furniture, fittings and conveniences, may be provided for the inhabitants
of the district. Land may be acquired, and money
borrowed, for the purposes of the acts.
A great number of other statutes confer powers or impose duties upon district councils, such as the acts relating to town gardens, agricultural gangs, fairs, petroleum, infant life protection, commons, open spaces, canal boats, factories and workshops, margarine, sale of horse-flesh and shop hours.
Before the passing of the Local Government Act 1894 there was really nothing in the form of local government for a parish. It is true that the inhabitants in vestry had certain powers. They could adopt various acts, which will be more particularly referred to hereafter, and they could The parish and the parish council. appoint the persons who were to carry these acts into execution. They elected the churchwardens and overseers, the highway surveyor, if the parish was a separate unit for highway purposes, and the waywardens if it was included in a highway district. But there was nothing in the nature of a representative body exercising any powers of government in the parish regarded as a separate area. Under the act of 1894 this was changed. In every rural parish, that is to say, in every parish which is not included within an urban district, there is a parish meeting, which consists of the parochial electors of the parish. As already stated, these are the persons whose names are on the parliamentary and local government registers. If the parish has a population exceeding 300, a parish council must be elected. If it has a population of 100 or upwards, the county council are bound to make an order for the election of a parish council if the parish meeting so resolves. Where there is no parish council, as will be seen hereafter, the various powers conferred upon a council are exercised by the parish meeting itself. Two or more parishes may be grouped together under a common parish council by order of the county council if the parish meetings of each parish consent. An annual parish meeting in every rural parish must be held on the 25th day of March or within seven days before or after that date; and if there is no parish council, there must be at least one other parish meeting in the year. At the annual parish meeting the parish council, if there is one, is elected, and the members of the council, who originally held office for one year only, now, under a subsequent act, hold office for three years. Any person who is a parochial elector, or who has for twelve months preceding the election resided in the parish, or within 3 m. thereof, may be elected parish councillor, and the number of councillors is to be fixed from time to time by the county council, not being less than five nor more than fifteen. Women, whether married or single, are eligible.
The council are elected in manner provided by the rules of the Local Government Board. The rules now in force will be found in the Statutory Rules and Orders. They are very similar to those which are in force with reference to the elections of district councils, which have already been noticed. If a poll is demanded, it must be taken under the Ballot Act, as applied by the rules, and for all practical purposes it may be taken that the election proceeds in the same manner as that of a district council. The parish council elects a chairman annually. He may be one of their own number, or some other person qualified to be a parish councillor. The council is a body corporate, may hold land in mortmain, and can appoint committees for its own parish or jointly with any other parish council. Powers to appoint overseers. Among the powers conferred upon a parish council are those of appointing overseers and of appointing and revoking the appointment of assistant overseers. Churchwardens are no longer overseers, and the parish council may appoint as overseers a number of persons equal to the number formerly appointed as overseers and churchwardens. It may be useful to mention here that for purposes of the administration of the poor law, overseers no longer act, their duties in that respect having been superseded by the guardians. They remain, however, the rating authority so far as regards the poor rate and nearly all other rates, the exceptions being the general district rate in an urban district and the borough rate in a borough, made by the town council. They still have power to give relief to poor persons in case of sudden and urgent necessity, but their principal duty is that of rating authority, and they are bound to make out the lists for their parishes of jurors and electors. No payment is made to them. The office is compulsory, but certain persons are privileged from being elected to it. The assistant overseer, who was formerly nominated by the inhabitants and vestry and then formally appointed by justices, is now, as has been stated, appointed by the parish council. He holds office at pleasure, and receives such remuneration as the council fix, and he performs all the duties of an overseer, or such of them as may be prescribed by the terms of his appointment. There may be in a parish a collector of rates appointed by the guardians. In that event, an assistant overseer cannot be appointed to perform the duties of collector of rates, but, on the other hand, the parish council may invest the collector with any of the powers of an overseer. The parish council may appoint a clerk, who may be either one of their own number without payment, or the assistant overseer, rate collector or some other fit person, with remuneration.
Among the duties transferred to parish councils may be mentioned the provision of parish books and of a vestry room or parochial office, parish chest, fire engine or fire escape, the holding or management of parish property, other than property relating to affairs of the church or held for an ecclesiastical Powers and duties of parish councils. charity, the holding or management of village greens or of allotments, the appointment of trustees of parochial charities other than ecclesiastical charities in certain cases, and certain limited powers with reference to the supply of water to the parish, the removal of nuisances, and the acquisition of rights of way which are beneficial to the inhabitants.
Among the most important of the matters which concern a rural
parish is the administration of what are commonly called the adoptive
acts. These include the Lighting and Watching Act, the
Baths and Washhouses Acts, the Burial Acts, the Public
Improvement Act and the Public Libraries Acts. The
Lighting and Watching Act.
Lighting and Watching Act was formerly adopted for a
parish, or part of a parish, by the inhabitants in vestry,
who elected lighting inspectors, of whom one-third went out of office
in every year. The inspectors took the necessary steps for having
the parish lighted (the provisions as to watching having been obsolete
for many years), and the expenses of lighting were raised by the
overseers upon an order issued to them by the inspectors. The
owners and occupiers of houses, buildings and property, other than
land, pay a rate in the £ three times greater than that at which the
owners and occupiers of land are rated and pay for the purposes of
the act. Now this act, like the other adoptive acts, can only be
adopted by the parish meeting, and where adopted for part only of a
parish, must be adopted by a parish meeting held for that part.
After the adoption of the act it is carried into execution by the parish
council, if there is one, and if not, by the parish meeting, and the
expenses are raised in the same manner as heretofore.Baths and Wash-houses Acts.
Burial Acts.
The Baths and Washhouses Acts have already been
referred to in dealing with district councils, and it is
sufficient to say that they are now adopted and administered
in a rural parish in the manner pointed out
with reference to the Lighting and Watching Act. The same may
be said of the Burial Acts, but these are sufficiently important
to require special notice. These acts contain provisions
whereby burials may be prohibited in urban districts, and
churchyards or burial grounds already existing may be
closed when full. Formerly, when the acts had been adopted by the
vestry, it was necessary to appoint a burial board to carry the acts
into execution and provide and manage burial grounds. Now, in a
rural parish which is coextensive with an area for which the acts
have been adopted, the burial board is abolished and the acts are
administered by the parish council; and the acts cannot be adopted
in a rural parish save by the parish meeting. If the area under a
burial board in 1894 was partly in a rural parish and partly in an
urban district, the burial board was superseded, and the powers of the
board are exercised by a joint committee appointed partly by the urban
district council and partly by the parish council, or parish meeting,
as the case may be. In a rural parish where there is no parish council,
though the acts are adopted by the parish meeting, it is still necessary
to elect the burial board, and that board will be elected by the parish
meeting. The distinction between a burial ground under the Burial
Acts and a cemetery provided under the Public Health Acts has
already been noticed. A burial ground, properly so called, has to
be divided into consecrated and unconsecrated portions, and the
former really takes the place of the parish churchyard; and the
incumbent of the parish church, the clerk, and the sexton continue
to receive the same fees upon burials in the consecrated portion as
they would have done in the parish churchyard. It has been
mentioned that a portion of the burial ground must be left unconsecrated.
But this is subject to one important exception, that
the parish meeting may unanimously resolve that the whole of the
burial ground shall be consecrated. In that case, however, the
parish council may, within ten years thereafter, determine that a
separate unconsecrated burial ground shall also be provided for the
parish. The expenses of the execution of the Burial Acts are provided
by the overseers out of the poor rate upon the certificate of
the body entrusted with the execution of them. In the event of
the acts being adopted for a portion only of a rural parish, the
burial board, or the parish meeting, may by resolution transfer all
the powers of the board to the parish council.
The Public Improvement Act, when adopted, enables a parish
council to purchase or lease, or accept gifts of land for the purpose
of forming public walks, exercise or play grounds, and
to provide for the expense by means of a parish improvement
rate. Before any such rate is imposed, however, a sum in amount
Public Imp-
rovement Act.
not less than at least half of the estimated
cost of the proposed improvement must have been raised by private
