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52
be required for that or any other purpose, power might be
reserved in the lease for the lessors to determine the tenancy
on certain terms.
Sec. 3 of 5 & 6 William IV., cap. 69, referred to in the abovementioned
communication from the Local Government Loard,
enacts that it shall be lawful for the Guardians of any Parish or
Union, and for the Overseers of any Parish not under the management
of a Board of Guardians, with the approbation and
subject to the rules, orders and regulations of the Local Government
Board, to sell, exchange, let, or otherwise dispose of any
buildings or other property belonging to any such Parish,
provided that no such sale, exchange or letting shall take place
except with the consent of a majority of the ratepayers of such
Parish, and of the owners of property therein, assembled at a
meeting of which public notice has been given. A question may
arise whether the Overseers or the Guardians are the proper
authority to let the property, but, however the property may be
let, there is no doubt that if the Guardians require it for Poor
Law purposes, and obtain the consent of the Local Government
Board, the property will become transferred to the Guardians on
payment of compensation to the persons disturbed, and to the
Parish as former owners. No doubt the consent of the Local
Government Board could be obtained to the property being appropriated,
subject to the contingency above referred to, to the
erection of dwellings for the working classes under Section 39 of
the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, after the Vestry
had ordered the demolition of the property as unsanitary and not
merely ruinous buildings under other sections of the same Act
It is not clear that the Vestry have any power to erect such
dwellings at the expense of the rates. Even if they have, it is
difficult to see how the Local Government Board can sanction
any part of the property being appropriated by the Vestry for
Stoneyard or similar purposes in connection with the erection of
dwellings for the working classes under the Act referred to. In
other words, the Vestry might be able to obtain the consent of
the Local Government Board to their taking a lease of the land
under the Act 5 & 6, William IV., cap. 69, for a Stoneyard or for
any other purpose for which the Vestry are enabled to hold land