New volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica > Volume 30, K-MOR

310 LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ENGLAND AND WALES)
union contributes. Another source is the income of any property
belonging to the council, but the amount of this is usually small.
The third source of revenue consists of the fees received by the
different officers of the county councils or of the joint-committee.
For example, fees received by the clerk of the peace, inspectors of
weights and measures, and the like. These fees are paid into the
county fund, and carried either to ‘ ‘ the general county account ” or,
if they have been received in respect of some matter for which part
only of the county is assessed, then to the special account to which
the rates levied for that purpose are carried. The remaining source
of income of a county council is the county rate, the manner of
levying which is hereafter stated.
Of the powers and duties of county councils, it may be
convenient to treat of these first, in so far as they are
transferred to or conferred on them by the
transferredLocal Government Act, 1888, under which they
from were created, and afterwards in so far as they
quarter have been conferred by subsequent legislation.
sessions. gefore the passing of the Local Government
Act, 1888, the only form of county government in
England was that of the justices in quarter sessions.
Quarter sessions were originally a judicial body, but being
the only body having jurisdiction over the county as a
whole, certain powers were conferred and certain duties
imposed upon them with reference to various matters of
county government from time to time. The principal
object of the Act of 1888 was to transfer these powers
and duties from the quarter sessions to the new repre¬
sentative body—the county council; and it may be said
that substantially the whole of the administrative business
of quarter sessions was thus transferred.
The subjects of such transfer include (i.) the making, assessing,
and levying of county, police, hundred, and all rates, and the
application and expenditure thereof, and the making of orders for the
payment of sums payable out of any such rate, or out of the county
stock or county fund, and the preparation and revision of the basis
or standard for the county rate. With regard to the county rate,
a few words of description may be sufficient here. The council
appoint a committee called a county rate committee, who from
time to time prepare a basis or standard for county rate—-that is to
say, they fix the amount at which each parish in the county shall
contribute its quota to the county rate. As a general rule the poor-
law valuations are followed, but this is not universally the case,
some county councils adopting the assessment to income tax,
schedule A, and others forming an independent valuation of their
own. The overseers of any parish aggrieved by the basis may
appeal against it to quarter sessions, and it is to be noticed that
this appeal is not interfered with, the transfer of the duties of
justices relating only to administrative and not to judicial business.
When a contribution is required from county rate, the county
council assess the amount payable by each parish according to the
basis previously made, and send their precept to the guardians of
the unions comprising the several parishes in the county, the
guardians in their turn requiring the overseers of each parish to
provide the necessary quota of that parish out of the poor rate, and
the sum thus raised goes into the county fund. The police rate is
made for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the county
police. It is made on the same basis as the county rate, and is
levied with it. The hundred rate is seldom made, though in some
counties it may be made for purposes of main roads and bridges
chargeable to the hundred as distinguished from the county at
large ; (ii.) the borrowing of money; (iii.) the passing of the
accounts of and the discharge of the county treasurer; (iv.) shire
halls, county halls, assize courts, the judges’ lodgings, lock-up
houses, court houses, justices’ rooms, police stations and county
buildings, works, and property; (v.) the licensing under any
general Act of houses and other places for music or for dancing,
and the granting of licences under the Racecourses Licensing Act,
1879 ; (vi.) the provision, enlargement, maintenance, and manage¬
ment and visitation of, and other dealing with, asylums for pauper
lunatics ; (vii.) the establishment and maintenance of, and the con¬
tribution to, reformatory and industrial schools ; (viii.) bridges and
roads repairable with bridges, and any powers vested by the High¬
ways and Locomotives Amendment Act, 1878, in the county authority.
It may be observed that bridges have always been at common law
repairable by the county, although, with regard to bridges erected
since the year 1805, these are not to be deemed to be county
bridges repairable by the county unless they have been erected
under the direction or to the satisfaction of the county surveyor. The
common-law liability to repair a bridge extends also to the road or
approaches for a distance of 300 feet on each side of the bridge. Of
the powers vested in the county authority under the Highway Act,
1878, the most important are those relating to main roads, which
are specially noticed hereafter, (ix.) The tables of fees to be taken
by and the costs to be allowed to any inspector, analyst, or person
holding any office in the county other than the clerk of the peace
and the clerks of the justices ; (x.) the appointment, removal, and
determination of salaries of the county treasurer, the county sur¬
veyor, the public analysts, any officer under the Explosives Act,
1875, and any officers whose remuneration is paid out of the county
rate, other than the clerk of the peace and the clerks of the justices;
(xi.) the salary of any coroner whose salary is payable out of the
county rate, the fees, allowances, and disbursements allowed to be
paid by any such coroner, and the division of the county into
coroners’ districts and the assignments of such districts ; (xii.) the
division of the county into polling districts for the purposes of
parliamentary elections, the appointment of the places of election,
the places of holding courts for the revision of the lists of voters,
and the costs of and other matters to be done for the registration
of parliamentary voters ; (xiii.) the execution as local authority of
the Acts relating to contagious diseases of animals, to destructive
insects, to fish conservancy, to wild birds, to weights and measures,
and to gas meters, and of the Local Stamp Act, 1869 ; (xiv.) any
matters arising under the Riot (Damages) Act, 1886. Under this
Act compensation is payable out of the police rate to any person
whose property has been injured, stolen, or destroyed by rioters;
(xv.) the registration of rules of scientific societies, the registration
of charitable gifts, the certifying and recording of places of religious
worship, the confirmation and record of the rules of loan societies.
These duties are imposed under various statutes.
In addition to the business of quarter sessions thus transferred,
there was also transferred to the county council certain business of
the justices of the county out of session, that is to say, in petty or
special sessions. This business consists of the licensing of houses
or places for the public performance of stage plays, and the execu¬
tion, as local authority, of the Explosives Act, 1875. Power was
given by the Act to the Local Government Board to provide, by
means of a provisional order, for transferring to county councils
any of the powers and duties of the various central authorities
which have been already referred to ; but although such an order
was at one time prepared, it has never been confirmed, and nothing
has been done in that direction.
Apart from the business thus transferred to county councils, the
Act itself has conferred further powers or imposed further duties
with reference to a variety of other matters, some of p ^
which must be noticed. But before passing to them
it is necessary here to call attention to one important subject of
county government which has not been wholly transferred to the
county council, namely, the police. It was matter of considerable
discussion before the passing of the Act whether the police should
remain under the control of the justices, or be transferred wholly
to the control of the county council. Eventually a middle course
was taken. The powers, duties, and liabilities of the quarter
sessions and justices out of session with respect to the county police
were vested in the quarter sessions and the county council jointly,
and are now exercised through the standing joint-committee of the
two bodies. That committee consists of an equal number of mem¬
bers of the county council and of justices appointed by the quarter
sessions, the number being arranged between the two bodies or
fixed by the Secretary of State. The committee are also charged
with the duties of appointing or removing the clerk of the peace,
and they have jurisdiction in matters relating to justices’ clerks,
the provision of accommodation for quarter sessions or justices out
of session, and the like, and their expenses are paid by the county
council out of the county fund. The standing joint-committee
have power to divide their county into police districts, and, when
required by Order in Council, are obliged to do so. In such a case,
while the general expenditure in respect of the entire police force
is defrayed by the county at large, the local expenditure, i.e., the
cost of pay, clothing, and such other expenses as the joint-com¬
mittee may direct, are defrayed at the cost of the particular district
for which it is incurred (see also Police).
Among the powers and duties given to county councils by the
Local Government Act, 1888, the first to be mentioned, following
the order in the Act itself, is that of the appointment Q0unty
of county coroners. The office of coroner is a very coroaers.
ancient one, and was formerly of much greater dignity
and importance than it is at present. The duties of a coroner are
now limited to the holding of inquiries into cases of death from
causes suspected to be other than natural, and to a few miscellane¬
ous duties of comparatively rare occurrence, such as the holding
of inquiries relating to treasure trove, and acting instead of the
sheriff on inquiries under the Lands Clauses Act, &c., when that
officer is interested and thereby disabled from holding such in¬
quiries. The office of coroner is a freehold one, that is to say, it
is held for life or good conduct, and in a county the salary of the
coroner is paid out of the county fund. Formerly he was elected
by the freeholders of the county in pursuance of a writ de coronatore
eligendo. The power of appointment is now given to the county