Assignment of charge. 31 & 32 Vict. engineer as aforesaid, together with a copy of the accounts as passed by the local authority, and which copies shall be certified to be true copies by the clerk of such local authority, shall, within six months after the date of such charging order, be deposited with the clerk of the peace of the county in which the premises are situate, who shall be entitled to a fee of 10s. for filing and recording the same. The proprietor of any charge may, by deed under seal, stamped with the same ad valorem stamp as if it were an c. 130, s. 30. assignment of a charge created by deed, assign the benefit of the charging order, or of any portion of the charge comprised therein to any other person: and on such assignment being executed the assignee shall have the same rights under the order as the proprietor would have had if no such assignment had been executed; and any assignee of a charging order may, by deed stamped in manner aforesaid, assign the charge to any other person. Any assignment of a charging order may be in the following form, or in any other convenient form : Expenses of local autho rity. Ib. s. 31. Ib. Public Works Loan Commissioners Dated the Form of Assignment of Charge. . To be endorsed on Charging Order. I, the within-named day of in pursuance of the Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1868, and in (Signed) § 13. EXPENSES OF LOCAL AUTHORITY. All expenses incurred by the local authority in pursuance of the Act shall be defrayed by them out of a special local rate, not exceeding 2d. in the pound in any year, which they are hereby empowered to assess and levy for the purposes of this Act. The special local rate so to be levied is the general district rate levied under 38 & 39 Vict. c. 55, s. 210, ante, p. 188. § 14. BORROWING POWERS. The Public Works Loan Commissioners, as defined by the Public Works Loans Act, 1875, may, if they think fit, may advance lend to any local authority, and any local authority may borrow from the said Commissioners, such sums as the said authority may require for the purposes of the Act, in accordance with and under the powers of that Act, which will be found in Appendix C, post, p. 512.. moneys to local authority. Ib. s. 32. § 15. SERVICE OF NOTICES, ETC. local autho Any summons, notice, writ, or other proceeding at law Service of or in equity, or otherwise, in relation to carrying into effect notice on the the objects and purposes of the Act, required to be served rity. upon the local authority, may be lawfully served by de- 31 & 32 Vict. livering the same to the clerk of the local authority, or c. 130, s. 33. leaving the same at his office with some person employed there by him. Such clerk is the clerk of the Local Board, or other I. officer performing duties of clerk (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55, Sch. I. s. 189, ante, p. 176). Any notice, demand, or other written document served Notices to be by the local authority for the purposes of the Act shall signed by be signed by the clerk of the local authority. § 16. PENALTIES. clerk. Ib. s. 34. officer of Where any person at any time obstructs the officer of Penalty for health or other person acting in the performance of auy- obstructing thing which the local authority or their officers respec- health, &c., tively are by the Act required or authorized to do, every in execution person so offending shall for every such offence forfeit not of Act. exceeding £20. Ib. s. 35. execution of If the occupier of any premises prevents the owner Penalty for thereof, or if the owner or occupier of any premises preventing prevents the officer of health, or their officers, agents, Act servants, or workmen, from carrying into effect with Ib. s. 36. respect to the premises any of the provisions of the Act, after notice of the intention so to do has been given to the occupier, or, as the case shall be, to the owner, any justice on proof thereof may make an order in writing requiring the occupier to permit the owner, or, as the case shall be, requiring the owner or occupier, or both, to permit the officer of health, or the local authority, and their officers, agents, servants, and workmen, to do all things requisite for carrying into effect with respect to the premises the provisions of the Act; and if at the expiration of ten days after the service of such order of the justice the occupier or owner fails to comply therewith, every person so offending shall for every day during which the failure continues forfeit not exceeding £20: Providing that during any such failure by the occupier the owner, unless assenting thereto, shall not be liable to the forfeiture. Penalties under the Act may be recovered before two Recovery of justices in manner directed by 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43 (see Glen's Jervis's Acts, 3rd edit.). penalties. 31 & 32 Vict. c. 130, s. 38. What the order must state. Under 31 & 32 Vict. c. 130, ss. 5, 6, it is not necessary that there should be a report and an order in respect of each house; and where the report of the surveyor states that the structural defects cannot be remedied, but that the premises ought to be demolished, it is not necessary to specify in detail in what the structural defects consist. (1) (1) Flight v. St. George the Martyr, Southwark, 25 L. T. (N.s.) 24; 35 J. P. 389, n.; 36 J. P. 303. THE ARTIZANS' AND LABOURERS' DWELLINGS (38 & 39 VICT. c. 36.) THE object of the Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act, 1875, is to facilitate the removal, rearrangement, and reconstruction of houses, courts, and alleys in the poorer and more densely populated parts of London, and of the larger urban sanitary districts in England and Ireland. The Act is to be put in force where the buildings are closely crowded together, or, from want of light or ventilation, or other cause, are a source of fever or disease, and where, by reason of the premises being owned by separate persons, it would be difficult to secure the co-operation necessary for their general improvement. Local authorities having, as we have already seen, power to make isolated improvements in the structure of houses under the Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1868, and sanitary authorities being able to regulate the width, line, or paving of streets, and to make byelaws respecting the structure and sanitary arrangements of new buildings, under the Local Government Acts, as consolidated by the Public Health Act, 1875, they may by the above Act, upon complying with its provisions, take down the buildings covering any area in an unhealthy district, and lay out and complete streets therein; but they are not, as a general rule, to undertake the reconstruction of the premises themselves. They are to decide upon a scheme of improvement, and when it has been. duly confirmed, to contract with the owner of any land comprised in the area affected for its execution, or to purchase the land from the various owners, and then sell or let it subject to conditions binding the purchaser or lessee to carry out the scheme (sect. 9). If the local authority erect dwellings out of funds provided under the Act, such dwellings are to be sold within ten years after their completion (sect. 9); but if they fail for five years to make arrangements for carrying out the scheme, the lands may be sold by public auction, subject The Local The Confirm to the conditions of the scheme, by order of the confirming authority (sect. 10). Where a local Act provides for objects similar to those of this Act, either, or both in concurrence, may be enforced; but the former is not to free the local authority from any duties imposed upon them by the latter Act (sect. 30). In the City of London, the Commissioners of Sewers are the local authority who may execute the Act; in the rest of the metropolis, the Metropolitan Board of Works; and in urban sanitary districts in England and Ireland, the population of which is at least 25,000, their respective urban sanitary authorities-i.e., the Town Council, the Improvement Commissioners, or the Local Board, as the case may be. To urban sanitary districts, of which the population is less than 25,000, and to rural sanitary districts, the Act is not applicable (sect. 2). The 38 & 39 Vict. c. 49, provides for artizans' and labourers' dwellings in royal and parliamentary burghs in Scotland. Where the improvement scheme has been framed by ing Authority. the Commissioners of Sewers for the City of London, or the Metropolitan Board of Works, it is in the first place to be confirmed by a provisional order of the Secretary of State; but where it has been framed by an urban sanitary authority, then by a provisional order of the Local Government Board of England, if the sanitary district is in England, or of Ireland, if such district is in Ireland (sect. 31); and in the Act, such Secretary of State or Local Government Board, as the case may be, is referred to as the "confirming authority" (sect. 6). The Medical Generally the medical officer of health of the local authority will perform the duties imposed by the Act upon a medical officer (sect. 4), but the Act does not provide for any extra remuneration to be given to him. In the metropolis, a medical officer of health (or more than one) may be specially appointed by the Board of Works, with the assent of a Secretary of State, for the purposes of the Act, and a salary may be given to him (sect. 13); though it appears that the medical officer of health of a district board or vestry may act under sect. 4, notwithstanding such appointment. In Ireland the consulting sanitary officer is to perform the duties of a medical officer of health under the Act (sect. 31). A temporary medical officer may be appointed for not more than six months, and subject to the approval of the confirming authority, by a district board or vestry in the |