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

LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ENGLAND AND WALES) 313
portion (one-twentieth) of the owners and ratepayers of
the proposed new borough, it has to be confirmed by
Parliament. The governing body in a borough is the
council elected by the burgesses.
The qualification of a burgess has been incidentally mentioned
in connexion with that of a county elector, and need not be further
noticed. A borough councillor must be qualified in the same
manner as a county councillor, and he is disqualified in the same
way, with this addition, that a peer or ownership voter is not
qualified as such, and that a person is disqualified for being a borough
councillor if he is in holy orders or is the regular minister of a Dis¬
senting congregation. Borough councillors are elected for a term
of three years, one-third of the whole number going out of office in
each year, and if the borough is divided into wards, these are so
arranged that the number of councillors for each ward shall be
three or a multiple of three. The ordinary day of election is the
1st November. At an election for the whole borough the return¬
ing officer is the mayor; at a ward election he is an alderman
assigned for that purpose by the council. The nomination and
election of candidates and the procedure at the election are the same
as have already been described in the case of the election of county
councillors. The law as to corrupt and illegal pi’actices at the
election is also similar, and the election may be questioned by
petition in exactly the same way. A borough councillor must,
within five days after notice of his election, make a declaration of
acceptance of office under a penalty, in the case of an alderman or
councillor of £50, and in the case of a mayor of £100, or such other
sums as the council may by bye-law determine. A councillor may
be disqualified in the same way as a county councillor, by bank¬
ruptcy or composition with creditors, or continuous absence from
the borough (except in case of illness). In short it may be said
that as the provisions relating to the election of borough coun¬
cillors were merely extended to county councillors by the Local
Government Act of 1888 with a few modifications, these provisions,
as already stated when dealing with county councils, apply gener¬
ally to the election of borough councillors. After the annual
election on the 1st November the first quarterly meeting of the
council is held on the 9th, and at that meeting the mayor and
aldermen are elected. The election of the mayor and aldermen is
again the same as has already been described in connexion with
the election of the chairman and aldermen of a county council.
The officers of a borough council are the town clerk
Officers, and the treasurer, but the council have power to appoint
such other officers as they think necessary. All these
officers receive such remuneration as the council from time to
time think fit, and hold office during pleasure. The provisions
with respect to the transaction of the business of the council are
also the same in the case of a borough as in that of a county
council.
The entire income of the borough council is paid into the
borough fund, and that fund is charged with certain payments,
which are specifically set out in the 5th schedule to the
Act of 1882. These include the remuneration of the
mayor, recorder, and officers of the borough, overseers’
expenses, the expenses of the administration of justice in the
borough, the payment of the borough coroner, police expenses, and
the like. An order of the council for the payment of money out of
the borough fund must be signed by three members of the council
and countersigned by the town clerk, and any such order may be
removed into the King’s Bench Division of the High Court of
Justice by writ of certiorari, and may be wholly or partly dis¬
allowed or con filmed on the hearing. This is really the only way
in which the validity of a payment by a borough council can be
questioned, for, as will be seen hereafter, the audit in the borough
is not an effective one. The borough fund is derived, in the first
instance, from the property of the corporation. If the income
from such property is insufficient for the purposes to which it is
applicable, as usually is the case, it has to be supplemented by a
borough rate, which may be a separate rate made by the council
or may be levied through the overseers as part of the poor rate by
means of a precept addressed to them. In the event of the
borough fund being more than sufficient to meet the demands upon
it without recourse to a borough rate, any surplus may be applied
in payment of any expenses of the council as a sanitary authority
or in improving the borough or any part thereof by drainage,
enlargement of streets, or otherwise. The borough treasurer is
required to make up his accounts half-yearly, and to submit them,
with the necessary vouchers and papers, to the borough auditors.
These auditors are three in number—two of them elected annually
by the burgesses. An elective auditor must be qualified to be a
councillor, but may not be a member of the council. The third
auditor is appointed by the mayor and is called the mayor’s
auditor. The auditors so appointed are charged with the duty
of auditing the accounts of the treasurer, but they have no power
of disallowance or surcharge, and their audit is therefore quite
ineffective.
Finance
audit.
Jurisdic¬
tion of
justices;
quarter
sessions.
Where a borough has not a separate court of quarter sessions, but
has a separate commission of the peace, the justices of the county
in which the borough is situate have a concurrent
jurisdiction with the borough justices in all matters
arising within the borough. Where, however, the
borough has a court of quarter sessions, the county
justices have no jurisdiction within the borough. In
all cases, whether the borough has quarter sessions or
a separate commission or not, the mayor, by virtue of his office, is
a justice for the borough, and continues to be such justice during
the year next after he ceases to be mayor. He takes precedence
over all justices acting in and for the borough, and is entitled to
take the chair at all meetings at which he is present by virtue of
his office of mayor. A separate commission of the peace may be
granted to a borough on the petition of the council. A borough
justice is required to take the oaths of allegiance and the judicial
oaths before acting ; he must while acting reside in or within seven
miles of the borough, or occupy a house, warehouse, or other property
in the borough; but he need not be a burgess nor have the
qualification by estate required of a county justice. Where the
borough has a separate commission, the borough justices have
power to appoint a clerk, who is now paid by salary, the fees and
costs pertaining to his office being paid into the borough fund, out
of which his salary is paid. The council may by petition obtain
the appointment of a stipendiary magistrate for the borough. The
Crown may also on petition of the council grant a separate court of
quarter sessions for the borough, and in that event a recorder has
to be appointed by the Crown. He must be a barrister of not less
than five years’ standing, and he holds office during good behaviour ;
he receives a yearly salary. The recorder sits as sole judge of the
court of quarter sessions of the borough. He has all the powers of
a court of quarter sessions in a county, including the power to hear
appeals from the borough justices; but to this there are a few
exceptions, notably the power to grant licences for the sale of
intoxicating liquor. The grant of a separate court of quarter
sessions also involves the appointment by the council of a clerk of
the peace for the borough. It should be added that the grant of a
court of quarter sessions to any borough other than a county
borough after the passing of the Local Government Act, 1888, does
not affect the powers, duties, or liabilities of the county council as
regards that borough, nor exempt the parishes in the borough from
being assessed to county rate for any purposes to which such
parishes were previously liable to be assessed.
When a borough is a county of itself the council appoint a sheriff
on the 9th November in every year. And where the borough has
a separate court of quarter sessions the council appoint
a fit and proper person, not an alderman or councillor, to
be the borough coroner, who holds office during good
behaviour. If the borough has a civil court the recorder, if there
is one, is judge of it. If there is no recorder, the judge of the
court is an officer of the borough appointed under the charter.
The provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, relate
chiefly to the constitution of the municipal corporation. It does
not itself confer many powers or impose many duties p w rt
upon the council as a body. It does, however, enable a owe, °
municipal corporation to acquire corporate land and
buildings, the buildings including a town hall, council
house, justices’ room, police stations and cells, sessions house,
judges’ lodgings, polling stations, and the like. The council may
borrow money for the erection of such buildings ; they may acquire
and hold land in mortmain by virtue of their charter or with the
consent of the Local Government Board. Corporate land cannot
be alienated without the consent of the same board. The council
may convert corporate land, with the approval of the Local Govern¬
ment Board, into sites for workmen’s dwellings.
Another duty imposed upon a borough council by the Act of
1882 is the maintenance of bridges within the borough which are
not repairable by the county in which the borough is Borough
locally situate. It may here be mentioned that a city bridges.
or borough which is a county of itself is liable at
common law to repair all public bridges within its limits. In a
borough which is not a county of itself the inhabitants are only
liable to repair bridges within the borough by immemorial usage or
custom.
Of the other powers possessed by the council of a borough under
the Act of 1882, one of the most important is the power to make
bye-laws for the good rule and government of the Bye-laws
borough, and for the prevention and suppression of ^
nuisances not already punishable in summary manner by virtue of
an Act in force throughout the borough. It will be observed that
these bye-laws are of two classes. The former do not come into
force until the expiration of forty days after a copy of them has
been sent to the Secretary of State, during which forty days the
Sovereign in council may disallow any bye-law or part thereof. The
latter require to be confirmed by the Local Government Board.
Under the Act of 1882 every municipal borough might have its
own separate police force. As has already been stated when dealing
S. VI. — 40
Sheriff,
coroner.