66 Temporary Provisions. Section 323 (post, p. 291) enables the Local Government Board, by provisional order, to dissolve districts constituted for the purpose of main sewerage only, or subject to the jurisdiction of Joint Sewerage Boards, or to constitute such districts united districts, subject to the jurisdiction of a Joint Board. Saving Clauses. "As the Sanitary Acts are now repealed, and Sanitary Authorities for the most part derived their powers from those Acts, special provision was necessary to preserve the Authorities and arrangements in existence at the time of the passing of the new Act. Section 326 (post, p. 292) therefore declares that all Sanitary Authorities charged at the time of the passing of the Act with the execution of the Sanitary Acts shall be deemed to be Authorities charged with the execution of the Act; and that their officers and servants shall continue in their offices and employments so long as they would have done if the Act had not passed. 'Another important section is that which excepts mines and the manufacture of mineral produce from the operation of the Act. Under the Nuisances Removal Acts the exception extended not only to mines and the smelting of ores and minerals, but also to the manufacturing of the produce of such ores and minerals generally. The exception in section 334 (post, p. 296) of the present Act is less extensive, and only applies to mines, to the smelting of ores and minerals, to the calcining, puddling, and rolling of metals, and to the conversion of pig-iron into wrought iron, so as not to interfere with those processes. 66 SCHEDULE I. Rules applicable to Committees. "The whole of these Rules (see post, p. 304) are new, and apply to the Committees appointed by the Rural Sanitary Authority. They authorise meetings and adjournments; prescribe a quorum, in cases where none has been prescribed by the appointing Authority; provide for the election of a chairman, and the manner in which a majority of votes is to be determined; render proceedings valid, notwithstanding vacancies or defective appointments; and declare that the minutes, orders, and resolutions of the Committee, purporting to be signed by the chairman, either of the meeting at which the proceedings took place or of the following meeting, shall be evidence in legal proceedings. SCHEDULE II. Proceedings in case of Lapse of Local Boards. "The Sanitary Acts contained no provision for the vesting of the property of a lapsed Local Board in the succeeding Authority; and in the event of no new Local Board being elected, the district remained a Local Government district, and was under the control of no Local Authority. Both these defects are cured by Rule 2 of Part II. of this Schedule (post, p. 323), which enables the Local Government Board, in the event of no new election taking place within three months, to dissolve the district and declare it to be a rural district, or included in any adjoining rural district, the property of the lapsed Local Board passing to the new Authority. The Rule further enables the Board to determine any question as to the fact of a Local Board having lapsed, or the date of such lapse. SCHEDULE III. Rules as to Resolutions of Owners and Ratepayers. Under the Local Government Act, 1858, section 13 (1), a meeting for the purpose of passing a resolution for the adoption of that Act had to be called, on the requisition of twenty ratepayers or owners. A meeting for the purpose of passing the corresponding resolution under this Act may be called under Rule 1 of this Schedule (post, p. 326) on the requisition of twenty ratepayers or owners, or of twenty ratepayers and owners, but the requisitionists, in both cases, are required to be resident in the district or place with respect to which the resolution is to be passed. "Under the Local Government Act, 1858, section 13 (3), the meeting could only be adjourned from day to day, and the construction placed by the Law Officers of the Crown upon this provision was that the adjournment must be from one day to the next. This interpretation has been productive of inconvenience, and in some cases has led to the failure of the proceedings, when the adjournment has been improperly made over intervening days. An amendment has therefore been introduced (Rule 5, p. 327) enabling the meeting to be adjourned from time to time. "Hitherto the meeting has been required to elect its own chairman, but under Rule 6 (post, p. 327) the summoning officer will be the chairman, unless he is unable or unwilling to preside, in which case only the chairman will be elected by the meeting. The provisions of the same section of the Local Government Act have been held as constituting the churchwardens and overseers summoning officers only in cases where their jurisdiction has been coextensive with the places in which it has been proposed to adopt the Act. An express enactment contained in Rule 2 (post, p. 326) declares, in accordance with this interpretation, that the jurisdiction of these officers must be conterminous with the proposed district, so that in all other cases the summoning officer must be appointed by the Board. "The foregoing statement does not profess to exhaust all the minor amendments which have been made in the law by the present Act; but the Board believe that they have sufficiently explained the nature and intention of all the principal changes effected by it, and they trust that their observations will be of service to Rural Authorities in administering its various and important provisions." THE PUBLIC HEALTH ACT, 1875. 38 & 39 VICT., CHAPTER 55. AN ACT for consolidating and amending the Acts relating to Public Health in England. [11th August, 1875.] Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: PART I. Preliminary. A.D. 1875. 1. This Act may be cited as the Public Health Act, Short title. 1875. 2. This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland, Extent of Act. nor (save as by this Act is expressly provided) to the metropolis. 3. This Act is divided into parts, as follows: Division of Act into parts. Part III.-Sanitary Provisions. Part IV.-Local Government Provisions. Part V.-General Provisions. Part VI.-Rating and Borrowing Powers, &c. Part VII.-Legal Proceedings. Part VIII.-Alteration of Areas and Union of Districts. Part X.-Miscellaneous and Temporary Provisions. Part XI.-Saving Clauses and Repeal of Acts. 4. In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context, the Definitions. following words and expressions have the meanings hereinafter respectively assigned to them; that is to say, "Means," in an interpretation clause, limits the interpretations to those expressed, Reg. v. Kershaw, 6 E. & B 1007; Doe v. Benham, 7 Q. B. 979; Reg. v. Cambridgeshire JJ. 7 A. & E. 491. B |