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Church property, are not to be transferred to the Borough Council, and
Incumbents and Churchwardens are not to be ex-offkio members of the
Council. A scheme under the Act is to provide for vesting any such
powers and duties in the inhabitants of the parish and for vesting any
such interest in the Incumbent and Churchwardens.
A Vestry or Town Hall erected on a churchyard is to vest in the
Borough Council. This provision should be extended to mortuaries
and other buildings vested in any of the bodies whose duties are to be
transferred to the Borough Councils.
Clause 21 authorises the Privy Council to make orders for giving
an appropriate name to each of the Metropolitan Boroughs, to fix the
times for the retirement of Aldermen and Councillors, and to nominate
persons to perform such duties and to make such other temporary modifications
of the provisions of the Act as may be necessary in the case of
the first constitution of a Borough Council.
Clause 22 applies sections 297 and 298 of the Public Health
(London) Act to provisional orders made under the Act. Such orders
would therefore have to be made after local public enquiry and would
have to be submitted to Parliament.
Clause 23 provides for the transfer of officers of existing authorities
to Borough Councils and for compensation for loss of office.
Clause 24 deals with the appearance of the Borough Councils in
legal proceedings.
Clause 25 provides, amongst other things, that the Act shall not
affect the London (Equalisation of Rates) Act, 1894.
Clause 26 provides that the "appointed day" mentioned in the
provisions of the Act shall be the day on which the Borough Councils
first come into office, or such other day as may be appointed by the
Lord President of the Council, and applies sections 85 to 88 of the
Local Government Act, 1894 (relating to transitory provisions—continuation
of bye-laws, contracts, actions, &c.)
Clause 27 contains definitions of terms used in the Act.
Clause 28 repeals parts of the Metropolis Management Acts, the
Local Government Act, 1888, the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
the Public Libraries Act, 1892, and the Local Government Act, 1894,
set out in the third schedule to the Bill. One of the sections (No. 140)
of the Act of 1855 to be repealed empowers the London County Council
to place a street which is in more than one parish under the exclusive
management of one Authority. This is a useful power and I do not see
that anything is put in its place, unless the provisions of Section I of