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within the meaning of the Scheme, and, under its provisions,
they will be enabled at any time within four months, or further
period as aforesaid, to enter into an agreement for the purpose
of such adjustments with one another and with the Council of
the Metropolitan Borough.
In any such agreement regard is to be had to the amount
of the share of each existing parish in the property and liabilities
of each authority whose powers and duties are transferred by or
under the Act to the Council of the Metropolitan Borough, and
generally to the circumstances of each case, and any such
agreement may provide for a sum being credited or debited to
any Parish in the Borough, and that either by way of an annual
payment, or by way of a capital sum, or of a terminable annuity,
and may provide for any Parish being exempt from being
assessed to such proportion of the general rate for such period
as will give effect to the agreement.
Any such agreement is to be valid only, if, and so far as it
is confirmed by a Scheme under the Act, and any such Scheme
may confirm an Agreement with or without modifications.
In default of an agreement and so far as any such agreement
does not extend, the Commissioners may adjust matters
by a Scheme.
The first meeting of such Representative Body is to be
summoned by the Town Clerk, or acting Town Clerk, of the new
Borough within fourteen days from the day on which the first
Borough Councillors elected under the Act come into office, and
each representative body is, at its first meeting, to elect a
Chairman.
The expenses certified by the Commissioners to have been
properly incurred by the representative bodies are to be defrayed
by the Council of the Metropolitan Borough, and in making the
adjustment, regard may be had to the fact that any such
expenses are incurred in respect of a particular parish.
The Commissioners have lately forwarded the draft of an
Order in Council fixing the times for retirement of the first
Aldermen and Councillors ; also the draft of an Order making
provisions for the first elections and the first meeting of Councils,
adapting certain provisions of the Local Government Act, 1894,
relating to precepts and other financial matters, requiring the
accounts of the Board to be made up and audited as soon as
practicable after the appointed day, in like manner as nearly as
may be as if the Act of 1899 had not been passed—that is to
say—by the same auditors of accounts, and making it the duty
of the Board to liquidate as far as practicable before the