should be entitled to use the Library during the continuance of the agreement.

In Sub-section 2 the concluding sentence is new.

Sub-section 3 is new.

Section 17. The Department of Science and Art replaces the Privy Council on Education.

Section 18. Note that the control of the Vestry over the expenses in a Parish is revived.

The provisions in the corresponding Section of the repealed Acts limiting the amount to be "paid" or "expended" are not repeated.

Section 22, Sub-section 3. The words "or expend" after the word "levy” are omitted.

Sub-section 6 is a revival of Section 11 of the Act of 1887, which had been repealed.

Section 24. The provision that any dispute shall be adjusted by an arbitrator appointed by the Local Government Board is new. Section 25. This was inserted during the passage of the Bill through Parliament. The incorporation of the Companies Clauses Act.

Section 26. The Act of 1890 provided that all references to Vestries should be construed as references to the voters. The words in the Bill" or enrolled as burgesses" are omitted.

Section 29. This is new.

-

[NOTE. For a fuller explanation of the Amendments reference should in each case be made to the particular Section.]

PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACT, 1893.

Section 2. Adoption of Act in Urban District to be by resolution of

Urban Authority.

Section 4. Urban Districts may be combined.

OMISSION.

APPLICATION OF THE SCOTCH SHARE OF CUSTOMS AND EXCISE DUTIES.

N.B.-This should have appeared on page 114.

Section 2. Out of the Scotch share of the local taxation (Customs and Excise) duties paid to the local taxation (Scotland) account on account of any financial year :

(i.) The sum of forty thousand pounds shall be applied for such purposes of police superannuation in Scotland as hereinafter mentioned:

(ii.) A sum not exceeding forty thousand pounds shall be applied in relief from the payment of school fees in the State-aided Schools in Scotland of children in the compulsory standards of the Scotch Code, and shall be distributed in such manner and in accordance with such conditions as may be set forth for the present financial year in a minute of the Scotch Education Department to be forthwith laid before Parliament, and in every year subsequent to the present year in the Scotch Education Code annually submitted to Parliament; and (iii.) The residue shall, until Parliament otherwise determines, be diminished by any charge, or increased by any credit, pursuant to the provisions of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) (Pleuro Pneumonia) Act, 1890, and distributed by the Secretary for Scotland

(a) To the amount of fifteen thousand pounds as a contribution to the cost of medical officers and sanitary inspectors appointed under the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1867, or under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889, as the case may be, in such manner and according to such scale and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary for Scotland;

(b) And, subject as aforesaid, among the County Councils of Counties and Town Councils acting as such or as Police Commissioners of Burghs and Police Commissioners of Police Burghs, in Scotland, in proportion to the respective valuations of such Counties and Burghs and Police Burghs as such valuations shall be ascertained by the Secretary for Scotland at the date of such distribution, the share falling to such Councils and Commis

sioners respectively to be applied to the relief of local rates levied by them respectively, in such manner as they may determine. Provided, nevertheless, that the Council of any such County or Burgh and the Commissioners of any such Police Burgh may contribute any sum received by such Council or Commissioners (as the case may be) in respect of the said residue or any part of that sum for the purpose of Technical Education within the meaning of the Technical Schools (Scotland) Act, 1887, and may make that contribution over and above any sum that may be paid out of any school fund under that Act, whether or not any such sum has been paid out of such fund.

OF THE

ENGLAND AND WALES.

GENERAL NOTE.-What are now popularly known as Free Public Libraries were, in England and Wales, established and regulated by the Public Libraries Act, 1850, or the Public Libraries Acts, 1855-90, a summary whereof appears at page 88 et seq. Since 1st October, 1892, those institutions have been regulated by, and new ones will be established under the Consolidating Act known as the Public Libraries Act, 1892. The Bill for this measure was prepared by the Library Association of the United Kingdom, and introduced in the House of Commons in the Session of 1892 by the Rt. Hon. Sir John Lubbock, M.P., whose name has long been associated with Public Library legislation. The Bill passed through both Houses with unexpected rapidity. Only the few amendments indicated in the following notes were introduced. The Act leaves untouched many details of Public Library management requiring attention; but, having been introduced mainly as a Consolidating Bill, it was deemed expedient to defer some important amendments for future legislation rather than jeopardise so necessary a measure.

55 AND 56 VICT., CAP. LIII.

An Act to consolidate and amend the Law relating to Public Libraries. [27th June, 1892.1

Be it 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:

ADOPTION OF ACT AND CONSTITUTION OF LIBRARY

AUTHORITY.

Extent and Application of Act.

1. (1) This Act shall extend to every Library District for which it is adopted (a).

(2) For the purposes of this Act and subject to the provisions thereof every Urban District (b) and every Parish in England and Wales which is not within an Urban District (c) shall be a Library District (d).

(3) This Act shall have effect as regards any Parish which is partly within and partly without an Urban District as if the part which is without the District were a separate Parish, and the overseers for the Parish shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be the overseers for that part (e).

NOTES.

(a) See Section 3, page 4, as to the proceedings for the adoption of the Act.

(b) i.e., a Municipal Borough, Improvement Act District, or Local Government District. See Section 27, page 38.

(c) In an Urban District the Act is to be carried into execution by the Urban Authority, but in a Parish by Commissioners appointed under the Act. See Section 4, page 10.

(d) The City of London is also a Library District (see Section 21, page 32), and so is any District under the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, or any amending Act. See Section 22, page 32.

(e) This is taken from Section 9 of the Public Libraries Acts Amendment Act, 1887, and its effect is that under Sub-section 2 ante the outlying part becomes a Parish, and consequently a Library District within Sub-sections (1) and (2) ante. See also Section 5, page 11, as to appointment of Commissioners, and Section 18 (1) (c), page 23, as to financial matters. The rate can only be levied in the outlying part if the Act is adopted for it.

Limitations on Expenditure for purposes of Act.

2. (1) A rate or addition to a rate (a) shall not be levied for the purposes of this Act for any one financial year (aa) in any Library District (b) to an amount exceeding one penny in the pound (c).

(2) This Act may be adopted for any Library District (d) subject to a condition that the maximum (e) rate or addition to a rate to be levied for the purposes of this Act in the District or in any defined portion of the District (f) in any one financial year (aa) shall not exceed one halfpenny or shall not exceed three farthings in the pound, but such limitation if fixed at one halfpenny may be subsequently raised to three farthings, or altogether removed, or where it is for the time being fixed at three farthings may be removed (g).

(a) The words in italics are new.

NOTES.

(aa) See definition in Section 27, page 38. The expression is new.