the scheme as they think proper. If, while the Bill is pending in either House of Parliament, a petition is presented against the Bill, so far as it relates to such scheme, the scheme may be referred to a select committee, and the petitioner is to be allowed to appear and oppose, as in the case of a private Bill.

According to the provision in the Seventh Schedule, p. 231, a scheme is to come into operation at the date of its confirmation, or any later date mentioned in the scheme.

Supplemental Provisions as to Scheme and Charter.

214. (1.) A scheme shall, before being settled by the Committee of Council, be referred for consideration to the Secretary of State and the Local Government Board, and, if and as far as it is intended to affect any authority which is a harbour authority within the meaning of the Harbours and Passing Tolls, &c. Act, 1861, to the Board of Trade.

(2.) A scheme shall in every case provide for placing the new borough within the jurisdiction of the council as the sanitary authority.

(3.) The regulations contained in the Seventh Schedule with respect to the scheme shall be observed.1

(4) If the Committee of Council are satisfied that a local authority or other petitioners have properly promoted or properly opposed a scheme before them, and that for special reasons it is right that the reasonable costs incurred by the authority or other petitioners in such promotion or opposition should be paid as expenses properly incurred by the local authority in the execution of their duties, the Committee of Council may order those costs to be so paid, and they should be paid accordingly.

1 For regulations referred to, see Seventh Schedule, p. 231.

2 For definition of the term "local authority," see sec. 213 (6).

Provision as to Police Force in New Borough.

215. Nothing in any scheme or in the Municipal Corporations Acts shall authorize the establishment in a borough to which a charter is granted under this Act of a new separate police force not consolidated with the county police force, unless the district incorporated by the charter contained twenty thousand inhabitants or upwards, according to the census taken next before the date of the incorporation.

Validity of Charters.

216.—(1.) A charter creating a municipal borough which purports to be granted in pursuance of the royal prerogative and in pursuance of or in accordance with this Act, shall after acceptance be deemed to be valid and within the powers of this Act and Her Majesty's prerogative and shall not be questioned in any legal proceeding whatever.

(2.) Every such charter shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within one month after it is granted, if Parliament is then sitting, or if not, within one month after the beginning of the then next sitting of Parliament.

It is also provided by Rule 9 in the Seventh Schedule, that the confirmation of a scheme on grant of new charter shall be conclusive evidence that all the requirements of the Act with respect to the proceedings required to be taken previously to the making of the scheme have been complied with, and that the scheme has been duly made, and is within the powers of this Act.

Power to Settle Scheme in case of Recent Charters.

217. Where a charter was granted to a borough within seven years before the fourteenth of August, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven, the Committee of Council, on the petition to the Queen of the council of the borough, or of any existing local authority whose district comprises the whole or any part of the area of the borough, either with or without any adjoining or other place, may settle a scheme under this Act in like manner as if the petition for the grant of a charter to the borough had been referred to the Committee of Council after the commencement of this Act, and the provisions of this Act with respect to a scheme shall apply accordingly, with the necessary modifications; and if within one month after the publication of the scheme

in the London Gazette a petition against the scheme from the council of the borough has been received by the Committee of Council and is not withdrawn the scheme shall require the confirmation of Parliament.

For definition of "local authority" and "district" of a local authority, see sec. 213 (6) (7).

With regard to the provisions of this Act with respect to a scheme, see secs. 213, 214, and 215, and Schedule VII. to the Act p. 231.

Power to Amend Scheme.

218. (1.) Where a scheme for a borough has been confirmed under this Part, or any former enactment, and the municipal corporation of the borough or one-twentieth of the owners and ratepayers of the borough (estimated as in this Part mentioned), or a local authority affected by the scheme, petition the Queen for an amending scheme, the petition shall be referred to a Committee of the Lords of Her Majesty's Privy Council (included in the term the Committee of Council in this Part), and shall be proceeded on, and this Part shall apply thereto, as nearly as may be, as if the same were a petition for a charter extending the Municipal Corporations Acts to a municipal borough to be incorporated.

(2.) The Committee of Council, if they think fit to submit the amending scheme for confirmation, shall submit the same to Parliament, or they may submit the same to Her Majesty in Council, if the original scheme was confirmed by Order in Council; and in the latter case it shall be lawful for Her Majesty to confirm the amending scheme by Order in Council.

(3.) An amending scheme, when confirmed by Parliament, or by Order in Council, as the case may require, shall have full operation, with, in the former case, such modifications, if any, as are made therein by Parliament, as if the amending scheme were part of this Act.

The "one-twentieth of the owners and ratepayers of the borough" is to be construed as meaning one-twentieth in number of the owners and ratepayers of the borough taken together, or the owners and ratepayers in respect of onetwentieth of the rateable property in the borough, the owners and ratepayers in all cases to include women not under coverture. (See sec. 213 (4) ). For definition of the term "local authority," see sec. 213 (6).

With regard to the proceedings in the case of a petition for a charter extending the Municipal Corporations Acts to a municipal borough to be incorporated, see secs. 211-215. See also regulations in Seventh Schedule, p. 231.

As to confirmation by Parliament of a scheme, see Rules 5 to 9 in Seventh Schedule.