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34
Failing any agreement of the kind, the Council is empowered
under the provisions of the 44th Section, to give three months'
notice to the owners requiring them to take down and remove
the gate, and, in the event of default on the part of the owners,
the Council may, by its own officers and servants, cause the
gate to be taken down and removed and the site made good and
thrown open for traffic.
The Board, as stated in the last Annual Report, has been
advised by Counsel (Mr. F. Dodd) that the removal of the gate
will (if carried out) have the effect of a dedication of the street
or roadway in the Square to the public ; but, in his opinion,
there is nothing in the Act which will impose on the Board any
liability to pave, maintain, or sewer it.
LONDON GOVERNMENT ACT, 1899.
The London Government Bill, introduced by the Right
Hon. A. J. Balfour to the House of Commons on the 23rd of
February last, has become law, it having received the Royal
Assent on the 13th July, 1899. By and under this Act the
whole of the administrative County of London will be divided
into Metropolitan Boroughs as set forth and described in the
third Schedule to the Act. The district of St. Saviour, South wark.
constituted under the Metropolis Local Management Act, 1855,
will, after the appointed day, cease to exist as a local governing
authority, and the area to be formed will consist of the Parishes
of St. Saviour. Christchurch, St. George-the-Martyr, and St.
Mary, Newington; the adjoining area, comprising the Parishes
of Rotherhithe, Bermondsey, Horselydown, St. Olave and
St. Thomas, Southwark, constituting a separate municipality.
The Council of each Borough is to consist of a Mayor, Aldermen,
and Councillors. The qualifications of the Mayor and Aldermen
will be similar to those of the Chairman and Aldermen of
the London County Council; the qualification of Councillors
the same as in the case of administrative Vestries, but women
will not be eligible. An Order in Council will fix the number of
Councillors and the number and boundaries of the several wards,
and will assign the number of Councillors to each ward, regard
being had to the rateable value as well as to the population of
the wards. The first duty to be performed by the new Borough
Councils is the election of a Mayor and Aldermen. The number
of Aldermen is to be one-sixth of the number of Councillors and
the total number of Aldermen and Councillors for each Borough
is not to exceed 70. In pursuance of Section 15, Her Majesty in
Council has appointed a Committee for the purposes of the Act,
viz., the Right Hon. Lord James of Hereford, the Right Hon. C.