A BILL INTITULED An Act for empowering Local Boards of Health to provide Burial Grounds. [Note.-The Clause and Words printed in Italics are proposed to be inserted in Committee.] W HEREAS the Public Health Act, 1848, while it gives Preamble. in Districts where it is applied, and where sufficient Means of Interment exist within a convenient Distance of such Burial 5 Grounds, confers no Powers for providing new Burial Grounds: And whereas it is desirable that Local Boards of Health should possess such Powers, and that the providing and maintaining of Burial Grounds in Districts where the existing Burial Grounds or some of them are insufficient or in a State dangerous to Health should be 10 dealt with as One of the Purposes of the Public Health Act: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows: 15 of Health authorized to I. If upon such Representation of the Local Board of Health, and Local Board such Inquiry, Report, and Notification as are required by the Public Health Act, 1848, before the issuing of a Certificate for the Prohibi- provide new tion of Interments in Burial Grounds within Districts where the said Act has been applied, it shall appear to the General Board of Health where re606. A Burial that quired. Burial Ground or Part thereof to be con that additional Burial Ground Accommodation is required for the II. Such Burial Ground or some Part thereof shall be consecrated, and no Body shall be buried in any Part of such Burial Ground until 10 after such Consecration shall have taken place, and until the whole secrated, &c. of the Land to be appropriated to the Burial of the Dead shall have Penalty on Power to make Byelaws. been properly enclosed, and the Byelaws approved and confirmed as herein-after provided; and whenever any Body shall have been buried within such Burial Ground, the whole of such Enclosure shall thence- 15 forth be held to have been used for the Burial of the Dead. III. Any Person who shall cause or permit any Body to be buried within such Burial Ground contrary to the Provisions of this Act shall be liable to a Penalty not exceeding Five Pounds. IV. Wherever any Burial Ground shall have been provided under 20 the Powers of this Act, it shall be lawful for the Local Board of Health, subject to the Provisions of this Act, to make Byelaws for the Maintenance, Management, and Control of such Burial Ground, and for the conducting of Funerals of Bodies to be interred therein, and for securing Compensation to Ministers and others having Rights 25 in respect of Burials or other Rights in the Burial Grounds of the District in which Interment may be prohibited, either by Money or by the Substitution for such Rights of other Rights in the Burial Ground to be provided under this Act, and for fixing the Fees and Sums payable for Burials, Monuments, Vaults, and all Matters relating thereto; 30 and such Byelaws shall be held to be Byelaws framed under the Public Health Act, 1848, and shall be subject to the Provisions of the said Act with regard to Byelaws: Provided always, that all Provisions of such Byelaws concerning the Consecration of the Burial Ground to be provided, and the Burial of Members of the United Church of 35 England and Ireland, and the Compensation to be provided for Rights in respect of Burial and other Rights of Ministers of the said United Church, which may be affected by the Prohibition of Interment in any Burial Ground under this Act, shall be approved by the Bishop of the Diocese: Provided that, subject to the Provisions herein contained, the 40 Parishioners and Inhabitants of the several Parishes, Parts of the Parishes, and Places within the District for which a Burial Ground may 5 may be provided by any Local Board under this Act, shall have the same Rights of Interment in the consecrated Portion of such Burial Ground as they respectively would have had in the Burial Grounds in and for their several Parishes and Places. of Burial V. The Income arising from the said Burial Ground shall be Income applied by the Local Board in or towards defraying the current Ground to Expenses of such Burial Ground; and whenever, after Payment of be applied such Expenses, there shall be any Surplus at the Disposal of the Local towards defraying Board, they shall carry the same to the Credit of the General District Expenses. 10 Rates. 66 10 & 11 Vict, Sections of c. 65. incor porated with this Act. VI. Sections 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 of the Cemeteries Certain Clauses Act, 1847, and the Clauses of that Act "with respect to preventing Nuisance from the Cemetery," "with respect to Burials in "the Cemetery," "with respect to exclusive Rights of Burial and 15" monumental Inscriptions in the Cemetery," "with respect to Payments to Incumbents of Parishes or Ecclesiastical Districts, and to "Parish Clerks," and "with respect to the Protection of the Cemetery," shall be incorporated with this Act; and for the Purposes of this Act the Expression" the Company," wherever used in the said Cemeteries 20 Clauses Act, shall mean the Local Board of Health. VII. The Public Health Act, 1848, and this Act, shall be read 11 & 12 Vict. together as One Act. c. 63. and VIII. This Act may be cited as "The Local Board of Health Burial Short Title, Grounds Act." ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES. Preamble recites 15 & 16 Vict. c. 85. On Representation of Secretary of State, Her Majesty in Council may restrain the opening of new Burial Grounds, and order Discontinuance of Burials in specified Places; Sect. 1. Order not to extend to Burial Grounds of Quakers or Jews, unless expressly included; 2. Burial not to take place after Order in Council for Discontinuance; 3. Saving of certain Rights to bury in Vaults, &c.; 4. Saving as to Cemeteries established under Act of Parliament, and new Burial Grounds hereafter approved of by Secretary of State; 5. New Burial Grounds not to be opened contrary to Order in Council; 6. Certain Provisions of Metropolitan Burial Act, 15 & 16 Vict. c. 85., extended to Parishes, &c. not in the Metropolis; 7. Act not to extend to the Metropolis; 8. Act not to extend to Scotland or Ireland; 9. |