IRELAND.

GENERAL NOTE.-Reference may be made to the corresponding sections in the English Acts, but it should be distinctly borne in mind that all amendments of the Irish Acts are set forth here. The principal Act of 1855, wherever it has been amended, is printed half across the page and on the left side, and the amending clauses of later Acts are placed opposite. The Roman numerals refer to the Summary of Acts, page 88 et seq.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS.

18 AND 19 VICT., CAP. 40.

An Act for further promoting the establishment of Free Public Libraries and Museums in Ireland. [26th June, 1855.]

Whereas it is expedient to amend the Act of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Years of Her present Majesty, Chapter one hundred and one, and to give greater facilities for the establishment in Ireland of Free Public Libraries and Museums or Schools of Science and Art (a): 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:

16 AND 17 VICT., CAP. 101, AND SECTION 99 OF 17 AND 18 VICT., CAP. 103. REPEALED.

1. The said Act of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Years of Her present Majesty, Chapter one hundred and one, and Section ninety-nine of the Towns Improvement Act (Ireland), 1854, are hereby repealed; but such repeal shall not invalidate or affect anything already done in pursuance of either of such Acts; and all Public Libraries and Museums established in Ireland under either of those Acts shall be considered as having been established under this Act.

NOTE.

(a) And Schools of Music (see Section 12 and amendment thereof, page 77, and see also Section 9 and amendment, page 75.

See the General Note at Top of page 71.

SHORT TITLE.

2. In citing this Act for any purpose whatever, it shall be sufficient to use the expression "The Public Libraries Act (Ireland), 1855 ".

INTERPRETATION OF TERMS.

XIV. THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACTS
AMENDMENT ACT, 1877, Cap. 54

Section 3. "Ratepayers" shall mean every inhabitant(a) who would have to pay the Free Library assessment in event of the Act being adopted (b).

3. In the construction and for the purposes of this Act (if not inconsistent with the context or subject matter) the following terms shall have the respective meanings herein-after assigned to them; that is to say, "Town" shall mean and include any City, Borough, Town, or place in which Commissioners, Trustees, or other persons have been or shall be elected or appointed under the Act of the Ninth Year of King George the Fourth, Chapter eighty-two, or the "Towns Improvement Act (Ireland), 1854," or any Local or other Act or Acts for paving, flagging, lighting, watching, cleansing, or otherwise improving any City, Borough, Town, or place, for the execution of any such Act or Acts, or superintending the execution thereof, and in which there shall not be a Town Council or other such body elected under the Act of the Third and Fourth Years of Her present Majesty, Chapter one hundred and eight, or any other Charter granted in pursuance of such Act, or any Act passed for the amendment thereof; "Town Commissioners" shall mean the Commissioners, Trustees, or other persons for the time being elected or appointed under any such first-mentioned Acts as aforesaid; "Town Fund" shall mean the Town Fund, or the Rates or Property vested in and under the control and direction of any Town Commissioners, and applicable to the purposes of any such Acts; "Town Rate” shall mean the Rate or Rates authorised to be levied by any such Town Commissioners; "Mayor" shall include Lord Mayor; "Clerk " shall mean, as regards an incorporated Borough, the Town Clerk of such Borough, and as regards a Town in which there shall be Town Commissioners, the Clerk appointed by the Town Commissioners; "Householder" shall mean a male occupier of a dwelling house, or of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments within any Town or incorporated Borough, and entitled for the time being to vote at elections of Commissioners, Aldermen, or Councillors in such Town or Borough.

NOTES.

(a) i.e., whether male or female. See, however, the definition of "householder" in Section 3 of the principal Act.

See the General Note at Top of page 71.

(b) This Act was expressed to be repealed by the Act of 1890, but since it did not extend to Scotland and Ireland the above provision is assumed to be still applicable there. The Act of 1890 has itself been repealed by the Act of 1892.

ACT MAY BE ADOPTED IN ANY INCORPORATED

BOROUGH OR ANY TOWN.

4. The Council or Board of Muni- | XIV. THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACTS

cipal Commissioners of any incorporated Borough in Ireland regulated under the said Act of the Third

AMENDMENT ACT, 1877, CAP. 54.

Voting Papers.

Section 1. It shall be competent for the prescribed Local Authority in any place or community which has the power to adopt one of the above recited Acts to ascertain the opinions of the majority of the ratepayers, either by the prescribed public meeting, or by the issue of a voting paper to each ratepayer, and the subsequent collection and scrutiny thereof, and any expense in connection with such voting papers shall be borne in the same way as the expense of a public meeting would be borne, and the decision of the majority so ascertained shall be equally binding (b).

and Fourth Years of Her present Majesty, Chapter one hundred and eight, or any Charter granted in pursuance of such Act, or any Act passed for the amendment thereof, the population of which, according to the then last census thereof, shall exceed five thousand persons, or the Town Commissioners of any Town in Ireland having such a population as aforesaid, may, if they think fit, appoint a time for a public meeting of the householders of the Borough or Town, as the case may be, in order to determine whether this Act shall be adopted for the Borough or Town, and ten days' notice at least of the time, place, and object of the meeting shall be given by affixing the same on or near the door of every Church and Chapel within the Borough or Town, and also by advertising the same in one or more of the news. papers published or circulated within the Borough or Town seven days at least before the day appointed for the meeting; and if at such meeting two-thirds of such persons as aforesaid then present shall determine that this Act ought to be adopted for the Borough or Town, the same shall thenceforth take effect and come into operation in such Borough or Town, as the case may be, and shall be carried into execution, in accordance with the laws for the time being in force relating to the Municipal Corporation of such Borough, or relating to such Town (a).

NOTES.

(a) The limit of population and the majority of two-thirds is not repealed.

(b) See note (a) to Section 3, page 72. There may be a limit in the amount of the assessment (see Section 8, page 75).

See the General Note at Top of page 71.

EXPENSES OF CARRYING ACT INTO EXECUTION IN A BOROUGH OR TOWN TO BE PAID OUT OF THE BOROUGH FUND OR TOWN FUND.

5. The expenses incurred in calling and holding the meeting, whether this Act shall be adopted or not, and the expenses of carrying this Act into execution in such Borough, shall be paid out of the Borough Fund, and in such Town out of the Town Fund; and the Council, or Board of Municipal Commissioners, or Town Commissioners, may levy as part of the Borough Rate or Town Rate, as the case may be, or by a separate Rate to be assessed and recovered in like manner as the Borough Rate or Town Rate, all moneys from time to time necessary for defraying such expenses; and distinct accounts shall be kept of the receipts, payments, and liabilities of the Council with reference to the execution of this Act.

ACCOUNTS TO BE AUDITED AND SENT TO THE LORD LIEUTENANT, &c.; TO BE DEPOSITED AND OPEN

TO INSPECTION

6. Such accounts shall be audited in the same way as all other accounts of such Borough or Town respectively are audited, and the said Council or Board or Town Commissioners shall, within one month after the same shall have been audited, transmit to the Lord Lieutenant or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland for the time being a true and correct copy of such accounts; and shall also within the time aforesaid cause a copy of such accounts to be deposited in the office of the Clerk; and the said accounts shall be open to the inspection of all householders of such Borough or Town respectively, and copies thereof shall be delivered to any such householder applying for the same, upon payment of a reasonable charge for the same, to be fixed by the Council or Board or Town Commissioners, as the case may be.

COMMISSIONERS OF TOWNS ADOPTING THIS ACT TO BE INCORPORATED FOR PURPOSES OF ACT.

7. The Town Commissioners of every Town adopting this.

See the General Note at Top of page 71.

Act shall for the purposes thereof be a body corporate, with perpetual succession, by the name of "The Commissioners for Public Libraries and Museums for the Town of

and by that name may sue and be sued, and hold and dispose of lands, and use a common seal.

RATE NOT TO EXCEED ONE PENNY IN THE POUND. MAXIMUM RATE MAY BE LESS THAN ONE PENNY.

LANDS, &c., MAY BE APPROPRIATED, PURCHASED, OR RENTED FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS ACT.