XXX. Govern Chapter England, which have already been noticed; while those Local under the Public Health (Ireland) Acts, 1878 to 1900, ment similar in many respects to the Public Health Act for (Ireland).. England, are for the following purposes : Board Health (1) For the alteration of sanitary districts, by separating Public from a rural sanitary district any town or district, in which (Ireland). there shall be town or township commissioners under an Act of Parliament, and constituting it an urban sanitary district, or by including it in any adjoining urban sanitary district; and also by adding any town or township so constituted to the rural sanitary district in which it is situated. Such Order can only be made upon the petition. of one or other of the towns, townships, or districts whom it affects; but (under the provisions of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898,1) it is only in certain circumstances that it requires confirmation by Act of Parliament. (2) For the compulsory purchase of land under the powers of the Lands Clauses Acts (as defined by section 23 (c) of the Interpretation Act, 1889, and amended by section 8 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1896), for the purposes of the Public Health (Ireland) Acts, 1878 to 1900, and other Acts incorporating provisions of those Acts with respect to Provisional Orders. (3) For the transfer of a burial-ground from one burial board to another. And, under the same conditions as are enacted for England by the Public Health Act, 1875, already mentioned, the Board may make Provisional Orders (4) for repealing (wholly or partially), altering, or amending local Acts; (5) for the formation of united districts; (6) for the settlement of doubts and differences arising out of any transfer of any powers or property under the Public Health (Ireland) Acts, 1878 to 1900, or Provisional Order made thereunder; (7) for authorizing the supply of gas by an urban sanitary authority; and (8) for the constitution of port sanitary authorities. 2 1 61 & 62 Vict. c. 37, s. 42. 2 Cf. s. 9 of the Act, 59 & 60 Vict. c. 54. Local Govern- Local ment The Office Works, and Im 3 XXX. Under the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898,1 and Chapter the amending Act of 1901,2 the Board may make provisional orders (a) for transferring to county councils powers of local bodies; (b) for extending the borrowing powers of guardians; (c) for revising the financial relations between county and urban districts; 5 and (d) for adapting local Acts to the provisions of the Act of 1898 and of any Order in Council made thereunder. 6 The Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland are of Public enabled to grant Provisional Orders under the Drainage Ireland. and Improvement of Lands (Ireland) Acts; namely, under Drainage the Act of 1863,7 for constituting into a separate elective provement drainage district, land liable to be flooded or capable of (Ireland). improvement by drainage. Any person interested in such land may make application to the commissioners for the purpose: but, under the Act of 1878,8 the proprietors of a moiety in value of it must be in favour of the scheme, and no provisional order may be made if the proprietors of one-third part in value of lands in the district have expressed their dissent before a specified time. By the Act of 1880, Provisional Orders may be granted for enabling a drainage board to execute works within the district of any other drainage district, without the consent of the latter. County &c., em certain ་ The powers conferred on government departments of Councils making Provisional Orders having now been noticed, there powered in remains to be mentioned another example of the disposition of Parliament, not only to make the general law more applicable to the purposes of private bill legislation, but also to extend its operation over the rights of private cases to make pro visional orders. 1 61 & 62 Vict. c. 37, s. 101 (4), &c. 21 Edw. VII. c. 28, s. 3. The powers of the Board are further extended by Orders in Council under the Act of 1898. 3 61 & 62 Vict. c. 37, s. 20. • Ib. s. 61 (6). 5 Ib. s. 71; and 1 Edw. VII. c. 28, s. 3. 61 & 62 Vict. c. 37, s. 108 (2). 8 41 & 42 Vict. c. 59, s. 4. XXX. ments. Chapter property, where such rights can be shown to interfere with County Councils, the public need. For many years it was the Government &c. Departments alone who were entrusted with these powers; but, more recently, a local administrative authority, viz. the county council, has been empowered, in order to facilitate the provision of allotments for the labouring classes, to make Provisional Orders for the compulsory acquisition of land where it could not be obtained by voluntary arrangement with landowners under the permissive enactments for the purpose. This power is given by the Allotments Acts, Allot1887 and 1890, which apply to England and Wales.1 The first of these Acts enables the sanitary authority, upon the representation of six parliamentary electors or ratepayers in an urban district, or in a parish in a rural district, as the case may be, to petition the county authority, and the county authority (now the county council) may, thereupon, make the Provisional Order, with certain exceptions as to residential and railway property. The Act of 1890 provides that duly qualified persons in any district, not being within the limits of a borough, may appeal to the county council to make the Order, in case of a failure of the sanitary authority to take proceedings. The county council annually appoints a standing committee for the purposes of the Acts, and upon their recommendation, after a public local inquiry held by some one or more of their own body, or by some other person appointed by them, the council may make the Provisional Order. The sanitary authority or the county council, in case of appeal, is the promoter of the Provisional Order, and on the Local Government Board devolves the duty of introducing the bill for its confirmation. By the Allotments (Scotland) Act, 1892,2 Allotthe Local Authority of any burgh or county (in burghs the (Scotland). town council or commissioners, in counties the county council) is enabled under similar conditions, to grant Provisional Orders for the compulsory acquisition of land for 150 & 51 Vict. c. 48, s. 3; 53 & 54 Vict. c. 65. 255 & 56 Vict. c. 54, s. 3. ments As to Orders not confirma ment. allotments. The Secretary for Scotland is directed by Chapter the Act to consider objections to the Provisional Order, to order a local inquiry on it if he thinks fit, and is enabled to refuse to introduce the bill for its confirmation. In the case of bills for the confirmation of Orders under these Allotment Acts, it is expressly provided1 that the committees (in either House of Parliament) to whom they are referred may award costs by a majority.2 Before proceeding to describe the procedure on Prorequiring visional Order bills, it may be mentioned that in many tion by Act cases Government departments are also empowered by of Parlia- statute to make orders and schemes which come into operation without being submitted in a bill for Parliamentary confirmation. Some of such orders are "provisional," but only in the sense of requiring confirmation of another kind. For example, some of them, being first laid before both houses of Parliament, become law if confirmed by Order in Council, or if within a certain prescribed period they are not disapproved of by either house; and others, if no petition be presented against them by parties interested on their inception by the department, may be confirmed by Order in Council without being laid before Parliament. Some, again, of these Orders, when made by the department, are not provisional upon any further confirmation. None of them are "Provisional Orders" in the sense to which the term is limited here—of being orders that require confirmation in an Act of Parliament. XXX. Provisional Order bills. Procedure on Provisional Order Bills in Parliament. The procedure that is followed in Parliament upon Provisional Orders confirmation bills may be shortly stated. It applies to all such bills with the exception of Allotment Acts, 1887 & 1890, 50 & 51 Vict. c. 48, s. 4, and 53 & 54 Vict. c. 65, s. 1; Allotments (Scotland) Act, 1892, 55 & 56 Vict. c. 54, s. 4. 2 Cf. as to costs, supra, p. 821. Chapter those few cases, already noticed, where a special procedure is expressly prescribed by public Act.1 XXX. in either Bills for confirming Provisional Orders and certificates Presented are introduced as public bills into either house according house; to the discretion of the department responsible for them. time; The Lords by a sessional order direct that no Provisional Read first Order bill originating in that house shall be read a first time after a fixed day (generally in May), and that no such bill brought from the Commons shall be read a second time after a fixed day (generally in June).2 In the Commons the standing orders provide that "all bills for confirming provisional orders or certificates shall be set S. O.(H.C.) down for consideration, each day, in a separate list, after the private 225a and business, and arranged in the same order as that prescribed by the 225; standing orders for private bills. No bill, originating in this house, S. O.(H. C.) for confirming a provisional order or certificate, shall be read the first 193A; time after Whitsuntide." ferred to 72. In both houses all Provisional Order bills, after the first and rereading, are referred to the Examiners, before whom com- Examiners. S.O. (H. L.) pliance has to be proved with standing orders Nos. 38 and 70A. 39-under which the promoters of a provisional order S.0.(H. C.) must deposit, in both Houses and at the office of the "central authority" (as described in standing order No. 38), a statement relating to the taking of houses inhabited by the working classes; and also in both Houses, duplicates of plans, &c., which have been deposited with a government department. In the case of any Provisional In 1898 a bill (to confirm an order of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland), which under the Tramways Ireland Acts (already mentioned) it was necessary to treat as a public bill, was inadvertently treated on its introduction, and referred to the Examiners, according to the ordinary procedure on Provisional Order bills. On a later day, therefore, this reference to the Examiners was discharged, and the bill proceeded throughout, in accordance with statute, as a purely public bill, 153 C. J. 214-5. 242. 265. 273. 3 See supra, pp. 234-236. Standing order No. 232 of the House of Commons prescribes the time for depositing memorials complaining of non-compliance with the standing orders of the house in reference to Provisional Order bills. |