Poor Law Amendment. of the President of the said Board, and countersigned by a Secretary or Assistant Secretary, shall have the same Effect as if such Direction were given by such an Order as aforesaid. his 6. When the Poor Law Board shall require an Auditor to hold an Extraordinary Audit of the Accounts of any Guardians or Overseers, or of any Officer, whether still continuing or upon Resignation or Removal from Office, such Audit shall be deemed to be an Audit within the Meaning of the several Acts relating to the Audit of the Accounts of the Poor Rate, and may be held after Three Days Notice thereof given in the usual Manner. Effect of an at any Time. 7. The Auditor who shall be authorized to audit the Accounts Auditor emof any Guardians, Overseers, or Officers may at any Time, when powered to authorized or required by the Poor Law Board so to do, inspect inspect Books the Accounts and Books of Account of any Guardians, Overseer, or any Officer liable to account to him; and any such Guardian, Overseer, or Officer who shall thereupon refuse to allow him to inspect the same, or shall obstruct him in such Inspection, or shall conceal any such Account or Book for the Purpose of preventing such Inspection, shall forfeit a Sum not exceeding Five Pounds, to be recovered as a Penalty under the Statute of the Fourth and Fifth of King William the Fourth, Chapter Seventysix, and to be applied to the Use of the Parish or Union for which such Guardian, Overseer, or Officer respectively shall act. 8. The Proviso to Section Twenty-five of the said last-mentioned Statute of King William the Fourth shall be repealed, and in lieu thereof it is provided that the Principal Sum to be raised for the Purposes specified in such Section shall not exceed One Tenth of the average annual Amount of the Rates raised for the Relief of the Poor in any such Parish or Union to which such Section applies for the Three Years ending at the Easter next preceding the raising of such Money, and when the Board of Guardians of any Union or Parish shall deem it expedient to make any Enlargement, Alteration, or Improvement of their Workhouse, or the Premises, Drainage, or other Appurtenances belonging thereto, at a Cost not exceeding Five hundred Pounds, and the Poor Law Board shall give their Consent thereto, they shall not require any Order of that Board to enable them to execute the same. Part of Sect. 25. of 4 & 5 W. 4. c. 76. repealed, Proviso substituted. and another 9. Where any Sum of Money has been lawfully raised or Emigration borrowed for the Purpose of the Emigration of poor Persons, and Money how the same shall not have been wholly expended for such Purpose, disposed of. the Poor Law Board may, upon Application from the Overseers of the Parish for whose Use the Sum was raised or borrowed, by their Order under Seal, direct the unexpended Amount of such Sum, where it has not been raised by borrowing, to be applied in aid of the current Rate, and where it has been borrowed to be applied in reduction of the Balance of the Loan, or in aid of the current Rate, as the Case may require. 10. No Person shall be qualified to be appointed to be an Same Person Overseer of the Poor in any Parish who at the Time of the not to be Overproposed Appointment shall be an Assistant Overseer of any tant Overseer. Dd 2 Parish; seer and Assis Poor Law Amendment. One Overseer only may be appointed for small Parishes. As to Church- Provision for educating Children in the Religion to which they belong. Parish; and no Person being an Overseer of any Parish shall be qualified to be appointed an Assistant Overseer. 11. If it shall appear to the Justices who are required to appoint Overseers that Two Overseers cannot be conveniently appointed from the Inhabitant Householders in any Parish, such Justices may appoint One Overseer only, and if it shall appear to them that there is no such Householder liable or fit to be appointed, they shall appoint some Inhabitant Householder of an adjoining Parish willing to serve to be such Overseer, either with or without an annual Salary to be paid out of the Poor Rate of the Parish, which last-mentioned Appointment shall endure until the usual Time of the Appointment of Overseers, and may be renewed from Year to Year as long as the Justices shall find necessary. 12. In any Parish the same Person may hold jointly the Offices of Churchwarden and Overseer. 13. The Provisions of the Tenth Section of the Statute of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Years of Her Majesty, Chapter One hundred and one, shall extend to the County Rate or other Rate in the Nature of a County Rate levied upon the Part of the Parish therein described situated without the Borough, and the Auditor shall have the same Power, and be under the same Obligation, to allow or disallow Accounts audited by him under the Provisions of the Third Section of the Statute of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Years of Her Majesty, Chapter Sixty-five, and of the Thirty-third Section of the Statute of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth of Her Majesty, Chapter Eighty-one, and to surcharge, certify, and recover all such Sums as he shall find due from the Persons accounting or making or authorizing any Payment, with the like Right of Appeal to any Person aggrieved by his Decision, as in the Case of the Poor Rate; and the Poor Law Board may, as and when they shall see fit, make Regulations for the keeping of the said Accounts herein-before mentioned or referred to. 14. That if the Parent, Step-parent, nearest adult Relative, or Next of Kin of any Child not belonging to the Established Church, relieved in a Workhouse or in a District School, or in case there should be no Parent, Step-parent, nearest adult Relative, or Next of Kin, then the God-parent of such Child, make Application to the said Board in such Behalf, the Board may, if they think fit, order that such Child shall be sent to some School established for the Reception, Maintenance, and Education of Children of the Religion to which such Child shall be proved to belong, and duly certified by the Poor Law Board under the Statute of the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Victoria, Chapter Forty-three; and the Guardians of the Union or Parish to which such Child shall be chargeable shall, according to the Terms of such Order, cause the Child to be conveyed to such School, and pay the Costs and Charges of the Maintenance, Lodging, Clothing, and Education of the said Child therein, and all the Provisions of the said Statute shall thenceforth apply to the said Child. 15. When Poor Law Amendment. Public Libraries Act Amendment. 15. When the Guardians of any Union or Parish shall prescribe a Task of Work to be performed by any poor Person, to whom, or to whose Wife, if he be liable to maintain such Wife, or Child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, under the Age of Sixteen, Relief shall have been lawfully granted by such Guardians out of the Workhouse, such Task being suited to the Age, Sex, Strength, and Capacity of such Person, and being of a Nature and Description of which the Poor Law Board shall have previously approved, and such Person shall refuse or wilfully neglect to perform such Task, or shall wilfully destroy or damage any of the Tools, Materials, or other Property belonging to the said Guardians, he shall be deemed to be an idle and disorderly Person within the Meaning of the Eighty-third Chapter of the Statute of the Fifth Year of King George the Fourth, and shall be liable to be prosecuted and punished in the Manner therein provided in respect of idle and disorderly Persons; and the Fiftyninth Section of the One hundred and first Chapter of the Statute of the Seventh and Eighth Years of Her present Majesty shall apply to any such Prosecution. Persons relieved out of the Workhouse refusing to per form Task of Work rendered liable to be punished under the 5 G. 4. c. 83. Limits imposed by s. 51. of 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101. and s. 6. of 14 & 15 Vict. c. 105. with 16. So much of the Fifty-first Section of the said last-mentioned Statute as limits the Distance within which Children may be sent to the School of any District formed under the said or any subsequent Statute from any Parish or Union not combined therein, and so much of the Sixth Section of the Statute of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Years of Her Majesty, Chapter One drawn. hundred and five, as limits the Distance within which Children may be sent from one Workhouse to another, are hereby repealed. 17. In Clause Three of the Statute Twenty-fourth and Sect. 3. of Twenty-fifth Years of Her Majesty, Chapter Fifty-five, One Year 24 & 25 Viet shall be substituted for Three Years. c. 55. amended. Consolidation 18. In all Statutes, except there shall be something in the Interpretation Context inconsistent herewith, the Word "Parish" shall, among of Terms, and other Meanings applicable to it, signify a Place for which a separate Poor Rate is or can be made, or for which a separate Overseer is or can be appointed, and all the other Words used herein shall be construed in the like Manner as in the said Statute passed in the Fourth and Fifth Years of King William the Fourth; and the Provisions contained therein and in the subsequent Statutes explaining and extending the same, and not repealed, shall, so far as they shall be consistent herewith, be extended to this Statute. 19. This Act may be cited and described for all Purposes as Short Title "The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1866." CAP CXIV. An Act to amend "The Public Libraries Act." [10th August 1866.] WHEREAS it is expedient to amend "The Public Libraries 18 & 19 Viet. Act, 1855," and to assimilate the Laws relating to Public c. 95. Libraries in England and Scotland: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice Dd 3 and Towns Improvement Clauses Act not to apply to Boroughs. Part of Sec. 5. of recited Act repealed. Expenses of executing Act in Boroughs to be paid out of Borough Fund. Calling of Parishes adjoining a Borough, &c. may unite in adopting Act. Majority for Public Libraries Act Amendment. and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows: 1. So much of the Section Fifteen of the said "Public Libraries Act, 1855," as incorporates with that Act certain Clauses of "The Towns Improvement Clauses Act, 1847," shall, so far as the same relates to or concerns Municipal Boroughs, be repealed. 2. Section Five of the said Act, except so much thereof as relates to keeping distinct Accounts, shall be repealed; and the Expenses incurred in calling and holding the Meeting, whether the said Act shall be adopted or not, and the Expenses of carrying the said Act into execution in any Municipal Borough, may be paid out of the Borough Rate of such Borough, or by and out of a Rate to be made and recovered in such Borough, in like Manner as a Borough Rate may be made and recovered therein, but the Amount so paid in such Borough in any One Year shall not exceed the Sum of One Penny in the Pound upon the annual Value of the Property in such Borough rateable to a Borough Rate: Provided always, that nothing in this Act shall interfere with the Operation of the Act Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Victoria, Chapter One hundred and eight, so far as it relates to the Collection of a Rate for a Public Library in the City of Oxford. 3. The Public Meeting mentioned in Section 4 of the said "Public Libraries Act, 1855," shall be called either on the Request of the Town Council, or on the Request in Writing of Ten Ratepayers residing in the Borough. 4. Any Parish, of whatever Population, adjoining any Borough, District, or Parish which shall have adopted or shall contemplate the Adoption of the said "Public Libraries Act, 1855," may, with the Consent of more than One Half of the Ratepayers thereof present at a Meeting to be convened in manner directed by the said Act with reference to Meetings of Ratepayers, and with the Consent also of the Town Council of such Borough, or the Board of such District, or the Commissioners of such Parish, as the Case may be, determine that such adjoining Parish shall for the Purposes of the said Act form Part of such Borough, District, or Parish, and thereupon the Vestry of such adjoining Parish shall forthwith appoint Three Ratepayers Commissioners for such Parish, One Third of whom shall go out of Office, and the Vacancies be filled up as provided by the said Act with respect to the Commissioners of a Parish, and such Commissioners for the Time being shall for the Purposes of the said Act be considered as Part of such Town Council, Board, or Commissioners, as the Case may be; and the Expenses of calling the Meeting, and the Proportion of the Expenses of such adjoining Parish of carrying the said Act into execution, shall be paid out of the Poor Rates thereof to such Person as the Commissioners of the said adjoining Parish shall appoint to receive the same. 5. The Majority necessary to be obtained for the Adoption of the said Act or "The Public Libraries Act (Scotland), 1854," shall Public Libraries Act Amendment. Straits Settlements. shall be more than One Half of the Persons present at the Meeting, instead of Two Thirds of such Persons as now required. 6. "The Public Libraries Act (1855)" and "The Public Act applicable Libraries Act (Scotland) (1854)" shall be applicable to any whatever PopuBorough, District, or Parish or Burgh, of whatever Population. 7. So much of Section 6 of "The Public Libraries Act (Scotland), 1854," as authorizes the demanding of a Poll, and Sections Seven and Eight of the said Act, are hereby repealed. 8. If any Meeting called as provided by the said last-mentioned Act shall determine against the Adoption of the Act in any Burgh, no Meeting for a similar Purpose shall be held for the Space of One Year at least from the Time of holding the previous Meeting. 9. The Clauses and Provisions of "The Companies Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act (1845)" with respect to the borrowing of Money upon Mortgage or Bond, and the Accountability of Officers, and the Recovery of Damages and Penalties, so far as such Provisions may respectively be applicable to the Purposes of the said "Public Libraries Act (Scotland) (1854)," shall be respectively incorporated with that Act. 10. Wherever a Public Museum or Library has been established under any Act relating to Public Libraries or Museums, or shall hereafter be established under either of the said before mentioned Acts, a Public Library or Museum, as the Case may be, may at any Time be established in connexion therewith without any further Proceedings being taken under the said Acts. lation may be. 17 & 18 Vict. If Burgh de- for a Year. Parts of 8&9 Vict. c.17. extended to 17 & 18 Vict. c. 64. A Library, &c. may be established in connexion with any Museum, &c. 11. This Act may be cited as "The Public Libraries Amend- Short Title. ment Act (England and Scotland), 1866," and shall be taken to be Part of the said "Public Libraries Act, 1855," and shall be construed accordingly. W CA P. CXV. An Act to provide for the Government of the "Straits 6 Dd 4 and |