Board to main &c. Works and Duties of Board. 17. THE highway board shall maintain in good repair the highways within tain highways, their district, and shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, as respects the highways in each parish within their district, perform the same duties, have the same powers, and be liable to the same legal proceedings as the surveyor of such parish would have performed, had, and been liable to, if this Act had not passed. It shall be the duty of the district surveyor to submit to the board at their first meeting in every year an estimate of the expenses likely to be incurred during the ensuing year for maintaining and keeping in repair the highways in each parish within the district of the board, and to deliver a copy of such estimate as approved or modified by the board, so far as the same relates to each parish, to the waywarden of such parish. Proceedings where roads are out of repair. Proceedings when obliga tion to repair is disputed. 18. WHERE complaint is made to any justice of the peace that any high way within the jurisdiction of the highway board is out of repair, the justice shall issue two summonses, the one addressed to the highway board and the other to the waywarden of the parish liable to the repair of such highway, requiring such board and waywarden to appear before the justices at some petty sessions, in the summons mentioned, to be held in the division where such highway is situate; and at such petty sessions, unless the board undertake to repair the road to the satisfaction of the justices, or unless the waywarden deny the liability of the parish to repair, the justices shall direct the board to appear at some subsequent petty sessions to be then named, and shall either appoint some competent person to view the highway, and report to them on its state at such other petty sessions, or fix a day, previous to such petty sessions, at which two or more of such justices will themselves attend to view the highway. At such last-mentioned petty sessions, if the justices are satisfied, either by the report of the person so appointed, or by such view as aforesaid, that the highway complained of is not in a state of complete repair, it shall be their duty to make an order on the board limiting a time for the repair of the highway complained of; and if such highway is not put in complete and effectual repair by the time limited in the order, the justices in petty sessions shall appoint some person to put the highway into repair, and shall by order direct that the expenses of making such repairs, together with a reasonable remuneration to the person appointed for superintending such repairs, and amounting to a sum specified in the order, together with the costs of the proceedings, shall be paid by the board; and any order made for the payment of such costs and expenses may be removed into the Court of Queen's Bench, in the same manner as if it were an order of general or quarter sessions, and be enforced accordingly. All expenses so directed to be paid by the board in respect of the repairs of any highway shall be deemed to be expenses incurred by the board in repairing such highway, and shall be recovered accordingly. The highway board may appear before the justices at petty sessions by their district surveyor or clerk, or any member of the board. 19. WHEN, on the hearing of any such summons respecting the repair of any highway, the liability to repair is denied by the waywarden on behalf of his parish, or by any party charged therewith, the justices shall direct a bill of indictment to be preferred, and the necessary witnesses in support thereof to be subpoenaed, at the next assizes to be holden in and for the said county, or at the next general quarter sessions of the peace for the county, riding, division, or place wherein such highway is situate, against the inhabitants of the parish, or the party charged therewith, for suffering and permitting the said highway to be out of repair; and the costs of such prosecution shall be paid by such party to the proceedings as the court before whom the case is tried shall direct, and, if directed to be paid by the parish, shall be deemed to be expenses incurred by such parish in keeping its highways in repair, and shall be paid accordingly. Accounts. 25. THE accounts of every highway board shall be made up and balanced to the twenty-fifth day of March in every year, and for the space of seven clear days immediately following shall be open for the inspection at the office of the clerk, or any other convenient place, of every ratepayer in the several parishes within the district, between the hours of ten and four; at the expiration of such time the accounts shall be audited by such board, and signed by the chairman, on or before the twenty-fifth day of April; and such board shall cause a statement showing the receipt and expenditure in respect of each parish, and the apportioned part of expenditure chargeable thereto in respect of the district fund, and such other particulars, and in such form, as the Secretary of State may direct, as herein-after mentioned, to be printed and sent within thirty days after the said audit, by post or otherwise, to each member of the board and to the overseers of every parish within the district [Rep., 27 & 28 Vict. e. 101. s. 36.] ; Accounts to be made up to 25th March, and statement to be published. transmit 27. THE clerk to every highway board shall, within such thirty days after Clerk of highthe said audit, transmit such statement to one of Her Majesty's Principal way board to Secretaries of State; and any such clerk who shall not within the time statement to aforesaid transmit the said statement to the said Secretary of State shall for Secretary of every such offence, upon a summary conviction for the same before two justices Penalty for of the peace, be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds. State. neglect. Abstract of statements to be laid before 28. THE Secretary of State shall cause the statements so transmitted to be abstracted, and the abstracts thereof to be laid before both Houses of Parliament, with the other statements in relation to highways required to be Parliament. abstracted and laid before Parliament by the Act of the session holden in the twelfth and thirteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter thirty-five. 29. It shall be lawful for one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State Secretary of to cause to be prepared such forms for such statement as he may from time to State may time deem suitable, and also from time to time to alter the forms for the statement to be annual statement prescribed by the said Act of the twelfth and thirteenth prepared, and years of Her Majesty; but no statement shall be transmitted under that Act forms. concerning parishes wholly within a highway district under this Act. cause form of may alter them when 31. ALL officers appointed by the highway board shall, as often as required Officers by them, render to them or to such persons as they appoint a true, exact, and appointed by highway board perfect account in writing under their respective hands, with the proper to account to vouchers, of all monies which they may respectively to the time of rendering required. such accounts have received and disbursed on account or by reason of their respective offices; and in case any money so received by any such officer remains in his hands, the same shall be paid to the board, or to such person or persons as they in writing under their hands empower to receive the same; Provision as to extra-parochial places. Provision for outlying parts of parishes. Expenses of repair of highways may be and if any officer refuses or wilfully neglects to render and give such acccount, or to deliver up such vouchers, or for the space of fourteen days after being thereunto required by the board refuses or wilfully neglects to give up to them or to such person or persons as they appoint all books, papers, writings, tools, and things in his hands, custody, or power relating to the execution of his office, it shall be lawful for any justice of the peace for the county where the officer so making default is or resides, upon application made to him for that purpose by or on behalf of the board, to make inquiry of and concerning any such default as aforesaid in a summary way, as well by the confession of the party as by the testimony of any credible witness or witnesses upon oath, and by warrant under his hand and seal to cause such money as may appear to him to be due and unpaid to be levied by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of such officer, rendering to him the overplus (if any), on demand, after payment of the money remaining due and deducting the charges and expenses of making such distress and sale; and if sufficient distress cannot be found, of if it appears to any such justice in manner aforesaid that any such officer has refused or wilfully neglected to give such account, or to deliver up all books, papers, writings, tools, matters, and things in his custody or power relating to the execution of his office, the justice shall commit him to the house of correction or common gaol of the county where such offender is or resides, there to remain without bail until he gives a true and perfect account and verifies the same in manner aforesaid, and produces and delivers up the vouchers relating thereto, and pays the money (if any) remaining in his hands as aforesaid according to the direction of the board, or has compounded with the board for such money and paid such composition (which composition the board are hereby empowered to make and receive), or until he delivers up such books, papers, and writings, tools, matters, and things as aforesaid, or has given satisfaction to the board concerning the same; but no officer who may be committed on account of his not having sufficient goods and chattels as aforesaid, shall be detained in prison by virtue of this Act for any longer time than six calendar months. Supplemental Provisions. 32. WHERE in pursuance of an Act passed in the twentieth year of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter nineteen, and intituled "An Act for the "relief of the poor in extra-parochial places," any place is declared to be a parish, or where overseers of the poor are appointed for any place, such place shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be a parish separately maintaining its own highways; and where in pursuance of the same Act any place is annexed to any adjoining parish, or to any district in which the relief of the poor is administered under a Local Act, such place shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be annexed to such parish or district for the purposes of the maintenance of the highways, as well as for the purposes in the said Act mentioned. 33. WHERE part of a parish is not contiguous to the parish of which it is a part, such outlying part may at the discretion of the justices be annexed to a district; and, when so annexed, it shall, for all the purposes of the Highway Acts, be deemed to be a parish separately maintaining its own highways. 34. WHERE any highway which any body politic or corporate or person is liable to repair by reason of tenure of any land, or otherwise howsoever, shall repair ratione tenuræ. be adjudged in the manner provided by the principal Act to be out of repair, recovered from the highway board of the district in which such highway is situate may, if party liable to they see fit, direct their surveyor to repair the same; and the expenses to be incurred in such repair shall be paid by the party liable to repair as aforesaid; and it shall be lawful for any justice, upon the application of any person authorized in this behalf by the highway board, to summon the party liable to pay such expenses to appear before two justices at a time and place to be named in such summons; and upon the appearance of the parties, or in the absence of either of them, it shall be lawful for such justices to hear and determine the matter, and make such order, as well as to costs or otherwise, as to them may seem just. 35. WHERE any person or corporation is liable, by reason of tenure of lands Highways or otherwise, to repair any highway situate in a highway district, the person ratione tenure repairable or corporation so liable may apply to any justice of the peace for the purpose may be made repairable by of making such highway a highway to be repaired and maintained by the the parish. parish in which the same is situate; and such justice shall thereupon issue summonses requiring the waywarden of such parish, the district surveyor, and the party so liable to repair such highway as aforesaid, to appear before two or more justices in petty sessions assembled; and the justices at such petty sessions shall proceed to examine and determine the matter, and shall, if they think fit, make an order under their hands that such highway shall thereafter be a highway to be thereafter repaired and maintained by the parish, and shall in such order fix a certain sum to be paid by such person or corporation to the highway board of the district, in full discharge of all claims thereafter in respect of the repair and maintenance of such highway; and in default of payment of such sum the board may proceed for the recovery thereof in the same manner as for the recovery of penalties or forfeitures recoverable under this Act: Provided always, that when the sum so fixed to be paid in full discharge of all claims thereafter in respect of the repair and maintenance of such highway exceeds fifty pounds, the same, when received, shall be invested in the name of the highway board of the district in some public government securities, and the interest and dividends arising therefrom shall be applied by such board towards the repair and maintenance of the highways within the parish in which such highway is situate; but when such sum does not exceed fifty pounds, the same or any part thereof, at the discretion of such highway board, shall from time to time be applied by such board towards the repair and maintenance of the highways within such parish: Provided, that any person aggrieved by any order of justices made in pursuance of this section may appeal to a court of general or quarter sessions holden within four months from the date of such order; but no such appeal shall be entertained unless the appellant has given to the other party to the case a notice in writing of such appeal, and of the matter thereof, within fourteen days after such order, and seven clear days at the least before such sessions, and has entered into a recognizance, with two sufficient sureties, before a justice of the peace, conditioned to appear at the said sessions, and to try such appeal, and to abide the judgment of the court thereupon, and to pay such costs as may be by the court awarded; and upon such notice being given, and such recognizance being entered into, the court at such sessions shall hear and determine the Proceedings for declaring driftways, &c. to be public highways. Surveyor of highway board exempted from turnpike tolls. Provision as to justices mem matter of the appeal, and shall make such order thereon, with or without costs to either party, as to the court may seem meet: From and after the making of such order by the justices, or by the court on appeal, as the case may require, such highway shall be repaired in like manner and at the like expense as highways which a parish is liable to repair. 36. WHERE the inhabitants of any parish are desirous of undertaking the repair and maintenance of any driftway, or any private carriage or occupation road, within their parish, in return for the use thereof, the district surveyor may, at the request of the inhabitants of such parish assembled in a vestry duly convened for the purpose, and with the consent in writing of the owner and the occupier of every part thereof, apply to the justices in petty sessions to declare such driftway or road to be a public highway to be repaired at the expense of the parish; and upon such application being made, it shall be lawful for the justices to declare the same to be a public carriage road to be repaired at the expense of the parish. 37. No toll shall be demanded by virtue of any Act of Parliament on any turnpike road from the surveyor of a highway board when executing or proceeding to execute his duties as such surveyor; and all provisions applicable to the exemptions in the Act of the third year of King George the Fourth, chapter one hundred and twenty-six, shall apply to the case of the exemptions conferred by this enactment. 38. No justice of the peace shall act as such in any matter in which he has bers of highway already acted as a member of the highway board, and in which the decision of such board is appealed against. board. Power to alter highway districts, &c. 39. ANY highway district formed under this Act may from time to time be altered by the addition of any parishes in the same or in any adjoining county, or the subtraction therefrom of any parishes; and new highway districts may be formed by the union of any existing highway districts in the same or in any adjoining county, or any parishes forming part of any existing highway districts; or any highway district may be dissolved; but any such alteration of existing districts, or formation of new districts, or dissolution of any district, shall be made by provisional and final orders of the justices; and all the provisions of this Act with respect to the formation of highway districts and provisional and final orders of justices, and the notices to be given of and previously to the making of such orders, and all other proceedings relating to the formation of highway districts, shall, in so far as the same are applicable, extend to such alteration of existing or formation of new districts, or dissolution of districts, as is mentioned in this section; and in addition thereto provision shall be made, if necessary, in any orders of justices made under this section for the adjustment of any matters of account arising between parishes or parts of districts in consequence of the exercise of the powers given by this section. Where any parish is added to or any district united with any district in another county, the final order of the justices of the county in which such parish or district is situate shall not be confirmed by them until they shall have received the approval of their provisional order for such addition or union from the justices of the county in which the district is situate to or with which such addition or union is to be |