such notice shall be given by advertisement in the London Gazette if the office of the Commissioners is in England, the Edinburgh Gazette if it is in Scotland, or in the Dublin Gazette if it is in Ireland.

Interest to Cease on Expiration of Notice to pay off a Mortgage Debt. Section 83. If the Commissioners shall have given notice of their intention to pay off any such mortgage or assignation in security at a time when the same may lawfully be paid off by them, then at the expiration of such notice all further interest shall cease to be payable thereon, unless, on demand of payment made pursuant to such notice, or at any time thereafter, the Commissioners fail to pay the principal and interest due at the expiration of such notice on such mortgage or assignation in security.

Section 85.

Mode of paying off Mortgages.

Whenever the Commissioners shall be enabled to pay off one or more of the mortgages or assignations in security which shall be then payable, and shall not be able to pay off the whole of the same class, they shall decide the order in which they shall be paid off by lot among the class to which such one or more of the mortgages or assignations in security belong, and shall cause a notice, signed by their clerk, to be given to the persons entitled to the money to be paid off, pursuant to such lot, and such notice shall express the principal sum proposed to be paid off, and that the same will be paid, together with the interest due thereon, at a place to be specified, at the expiration of six months from the date of giving such notice.

Account Books to be Open to the Inspection of Mortgagees.

Section 88. The books of account of the Commissioners shall be open at all seasonable times to the inspection of the respective mortgagees or assignees in security of the Commissioners, with liberty to take extracts therefrom without fee or reward.

MALICIOUS INJURIES TO PROPERTY ACT (1861) [ENGLAND AND IRELAND.]

24 AND 25 VICTORIA, CAP. 97, § 39.

Whoever shall unlawfully and maliciously destroy or damage any book, manuscript, picture, print, statue, bust or vase, or any other article or thing kept for the purposes of Art, Science, or Literature, or as an object of curiosity, in any Museum, Gallery, Cabinet, Library, or other repository, which Museum, Gallery, Cabinet, Library, or other repository is either at all times or from time to time open for the admission of the public, or of

any considerable number of persons to view the same, either by the permission of the proprietor thereof or by the payment of money before entering the same, or any picture, statue, monument, or other memorial of the dead, painted glass, or other ornament or work of art, in any Church, Chapel, Meeting House, or other place of divine worship, or in any building belonging to the Queen, or to any County, Riding, Division, City, Borough, Poor-Law Union, Parish, or place, or to any University, or College, or hall of any University, or to any Inn of Court, or to any Street, Square, Churchyard, Burial Ground, Public Garden or Ground, or any statue or monument exposed to public view, or any ornament, railing, or fence surrounding such statue or monument, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding six months, with or without hard labour, and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping provided that nothing herein contained shall be deemed to affect the right of any person to recover, by action at law, damages for the injury so committed.

NOTES.

It is suggested that a copy of or extract from this Section should be printed and placed in conspicuous positions in the various rooms, and the offer of a reward may assist in detecting offenders. In connection with the Battersea Public Libraries proceedings were taken in the County Court against the guarantor for damage to a book which the borrower failed to make good; he was ordered to pay the amount claimed and costs, after examination of the form of guarantee.

The Chelsea Public Libraries Authority were successful in obtaining the conviction of a reader for tearing a leaf from a magazine; he was fined £2 and costs, together with the value of the magazine.

Similar proceedings have been taken in Manchester, Wolverhampton, Chester, Liverpool, and other places.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH ACT, 1875.

(Incorporated as to England and Wales by the Public Libraries Act, 1892, Section 19, see page 25.)

BORROWING POWERS.

Power to Borrow on Credit of Rates.

Section 233. Any Local Authority may, with the sanction of the Local Government Board, for the purpose of defraying any costs, charges, and expenses incurred or to be incurred by them in the execution of the Sanitary Acts or of this Act, or for the purpose of discharging any loans contracted under the Sanitary Acts or this Act, borrow or re-borrow, and take up at interest, any sums of money necessary for defraying any such costs, charges, and expenses, or for discharging any such loans as aforesaid.

An Urban Authority may borrow or re-borrow any such sums on the credit of any fund or all or any rates or rate out of which they are authorised to defray expenses incurred by them in the execution of this Act, and for the purpose of securing the repayment of any sums so borrowed, with interest thereon, they may mortgage to the persons by or on behalf of whom such sums are advanced any such fund or rates or rate. A Rural Authority may borrow or re-borrow any such sums, if applied or intended to be applied to general expenses of such Authority, on the credit of the common fund out of which such expenses are payable, and if applied or intended to be applied to special expenses of such Authority, on the credit of any rate or rates out of which such expenses are payable, and for the purpose of securing the repayment of any sums so borrowed, with interest thereon, they may mortgage to the persons by or on behalf of whom such sums are advanced any such fund, rate, or rates.

Regulations as to Exercise of Borrowing Powers.

Section 234. The exercise of the powers of borrowing conferred by this Act shall be subject to the following regulations (namely) :—

(1) Money shall not be borrowed except for permanent works (including under this expression any works of which the cost ought, in the opinion of the Local Government Board, to be spread over a term of years).

(2) The sum borrowed shall not at any time exceed, with the balances of all the outstanding loans contracted by the Local Authority under the Sanitary Acts and this Act, in the whole the assessable value for two years of the premises assessable within the district in respect of which such money may be borrowed.

(3) Where the sum proposed to be borrowed with such balances (if any) would exceed the assessable value for one year of such premises, the Local Government Board shall not give their sanction to such loan until one of their inspectors has held a local inquiry and reported to the said Board.

(4) The money may be borrowed for such time, not exceeding sixty years, as the Local Authority, with the sanction of the Local Government Board, determine in each case; and, subject as aforesaid, the Local Authority shall either pay off the moneys so borrowed by equal annual instalments of principal, or of principal and interest, or they shall in every year set apart as a sinking fund, and accumulate in the way of compound interest by investing the same in the purchase of Exchequer Bills or other Government securities, such sum as will with accumulations in the way of compound interest be sufficient, after payment of all expenses, to pay off the moneys so borrowed within the period sanctioned.

(5) A Local Authority may at any time apply the whole or any part of a sinking fund set apart under this Act in or towards the discharge of the moneys for the repayment of which the fund has been established Provided that they pay into the fund in each year, and accumulate until the whole of the moneys borrowed are discharged, a sum equivalent to the interest which would have been produced by the sinking fund or the part of the sinking fund so applied.

(6) Where money is borrowed for the purpose of discharging a previons loan, the time for repayment of the money so borrowed shall not extend beyond the unexpired portion of the period for which the original loan was sanctioned, unless with the sanction of the Local Government Board, and shall in no case be extended beyond the period of sixty years from the date of the original loan.

Where any Urban Authority borrow any money for the purpose of defraying private improvement expenses, or expenses in respect of which they have determined a part only of the District to be liable, it shall be the duty of such Authority, as between the ratepayers of the District, to make good, so far as they can, the money so borrowed, as occasion requires, either out of private improvement rates, or out of a rate levied in such part of the District as aforesaid.

Form of Mortgage.

Section 236. Every mortgage authorised to be made under this Act shall be by deed, truly stating the date, consideration, and the time and place of payment, and shall be sealed with the common seal of the Local Authority, and may be made according to the form contained in Schedule 4 to this Act, or to the like effect.

Register of Mortgages.

Section 237. There shall be kept at the office of the Local Authority a register of the mortgages on each rate, and within fourteen days after the date of any mortgage an entry shall be made in the register of the number and date thereof, and of the names and description of the parties thereto, as stated in the deed. Every such register shall be open to public inspection during office hours at the said office, without fee or reward; and any clerk or other person having the custody of the same, refusing to allow such inspection, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds.

Transfer of Mortgages.

Section 238. Any mortgagee or other person entitled to any mortgage under this Act may transfer his estate and interest therein to any other person by deed duly stamped, truly stating its date and the consideration for the transfer; and such transfers may be according to the form contained in Schedule 4 to this Act, or to the like effect.

There shall be kept at the office of the Local Authority a register of the transfers of mortgage charged on each rate, and within thirty days after the date of such deed of transfer, if executed within the United Kingdom, or within thirty days after its arrival in the United Kingdom, if executed elsewhere, the same shall be produced to the clerk of the Local Authority, who shall, on payment of a sum not exceeding five shillings, cause an entry to be made in such register of its date, and of the names and description of the parties thereto, as stated in the transfer; and until such entry is made the Local Authority shall not be in any manner responsible to the transferee.

On the registration of any transfer, the transferee, his executors or administrators shall be entitled to the full benefit of the original mortgage, and the principal and interest secured thereby; and any transferee may in like manner transfer his estate and interest in any such mortgage; and no person except the last transferee, his executors or administrators shall be entitled to release or discharge any such mortgage, or any money secured thereby.

If the clerk of the Local Authority wilfully neglects or refuses to make in the register any entry by this Section required to be made, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

Receiver may be Appointed in certain cases.

Section 239. If at the expiration of six months from the time when any principal money or interest has become due on any mortgage of rates made under this Act, and after demand in writing, the same is not paid, the mortgagee or other person entitled thereto may, without prejudice to any other mode of recovery, apply for the appointment of a receiver to a court of summary jurisdiction; and such court may, after hearing the parties, appoint in writing under their hands and seals some person to collect and receive the whole or a competent part of the rates liable to the payment of the principal or interest in respect of which the application is made, until such principal or interest, or both, as the case may be, together with the costs of the application and of collection, are fully paid.

On such appointment being made, all such rates, or such competent part thereof as aforesaid, shall be paid to the person appointed, and when so paid shall be so much money received by or to the use of the mortgagee or mortgagees of such rates, and shall be rateably apportioned between them :

Provided that no such application shall be entertained unless the sum or sums due and owing to the applicant amount to one thousand pounds, or unless a joint application is made by two or more mortgagees or other persons to whom there may be due, after such lapse of time and demand as last aforesaid, moneys collectively amounting to that sum.