Technical Education (Technical Instruction Act, 1889) Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Duties Act, 1890 Note on Funds available for Education Museums and Gymnasiums Act, 1891 Additional Powers obtained by Local Acts-- OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACTS. EDITED WITH NOTES, &C., BY H. W. FOVARGUE, Town CLERK, EASTBOURNE, AND JOHN J. OGLE, LIBRARIAN AND CURATOR, FREE LIBRARY, BOOTLE. ENGLAND AND WALES. GENERAL NOTE.-" The principal Act" is the Act of 1855, and is printed on the left-hand side of the page, subsequent alterations or additions being shown on the right-hand side of the page whenever there is an amending section. The numerals, thus XII., refer to the corresponding number in the précis of the Acts. Repealed Sections or parts thereof are not printed. PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACT, 1855. 18 AND 19 VICTORIA. CAP. LXX. An Act for further promoting the Establishment of Free Public Libraries and Museums in Municipal Towns, and for extending it to Towns governed under Local Improvement Acts and to Parishes. [30th July, 1855.] WHEREAS it is expedient to amend and extend the Public Libraries Act, 1850: 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and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: ACTS REPEALED. Section I. The Public Libraries Act, 1850, is hereby repealed, but such repeal shall not invalidate or affect anything already done in pursuance of the same Act; and all Libraries and Museums established under that Act or the Act thereby repealed shall be considered as having been established under this Act, and the Council of any Borough which may have adopted the said Act of One thousand eight hundred and fifty, or established a Museum under the Act thereby repealed, shall have and may use and exercise all the benefits, privileges, and powers given by this Act; and all monies which have been borrowed by virtue of the said repealed Acts, or either of them, and still remaining unpaid, and the interest thereof, shall be charged on the Borough rates, or a rate to be assessed and recovered in the like manner as a Borough rate to be made by virtue of this Act. SHORT TITLE. Section II. In citing this Act for any purposes whatever it shall be sufficient to use the expression: “The Public Libraries Act, 1855". INTERPRETATION OF TERMS. MENT ACT, 1871. Section 2. For the purposes aforesaid (5) the following words in the principal Act shall have the following extended significations:-viz., the word Section 3. In the construction XII. PUBLIC LIBRARIES AMENDof this Act the following words and expressions shall, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction, have the following meanings assigned to them respectively, that is to say:— “Parish” shall mean every place maintaining its own poor. "Board" shall mean any such local board as aforesaid (6). The words "Improvement Rate" shall mean the general district rate levied by any such board. The word Ratepayers " shall mean all persons assessed to and paying such general district rate (7). The word "District" shall mean the district in which such local board has authority to levy a general district rate. The term "Improvement Act" shall mean the Local Government Act, 1858. in which Parishes it shall mean such Select Vestry, and shall also mean any boly of persons, by whatever name distinguished, acting by virtue of any Act of Parliament, Prescription, Custom, or otherwise, as or instead of a Vestry or Select Vestry (1). 66 Ratepayers" shall mean all persons for the time being assessed to rates for the relief of the poor of the Parish (2). "Overseers of the Poor" shall mean also any persons authorised and required to make and collect the rate for the relief of the poor of the Parish, and acting instead of Overseers of the Poor. "Board" shall mean the Commissioners, Trustees, or other body of persons, by whatever name distinguished, for the time being in office and acting in the execution of any Improvement Act, being an Act for draining, cleansing, paving, lighting, watching, or otherwise improving a place, or for any of those purposes (3). "Improvement Rates" shall mean the rates, tolls, rents, income, and other monies whatsoever which, under the provisions of any such Improvement Act, shall be applicable for the general purposes of such Act (4). XV. PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACT, 1884. Section 4. The expression "Authority acting under the Public Libraries Acts" means the Council Board, Magistrates, or Commissioners acting in execution of the Public Libraries Acts. XVI. PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACTS Section 4. In this Act-- 'Metropolis" shall mean the metropolis as defined by the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, excluding the city of London. "Library Authority" means the Council, Commissioners, Board, or other persons or authority carrying into execution the Public Libraries Acts. "District Board" means a district board constituted under the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, and "District" shall have a corresponding signification. XX. PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACTS WHO SHALL BE VOTERS. (a) Where the Library District, as defined by this Act, is a Borough or part of a Borough, the Burgesses of that Borough and the Burgesses enrolled in respect of qualifications in such part respectively; and (b) Elsewhere, the county electors registered in respect of qualifications in the Library District. All references in the Libraries Acts to ratepayers, or vestries, or to persons assessed to and paying any rate, shall be construed with respect to any Library District as references to the voters mentioned in this section. Section 10. For the purposes of this Act The expression "Libraries Acts" means this Act and the Acts with which this Act is to be construed as one (8). The expression "Library District" means any district for which the Libraries Acts may, subject to the provisions of this Act, be adopted. The expression "District Authority" means the body or person whose duty it would have been, but for the passing of this Act, to convene a public meeting in any Library District under the Libraries Acts. The expression "County Electors means the persons registered as county electors under the County Electors Act, 1888. NOTES. (1) This definition is not repealed by the Act of 1890, except by implicationsee Section 1 of that Act opposite. (2) See Section 2 of the Act of 1871 above, extending this definition; both definitions are repealed by implication by Section 1 of the Act of 1890 above. (3 and 4) See Section 2 of the 1871 Act above. (5) i.e., for the adopting and carrying into execution of the principal Act by a local board established under the Public Health Act, 1848, and the Local Government Act, 1858, or either of them, or now the Public Health Act, 1875. (6) See Section 1 of the Act, page 34. (7) This definition is impliedly repealed by Section 1 of the Act of 1890 opposite. (8) i.e., the Public Libraries (England) Acts, 1855 to 1890. PRACTICAL POINTS AND CASES. VOTERS. -The case of Attorney-General v. Mayor, &c., of Croydon (42 L. R. Ch. D. 178. 53. J. P. 726) decided that, as the burden of paying the rates incident to the adoption of the Public Libraries Acts in a Borough must eventually fall upon the occupiers of the premises rated, it is they who are entitled to vote, and not the owners, by whose hands the rates are actually paid. This case was decided in 1889. It is to be observed that the provisions of the Act of 1890 will prevent this question arising again, since the Burgesses or County Electors are in all cases to be the voters. “BOARD”.—The Local Government Board have stated that they are advised that a Vestry acting in the execution of the Metropolis Management Acts is not a "Board" that can adopt the Act under Section 6. A District Board of Works, however, in the Metropolis may adopt the Acts under the provisions of the Act of 1887 (see page 47). |