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for twelve months preceding the election in the district, the words "parochial
elector" meaning a person whose name appears on the Parliamentary or Local
Government Register of Electors. It is also provided that no person shall
be disqualified by sex or marriage; consequently females, if parochial
electors, or qualified by residence, may be elected by the Vestries to serve
on this Board.
The statute has not made any alteration with regard to the term of office
of the members, therefore the time during which a person elected to serve
will remain a member of the Board will be as heretofore, viz., three years.
The election of members to the vestries of the parishes, and liberties
comprising the district, are now regulated by the Act, which has made some
sweeping alterations with regard thereto, but as that is a matter which
hardly concerns this Board it is unnecessary to give details of the various
clauses concerning such elections, other than to state that the persons to
be elected as vestrymen require the same qualification as those appointed
to serve on this Board.
Other important provisions are capable of being applied if and when
the Board think fit to ask the Local Government Board to make an order
transferring certain duties to the Board. The Board has, however, not yet
thought it necessary to take action in this direction, consequently there is
no need to further remark upon them.
There are certain disqualifications mentioned, similar to those formerly
existing, and now repealed, which apparently apply to persons elected to
serve on District Boards. These are made applicable to persons elected in
accordance with the Act, and as the qualifications of members of this Board
are regulated by the new Act, although the mode of selection is still
governed by the older statutes, these doubtless apply to members of this
Board, and the fact of the disqualifying sections in the older Act being
repealed certainly points in this direction. The persons disqualified are,
aliens,persons who have received parochial relief, persons who have been convicted,
persons who are bankrupt or have executed deeds of arrangement or
composition with creditors within five years, or who hold any paid office
under the Parish Council (which in London apparently means a vestry), and
contractors to the Board, and it is provided that if any disqualified person
acts as a member of the Board he is liable to a fine of £20.
The Act, so far as it related to the Board, came into operation on the
5th of March, 1894., and George Phillips, Esq., one of the members
appointed by the Vestry of the Liberty of Saffron Hill, was unanimously
elected Chairman for the year on the nth day of June last. Having