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

LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ENGLAND AND WALES) 311
council, who may appoint any fit person, not being a county alder-
iran or county councillor, to fill the office, and in the case of a
county divided into coroners’ districts, may assign him a district.
It has been decided, however, that the power hereby conferred does
not extend to the appointment of a coroner for a liberty or other
franchise who would not under the old law have been appointed
by the freeholders. It may be mentioned that though a coroner
may have a district assigned to him, he is nevertheless a coroner
for the entire county throughout which he has jurisdiction.
It was provided by the Highway Act, 1878, that every road which
was disturnpiked after the 31st December 1870 should be deemed
to be a main road, the expenses of the repair and main-
na tenance of which were to be contributed as to one-half
roa s’ thereof by the justices in quarter sessions, then the
county authority. By another section of the same Act it was pro¬
vided that where any highway in a county was a medium of com¬
munication between great towns, or a thoroughfare to a railway
station, or otherwise such that it ought to be declared a main road,
the county authority might declare it to be a main road, and there¬
upon one-half the expense of its maintenance would fall upon the
county at large. Once a road became a main road it could only cease
to be such by order of the Local Government Board. As already
stated, the powers of the quarter sessions under the Act of 1878
were transferred to the county council under the Local Government
Act of 1888, and that body alone has now power to declare a road
to be a main road. But the Act of 1888 made some important
changes in the law relating to the maintenance of main roads. It
declared that thereafter not only the half but the whole cost of
maintenance should be borne by the county. Provision is made
for the control of main roads in urban districts being retained by
the urban district council. In urban districts where such control
has not been claimed, and in rural districts, the county council may
either maintain the main roads themselves or allow or require the
district councils to do so. The county council must in any case
make a payment towards the costs incurred by the district council,
and if any difference arises as to the amount of it, it has to be
settled by the Local Government Board. In Lancashire the cost
of main roads falls upon the hundred, as distinguished from the
county at large, special provision being made to that effect. Special
provision has also been made for the highways in the Isle of Wight
and in South Wales, where the roads were formerly regulated by
special acts, and not by the ordinary Highway Acts.
The county council have the same power as a sanitary authority to
enforce the provisions of the Eivers Pollution Prevention Acts in
relation to so much of any stream as passes through
pollution or ky any Part of their county. Under these Acts a
prevention. sanitary authority is authorized to take proceedings to
restrain interference with the due flow of a stream
or the pollution of its waters by throwing into it the solid
refuse of any manufactory or quarry, or any rubbish or
cinders, or any other -waste, or any putrid solid matter. They
may also take proceedings in respect of the pollution of a stream
by any solid or liquid sewage matter. They have the same powers
with respect to manufacturing and mining pollutions, subject to
certain restrictions, one of which is that proceedings are not to be
taken without the consent of the Local Government Board. The
county council may not only themselves institute proceedings under
the Acts, but they may contribute to the costs of any prosecution
under the Acts instituted by any other county or district council.
The Local Government Board is further empowered by provisional
order to constitute a joint-committee representing all the adminis¬
trative counties through or by which a river passes, and confer on
such committee all or any of the powers of a sanitary authority
under the Acts.
A county council has the same power of opposing Bills in Parlia¬
ment and of prosecuting or defending any legal proceedings
Pariiamen- necessai7 f°r the promotion or protection of the
tary and ' interests of the inhabitants of a county as are con-
legal costs. i'erre(i 011 the council of a municipal borough by the
Borough Funds Act, 1872, with this difference, that
in order to enable them to oppose a Bill in Parliament at the
cost of the county rate, it is not necessary to obtain the consent
cf the owners and ratepayers within the county. The power thus
conferred is limited to opposing Bills. The council are not
authorized to promote any Bill, and although they frequently do
so, they incur the risk that if the Bill should not pass the members
cl the council will be surcharged personally with the costs incurred
if they attempt to charge them to the county rate. Of course if
the Bill passes, it usually contains a clause enabling the costs of
promotion to be paid out of the county rate. It must not be
supposed, however, that the county council have no power to
institute or defend legal proceedings or oppose Bills save such as is
expressly conferred upon them by the Local Government Act. In
this respect they are in the same position as all other local author-
1 .es, with respect to whom it has been laid down that they may
without any express power in that behalf use the funds at their
disposal for protecting themselves against any attack made upon
their existence as a corporate body or upon any of their powers or
privileges.
The county council have also the same powers as a borough council
of making bye-laws for the good government of the county and for
the suppression of nuisances not already punishable _
under the general law. This power has been largely ye" aws
acted upon throughout England, and the courts of law have on
several occasions decided that such bye-laws should be bene¬
volently interpreted, and that in matters which directly arise and
concern the people of the county, who have the right to choose
those whom they think best fitted to represent them, such repre¬
sentatives may be trusted to understand their own requirements.
Such bye-laws will therefore be upheld, unless it is clear that they
are uncertain, repugnant to the general law of the land, or mani¬
festly unreasonable. It may be mentioned that, while bye-laws
relating to the good government of the county have to be confirmed
by the Secretary of State, those which relate to the suppression of
nuisances have to be confirmed by the Local Government Board.
Such confirmation, however, though necessary to enable the council
to enforce them, does not itself confer upon them any validity in
point of law.
The county council have power to appoint and pay one or more
medical officers of health, who are not to hold any other appoint¬
ment or engage in private practice without the express „
written consent of the council. The council may make Medical
arrangements whereby any district council or councils offlcers-
may have the services of the county medical officer on payment of
a contribution towards his salary, and while such arrangement
is in force the duty of the district council to appoint a medical
officer is to be deemed to have been satisfied. Every medical officer,
whether of a county or district, must now be legally qualified for
the practice of medicine, surgery, and midwifery. Besides this, in
the case of a county, or of any district or combination of districts of
which the population exceeds 50,000, the medical officer must also
have a diploma in public health, unless he has during the three
consecutive years before 1892 been medical officer of a district or
combination having a population of more than 20,000, or has before
the passing of the Act been for three years a medical officer or
inspector of the Local Government Board.
The only other powers and duties of a county council arising
under the Local Government Act itself which it is necessary to
notice are those relating to alterations of local areas.
It may be convenient here to state that certain altera- ■A“era‘'°fls
tions of areas can only be effected through the medium ° oca
of the Local Government Board after local inquiry. a eas*
These cases include the alteration of the boundary of any county or
borough, the union of a county borough with a county, the union
of any counties or boroughs or the division of any county, the
making of a borough into a county borough. In these cases the
order of the Local Government Board is provisional only, and must
be confirmed by Parliament. The powers of a county council to
make orders for the alteration of local areas are as follows : When
a county council is satisfied that a primd facie case is made out as
respects any county district not a borough, or as respects any
parish, for a proposal for all or any of the things hereafter
mentioned, they may hold a local inquiry after giving such notice
in the locality and to such public departments as may be pre¬
scribed from time to time by the orders of the Local Government
Board. The things referred to include the alteration of the
boundary of the district or parish ; the division or union thereof
with any other district or districts, parish or parishes ; the con¬
version of a rural district or part thereof into an urban district, or
vice versd. In these cases, after the local inquiry above referred
to has been held, the county council, being satisfied that the pro¬
posal is desirable, may make an order for the same accordingly.
The order has to be submitted to the Local Government Board,
and that Board must hold a local inquiry in order to determine
whether the order should be confirmed or not, if the council of any
district affected by it, or one-sixth of the total number of electors
in the district or parish to which it relates, petition against it.
The Local Government Board have power to modify the terms of
the order whether it is petitioned against or not, but if there is no
petition, they are bound to confirm, subject only to such modifica¬
tions. Yery large powers are conferred upon county councils for
the purpose of giving full effect to orders made by them under
these provisions. A considerable extension of the same powers
was made by the Local Government Act, 1894, which practically
required every council to take into consideration the areas of
sanitary districts and parishes within the entire administrative
county, and to see that a parish did not extend into more than one
sanitary district; to provide for the division of a district which
did extend into more than one district into separate parishes, so
that for the future the parish should not be in more than one
county district; and to provide for every parish and rural sanitary
district being within one county. An enormous number of orders
under the Act of 1894 was made by county councils, and, speaking
generally, it will now be found that no parish extends into more