(2) The accounts of the receipts and expenditure of a Library Authority being Commissioners appointed under this Act, and of their officers, shall be audited yearly by a District Auditor in like manner and with the like incidents and consequences as in the case of an audit under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor, and those Commissioners shall be a Local Authority within the meaning of the District Auditors Act, 1879 (c).

(3) The accounts of the receipts and expenditure under this Act of any Library Authority other than the Council of a Municipal Borough (b) shall be open at all reasonable times to the inspection, free of charge, of any ratepayer (bb) in the Library District, and any such ratepayer may, without charge, make copies of and extracts from those accounts; and if any Library Authority, or any person being a member thereof, or employed by them and having the custody of the accounts, fails to allow the accounts to be inspected, or copies or extracts to be made, as required by this Section, such Authority or person shall for each offence be liable on summary conviction in manner provided by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts to a fine not exceeding five pounds.

NOTES.

(1) As to accounts in combined Urban Districts, see the Act of 1893, Section 4 (3), page 159. (a) There is no regulation as regards the form in which the accounts are to be kept in a Borough or Local Board District, but the form specified for Commissioners (see note b) seems complete, and appears to be a good precedent. In Boroughs the elective auditors and Mayor's auditor will audit the accounts. In Local Board Districts the District auditors will do it.

(b) The accounts in a Borough may be inspected under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882.

(bb) Not necessarily a voter.

(c) This applies to a Metropolitan District. See Section 22 (2), page 33. See the following order of the Local Government Board :

To the Commissioners for Public Libraries and Museums for the several Parishes
in which "The Public Libraries Act, 1855," has been or shall be adopted ;-
To the District Auditors for the time being authorised to audit the accounts of the
said Commissioners respectively ;-

And to all others whom it may concern.

Whereas by Sections 3 and 5 of "The District Auditors Act, 1879," it is enacted as follows:

"3. Where the accounts of the receipts and expenditure of a Local Authority are audited by a District Auditor, the Local Authority shall prepare and submit to the District Auditor at every audit (other than an extraordinary audit, held in pursuance of

Section 6 of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1866) a financial statement in duplicate in the prescribed form and containing the prescribed particulars; one of such duplicates shall have the stamp charged under this Act affixed thereon, and the auditor at the conclusion of the audit shall cancel that stamp, and certify on each duplicate, in the prescribed form, the amount in words at length of the expenditure so audited and allowed, and further, that the regulations with respect to such statement have been duly complied with, and that he has ascertained by the audit the correctness of the statement."

"5. Where any accounts of the receipts and expenditure of a Local Authority are subject by law to be audited by a District Auditor, the Local Government Board may from time to time by order make, and when made revoke and vary, such regulations as seem to the Board necessary or proper respecting the audit of such accounts, including the form of keeping the accounts of the Local Authority and their officers, the day or days to which the accounts are to be made up, the time within which they are to be examined by the Local Authority, the mode in which, if it is so prescribed, they are to be certified by the Local Authority, or any officer of that Authority, the mode of publishing, the time and place of holding the audit, the persons by whom such accounts are to be produced for audit, and the mode of conducting the audit, and an order under this Section shall be deemed to be an order within the meaning of Section 98 of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834."

And whereas the Commissioners for Public Libraries and Museums being Local Authorities, the accounts of whose receipts and expenditure are audited as mentioned in the said Section 3, we, the Local Government Board, by an order dated the 22nd day of October, 1880, prescribed the form of the financial statement to be prepared and submitted to the District Auditor by such Commissioners;

And whereas it is expedient that the said order should be rescinded, that a fresh form of financial statement should be prescribed, and that regulations should be prescribed as hereinafter mentioned:

Now, therefore, we hereby rescind the above-cited order, and we hereby order and prescribe as follows:

Article I. The regulations contained in this order shall be observed in regard to the accounts of the Commissioners for Public Libraries and Museums, as such Local Authorities as aforesaid, except in so far as we may from time to time assent to any departure from such regulations.

Article II. The financial statement to be prepared and submitted to the District Auditor in duplicate by the said Commissioners in accordance with the provisions of the Section first above recited, shall be in the form in the Schedule to this order, and shall contain the particulars therein specified; and the certificate of the District Auditor to be appended to each such duplicate shall be as set forth at the foot of the said statement.

Article III. The accounts of the said Commissioners and of their officers shall be made up and balanced to the twenty-fifth day of March in each year.

L.S.

Given under the Seal of Office of the Local Government Board, this twentyfifth day of September, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six.

CHARLES T. RITCHIE, President.

S. B. PROVIS, Assistant Secretary.

Parish of.

SCHEDULE.

FINANCIAL

"The District Auditors

Statement of Receipts and Expenditure by the Commissioners for Public

Total Balances in Hand at commencement of year, as per
Financial Statement to 25th March, 18

£

CR

8.

d.

* Small items of receipt under this heading may be classed as "miscellaneous".

+ The particulars of loans are to be supplied in the annexed form No. 2.

SCHEDULE.

STATEMENT.

Act, 1879" (42 Vict., c. 6).

Libraries and Museums for the above-named Parish for the year ended the
March, 18

* Small payments under this head may be classed as "miscellaneous".

B.-Expenditure out of Loans :—

EXPENDITURE.

Total Expenditure out of Loans

Brought forward Total Expenditure other than out of
Loans

Total Expenditure

Total Balances overdrawn at commencement of year, as per Financial

I hereby certify that I have compared the entries in the above statement with the vouchers and other documents relating thereto, and that the regulations with respect to such statement have been duly complied with.

I hereby further certify that I have ascertained by audit the correctness of such statement, and that the amount expended by the Commissioners during the year ended the 25th day of March, 18 included in such statement, and allowed by me at the audit, is * As witness my hand this..

.day of...

..18

* Here insert in words at length the amount of the net expenditure on which stamp

duty is payable. See previous page.