(4.) With respect to hackney carriages; and shall, for the purpose of regulating such matters in urban districts, be incorporated with this Act. The expression in the provisions so incorporated “the superintendent constable," and the expression "any constable or other officer appointed by virtue of this or of the special Act," shall, for the purposes of this Act, respectively include any superintendent of police, and any constable or officer of police acting for or in the district of any urban authority; and the expression "within the prescribed distance" shall for the purposes of this Act inean within any urban district. Notwithstanding anything in the provisions so incorporated, a license granted to the driver of any hackney carriage in pursuance thereof shall be in force for one year only from the date of the license, or until the next general licensing meeting where a day for such meeting is appointed. As to this section, see the Introduction, ante, p. lix. The above incorporated provisions will be found in Appendix A, post. During processions, &c. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 21.-With respect to obstructions and nuisances in the streets within the district, the Local Authority may make orders for the route to be observed by all carts, carriages, horses, and persons in times of public processions, rejoicings, or illuminations, and generally for observing order in the streets. A wilful breach of any such order subjects the offender to a penalty not exceeding 40s. During Divine service. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 22.-The Board may also, on application by the minister, churchwardens, or chapelwardens, of any church or chapel, make orders for regulating the route by which persons shall drive in the neighbourhood of the church or chapel on Sundays and fast-days, &c., and a breach of any such order likewise subjects the offender to a penalty not exceeding 408. Stage coaches. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 23.-Proprietors of stage-coaches are exempted from compliance with such order when in the line of route specified in their license. Stray cattle. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 24. Penalty. Ib. s. 25.-Cattle at large in any street within the limits of the district may be impounded and detained until the owner pays to the Local Board a penalty not exceeding 408. besides expenses of keep; and if the penalty and expenses be not paid, the cattle may be sold to defray them, and the overplus is to be paid to the owner on demand. Pound Breach. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 26. Pound to be provided. Ib. s. 27.-Persons guilty of pound breach are liable to be committed to prison for any time not exceeding three months. For the above-mentioned purposes the Local Board may purchase land and erect a pound thereon, which they are to keep in repair. By the Act of 1 & 2 P. & M. c. 12, "for the avoiding of Grievous, Vexatious Exactions, Troubles, and Disorder in Taking of Distressess and Impounding of Cattle," s. 1-no distress of cattle shall be driven out of the hundred, rape, wapentake, or lathe where such distress is or shall be taken except that it be to a pound overt within the same shire, not above three miles distant from the place where the distress is taken; and no cattle or other goods distrained or taken by way of distress for any manner A.D. 1875. A.D. 1875. of cause at one time shall be impounded in several places, whereby the owner or owners of such distress shall be constrained to sue several replevies for the delivery of the distress so taken at one time, upon pain that every person offending contrary to the Act shall forfeit to the party grieved for every such offence a hundred shillings and treble damages. By the 2nd section of the Act-no person or persons shall take for keeping in pound, impounding, or poundage of any manner of distress above the sum of four pence for any one whole distress that shall be so impounded, and where less hath been used, there to take less upon the pain of five pounds to be paid to the party grieved over and beside such money as he shall take above the sum of four pence, any usage or prescription to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding The Local Board are bound to provide a proper pound for the purpose; and even though the distress may be placed in the manor pound, if there should be one, they will be liable to pay for any injury that the cattle may meet with in the pound, unless it was in a proper condition when the distress was placed there. Bignold v. Clarke, 2 L. T. (N. s.) 189. Offences in streets. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28.-Persons in any street, to the obstruction, annoyance, or danger of the residents or passengers, committing any of the offences undermentioned are liable to a penalty not exceeding 40s. for each offence, or to be committed to prison for a period not exceeding fourteen days. Horses, &c. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28, cont.-Exposing for show, hire, or sale, except in markets or fairs, horses or other animals; exhibiting shows, or public entertainments; shoeing, bleeding, or "farrying " horses or animals, except in cases of accident; cleaning, dressing, exercising, training or breaking, or turning loose horses or animals, or making or repairing carts or carriages, except in cases of accident where repair on the spot is necessary; suffering unmuzzled dogs to be at large (as to which see also the Act 34 & 35 Vict. c 56, "to provide further Protection against Dogs"); setting on or urging dogs or other animals to attack or put in fear any person or animal. Mad dogs. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28, cont.-Suffering rabid dogs, or dogs suspected to be rabid, to be at large. Slaughtering, &c., cattle. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28, cont.-Slaughtering or dressing cattle, except when overdriven, or when for the public safety they ought to be killed on the spot. Waggons, carts, &c. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28, cont.-Riding on shafts of waggons, &c., or in them without reins, or being at a distance so as not to have control over the horses, or keeping on the wrong side of the way, or obstructing the street and wilfully preventing persons or carriages passing; driving more than two carts or waggons without having the halter of the horse in the last cart, &c., properly fastened. Driving, &c. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28, cont.-Furiously driving; causing carriages, &c., to stand longer than is necessary for loading, &c. ; interrupting public crossings, obstructing public footways; causing trees, timber, or iron beams to be drawn upon carriages without sufficient means of guiding the same; driving or fastening horses on footways. Obstruction to footways, &c. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28, cont.-Placing furniture, goods, &c., on footways or projections over them less than eight feet from the ground; placing, hanging up, or otherwise exposing to sale goods projecting over the footway so as to obstruct the public passage thereon; rolling or carrying casks, hoops, timber, &c., on footways; placing lines, cords, or poles across streets, or hanging clothes thereon. Prostitution. Obscene books, &c. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28, cont.-Loitering for the purpose of prostitution; exposing the person; offering for sale or distribution obscene books, &c. (additional powers are given by Lord Campbell's Act, 20 & 21 Vict. c. 83, for the suppression of the trade in obscene books, prints, drawings, and other obscene articles, and enables the justices to authorize search to be made of the suspected premises); singing profane or obscene songs, or using profane or obscene language; discharging firearms; letting off fireworks, or making bonfires (with regard to fire-works it is enacted by the Explosive Substances Act, 1875, 38 Vict. c. 17, s. 80, that if any person throw, cast, or fire any firework in or into any high street, thoroughfare or public place, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £5). Ringing bells, de. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28. cont.-Wantonly ringing door-bells, or knocking at doors (the mere fact of a man being instructed to deliver papers at the house of a third person is no answer to a complaint against him under the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 9, s. 28, charging him with having wilfully and wantonly disturbed the party and his family by violently knocking and ringing at the door at an unreasonable hour of the night). Clarke, app., Hoggins, resp., 11 C. B. (N. s.) 545. Other obstructions and nuisances. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28, cont.-Unlawfully extinguishing lights of lamps; flying kites; sliding upon ice or snow; cleaning casks, &c.; cutting timber or stone; slaking, sifting, or screening lime; throwing or laying down stones, coals, &c.; beating or shaking carpets, &c., except door-mats before eight o'clock in the morning; placing flower-pots, &c., on windows not properly guarded; throwing articles from roofs of houses, except snow thrown so as not to fall on passengers; permitting persons to stand on sills of windows to clean or paint them; leaving vaults or cellars open without being properly guarded, or leaving an open area, pit, or sewer, without a sufficient light after sunset; throwing dirt, ashes, &c., carrion, fish, offal, or rubbish upon, or causing offensive matter to run into any street. Pigsties and keeping swine. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 28.-Keeping pigsties to the front of any street not shut out by a wall or fence, or keeping swine in or near any street so as to be a common nuisance. Where a local Act imposed a penalty on any driver or other person who conducts or drives in, upon, or through the streets, any cattle during Sunday, it was held that the penalty was not incurred by a person who conveyed the cattle in a van or carriage through the streets. Triggs v. Lester, 30 J. P. 228. Drunkards. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 29.-Drunken persons guilty of riotous or indecent conduct in any street or police office or station within the district of the Local Board are liable to a penalty not exceeding 408. for each offence, or to be imprisoned for a period not exceeding seven days. (Drunkenness on any highway is punishable under the Licensing Act, 1872, 35 & 36 Vict. c. 94, s. 12.) Committing a nuisance in street.-As touching nuisances in streets, the following has reference to the subject:-The owner of property is not justified in giving a person into custody found (popularly speaking) committing a nuisance against his premises, nor is he entitled to notice of action for having done so, unless he is fairly justified in believing that the person had the intention to soil or deface them within the meaning of 2 & 3 Vict. c. 47, s. 54, or the intention to commit damage or injury, or spoil them within the meaning of 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97, s. 52. Bayley v. Aldred, 10 Jur. (N. s.) 523. Chimneys on fire. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, ss. 30, 31.-With respect to fires, it is provided that persons wilfully setting or causing to be set on fire any chimney within the district shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £5; but, notwithstanding such liability, such person is not exempted from liability to be indicted for felony. If owing to any omission, neglect, or carelessness, the chimney of any house within the district catch fire, the occupier of the premises is liable to a penalty not exceeding 108. Fire-engines, &c. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 32.-In order to provide for the extinguishing of fires, the Local Board may provide fire-engines and all necessary appliances and fire-escapes; they may also purchase and keep or hire horses for drawing the engines, provide engine-houses, and employ persons to act as firemen, subject to such rules as they may make for their regulation, and pay them such salaries and rewards as they think fit for their exertions in cases of fire. Fires beyond limits of district. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 33.-The engines and firemen so provided may be employed in cases of fire beyond the limits of the district, and the owners of the buildings on fire are to pay for the service rendered; the amount of the compensation, in case of dispute, A.D. 1875. to be settled by two justices (whose decision is to be final) and recovered [PART as damages. No power is given by the Act to charge when the engines are employed within the district, and therefore no charge can be made when they are so employed. Drighlington v. Bower, W. N. 1873, p. 220. In the case of Lewis v. Arnold, 32 L. T. (N. s.) 553, the respondent was owner of a haystack, which caught fire and was burnt. During the burning a fire-engine was sent from the neighbouring town, and played upon the fire until the water supply was exhausted. It was held that the respondent was liable for the expense of the engine's attendance, as "The owner of the lands and buildings where such fire shall have happened," under 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 33, if he was the occupier of the land on which the haystack stood; but not if he was merely permitted to keep the haystack on the ground where he had lately purchased it. By the 28 & 29 Vict. c. 90, s. 30, when occasion requires, the Metropolitan Board of Works may permit any part of the fire-brigade establishment of the metropolis, with their engines, escapes, and other implements, to proceed beyond the limits of the metropolis for the purpose of extinguishing fires. The Board may also permit any part of the fire-brigade establishment to be employed on special services upon such terms of remuneration as the Board may think fit. The Select Committee of the House of Commons on fire protection, in their report (No. 471, Session 1867) recommend, in order to prevent the frequency of fires from the faulty construction of buildings, a general building Act for all towns and places in the United Kingdom governed by Municipal Corporations, Improvement Commissioners, or Local Boards, similar in its general provisions and in the powers it confers on such local authorities to the Metropolitan Building Act, and to the Building Acts of Liverpool. They also recommend that the floors of all large lodging-houses for the poor be made fire-proof, and that there be ample means of escape for the lodgers in case of fire. Places of public resort. Harbouring constables on duty. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 39, s. 34.-Victuallers or keepers of public-houses within the district who knowingly harbour or entertain constables while on duty, are, for every offence, liable to a penalty not exceeding 208.; and coffee-shop keepers who knowingly suffer common prostitutes or reputed thieves to assemble at and continue in their premises are for each offence liable to a penalty not exceeding £10. Harbouring disorderly persons. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 35. 34 & 35 Vict. c. 112, s. 10.-A licensed ale-house is a place of public resort for the sale of refreshments within the Town Police Clauses Act, 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, 8. 35, and the keeper of it is liable to penalties under that section for allowing prostitutes to assemble therein, although he may also at the same time be guilty of an offence against the terms of his license under 9 Geo. IV. c. 61. The information under the section being for an offence against public policy may be laid by any one without authority from the person to whom the penalties to be recovered are to be awarded, so long as he professes that the recovery of the penalties should ensure to the benefit of that person. This latter point was so held with reference to the provisions of a Local Act incorporating amongst others the 35th section of the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89; and providing that penalties recovered before justices and not otherwise directed to be paid should be awarded to the corporations of the town or the corporation under the Act, according as the proceeding for the penalty was on behalf of one or other of those bodies. Cole v. Coulton, 29 L. J. M. C. 125; 6 Jur. (N. s.) 698; 2 L. T. (n. s.) 216. Harbouring persons for an unlawful purpose.-The words "assemble at and continue" must be taken to have reference to the class of persons in question assembling at and continuing in the premises for an an unlawful purpose. If they go there for a lawful purpose, as for the purpose of getting necessary refreshment, and do not remain longer than is requisite for that purpose, the keeper of the house will not be liable to a conviction for knowingly suffering them to assemble in his premises. With reference to a somewhat similar provision in a local Act, it was held ou a case stated for the opinion of the Court, under the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 43, that where the defendant kept a coffee-house frequented chiefly by prostitutes, and had allowed prostitutes to remain there after he had been warned that they were such, but where no disorderly conduct on their part had taken place, the magistrate had authority to convict, though there might be no proof of disorderly conduct; but that he was not bound to convict, if he was of opinion that the prostitutes did not remain in the shop beyond the time requisite for taking necessary refreshment there. Greig v. Bendeno, 1 E. B. & E. 133; 27 L. J. M. C. 294; 4 Jur. (N. s.) 875. Bear-baiting. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89. s. 36.-Persons keeping places for bearbaiting, cock-fighting, &c., are liable to a penalty of not more than £5, or, in the discretion of the justices, to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a time not exceeding one month. The Local Board may, by an order in writing, authorize the superintendent constable, with such constables as he thinks necessary, to enter any premises kept for such purposes, and take into custody all persons found therein without lawful excuse; and every person so found is liable to a penalty not exceeding 58. A conviction for this offence does not, however, exempt the offender from any penal consequences. The Act 12 & 13 Vict. c. 92, for the prevention of cruelty to animals, also contains provisions against bull-baiting, bear-baiting, &c., and cockfighting, and under that Act it has been held that to assist at a cock-fight elsewhere than in a place "kept or used for the purpose of fighting or baiting any bull, bear, badger, dog, cock," &c. (s. 3), is not an offence under the Act. Morley v. Greenhalgh, 3 B & S. 374; 9 Jur. (N. s.) 745. Under sect. 2 of the same Act, it has been held that a cock is a domestic animal, and that fighting cocks with steel spurs is cruelly ill-treating them within the Act. Budge v. Parsons, 7 L. T. (N. s) 784; 32 L. J. M. C. 93, 95: 3 B. & S. 379, 382. Licensing carriages. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 37.-The urban authority may, within a prescribed distance, license hackney carriages to ply for hire those carriages are defined by the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, s. 38. and for each license a fee is to be paid not exceeding 58. The fees so derived it is presumed will be applied in aid of the district fund of the Local Board. Persons applying for a license must sign a certain requisition, which if it be false in any respect subjects the person signing it to a penalty not exceeding £10. Every license must specify certain particulars, and is to be duly registered by the clerk of the Local Board, and to be in force for one year only. If the person holding the license changes his place of abode, he must give notice thereof in writing to the Local Board, who, by their clerk, are to indorse on the license the particulars of the change. Persons offending in this respect are liable to a penalty not exceeding 408.; and persons permitting carriages not licensed to ply for hire, or plying for hire with such carriages, or not having the number thereof openly displayed, are liable for every offence to a penalty not exceeding 408. It will be no answer to an information for plying for hire without a license from the Local Board that the hackney carriage is licensed by the Inland Revenue authorities, under the 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 120. Buckle v. Wrightson, 11 L. T. (N. s.) 341; 34 L. J. M. C. 43; 11 Jur. (N. s.) 281. With reference to sect. 45 of the Towns Police Clauses Act, it has been hold that the penalty attaches although the road on which the carriage plied for hire was a turnpike road under the management of turnpike trustees. Sims v. Matlock Bath, 32 J. P. 131. A piece of ground adjoining a railway station and belonging to the company, metalled, and separated from the highway only by a gutter, was used as an approach to the railway station. Private carriages stood there, but no hackney or public carriages except those belonging to the appellant, who had the sole right of standing carriages on the ground in question for the purpose of plying for hire. Being convicted in a penalty for allowing his carriages to ply for hire without a license, on appeal it was held that the place was not a "street" within the meaning of the Act, for that the places included in the word "street" were places over which the public had a right of passage, and the conviction was wrong. Cartis v. Emery, L. R. 7 Exch. 369. A.D. 1875. |