Part II. of the Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. 59), contains powers to urban authorities to make byelaws for prevention of danger or obstruction to the public from posts, wires, tubes, or any other apparatus stretched or placed above, over, along, or across any street (whether before or after the adoption of that part of the Act), for the purpose of any telegraph, telephone, lighting, railway, signalling, or other purpose. These byelaws are not to take effect unless confirmed by the Board of Trade. This Act of 1890 is an adoptive Act, and is of no force until adopted. Part II. 'may be adopted by urban authorities (s. 3); but the Local Government Board may invest rural authorities with urban powers for the purposes of the Act (s. 5). It contains an express saving on behalf of electric undertakings having statutory authority, s. 15 providing that "(1) Nothing contained in this part of this Act shall— (a.) Extend to any post, wire, tube, or other apparatus or property of (b.) Extend to any works of any undertakers within the meaning of The form of byelaws generally approved by the Board of Trade when Part II. has been duly adopted is as set out later (see p. 271). The above Act of 1890 does not apply to the administrative county of London (s. 2 (2)). See the Chapter on COUNTY OF LONDON, post, p. 303. Sect. 6. NOTE. Savings. authority. 7. Any expenses incurred by a local authority under this Act, Expenses of and not otherwise provided for, including any expenses incurred local in connexion with the obtaining by them, or any opposition to the obtaining by any other local authority, company, or person, of any license, order, or special Act under this Act, may be defrayed out of the local rate as defined in the schedule to this Act (a), and the local authority may from time to time cause such rates. to be levied as may be necessary for the purpose of defraying such expenses; provided that where such local authority is a rural sanitary authority such expenses shall be deemed to be special expenses within the meaning of the Public Health Act, 1875 (b). 38 & 39 Vict. (a) See Schedule, at p. 136. In the case of an urban district council the local rate is "the fund or rate applicable to the general purposes of the Public Health Act, 1875, in the district, or any other fund or rate applicable to lighting under any local Act." In the case of a rural district council the local rate is "the rate or rates out of which special expenses incurred in respect of the contributory place or places comprised within the area of supply are payable under the Public Health Act, 1875." (b) Under the Public Health Act, 1875, special expenses are made a separate charge on each contributory place (s. 229). As to taxation of the costs of promoting or opposing provisional orders, see House of Commons Costs Taxation Acts, 1847 and 1879 (10 & 11 Vict. c. 69, and 42 & 43 Vict, c. 17), s. 1, and House of Lords Costs Taxation Act, 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. 78), and see In re Morley (1875), L. R. 20 Eq. 17; and In re Baker, Lees and Co., W. N. (1902) 229. E.L. H c. 55. Sect. 8. Power of local authority to borrow money. 8. A local authority authorised to supply electricity by any license, order, or special Act may from time to time borrow money on such security, with such consent and subject to such provisions and restrictions with respect to borrowing and the repayment of loans, as are in the schedule to this Act in that behalf mentioned (a), and the money so borrowed shall be deemed to be borrowed under the enactments subject to the provisions and restrictions of which it is borrowed, and the accounts of all receipts and expenditure by the local authority in pursuance of this Act, or any license, order, or special Act, shall be subject to such audit as is in the said schedule in that behalf mentioned (b) Provided always, that any moneys borrowed under this section by the local authority of any district to which the 38 & 39 Vict. Local Loans Act, 1875 (c), extends, may, if it is thought fit, be borrowed in manner provided by that Act; and in the construction of the said Act for the purposes of this Act the expression "prescribed prescribed" means prescribed by any conditions imposed by the authority whose consent is required to borrowing under this section. c. 83. Regulations as to exercise of borrowing powers. Where any local authority is authorised by any Act to raise any money which they may be empowered to borrow for certain purposes by the issue of corporation or other stock, any money which a local authority may be authorised to borrow under this section may, if it is thought fit, be raised by them by the issue of such stock as aforesaid. This section shall not apply to the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the city of London or to the Metropolitan Board of Works (d), except in so far as the Metropolitan Board of Works (d) may be concerned in the borrowing of any money by any vestry or district board. (a) See the annotations to the Schedule. The consent required is that of the Local Government Board in England, the Secretary for Scotland in Scotland, and the Local Government Board in Ireland for Ireland. The provisions and restrictions with respect to borrowing and the repayment of loans are (in the case of both urban and rural authorities in England) those contained in ss. 233, 234, and 236-239 of the Public Health Act, 1875. Section 233 authorises any local authority, with the sanction of the Local Government Board, to borrow and re-borrow at interest. 66 "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) the Local Government Board shall not give their sanction to such "(4.) The money may be borrowed for such time, not exceeding sixty “(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 previous 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." Section 236, form of mortgage; s. 237, register of mortgages; s. 238, transfer of mortgages; s. 239, receiver may be appointed in certain cases. A provisional order authorising an electric lighting undertaking came into operation on June 27th, 1892. It gave a municipal corporation power to purchase the undertaking compulsorily on terms of issuing or transferring to the undertakers such an amount of the corporation stock "as will produce by the interest thereon an annuity of 5 per cent." on capital properly expended. Sect. 8. NOTE. Sect. 8. NOTE. Accounts. Another provisional order, coming into operation on June 28th, 1892, took away a power the corporation had, but had not exercised, to issue irredeemable stock. The statutes confirming the two orders received the Royal assent on June 27th, 1892:-Held, (1) that the statutory price for the undertaking was an amount of irredeemable stock; (2) that the corporation were not by implication authorised to issue irredeemable stock for the purpose of purchasing the undertaking; and (3) that, therefore, the power to purchase compulsorily was in abeyance so long as the corporation had no power to issue irredeemable stock. Sheffield Corporation v. Sheffield E. L. Co., [1898] 1 Ch. 203. (b) As to audit of the accounts where the undertakers are a local authority, see the notes to the schedule at p. 139. In the case of orders in favour of companies or persons, s. 6 of the schedule to the Electric Lighting (Clauses) Act, 1899, requires the accounts to be audited by "some competent and impartial person" appointed by them. See p. 160. (c) By the Local Loans Act, 1875 (which does not extend to Scotland or Ireland), local authorities when entitled to borrow are authorised to issue debenture stock or annuity certificates, the loan being repayable in twenty years where no period is prescribed. This Act has been amended by the Local Loans Sinking Funds Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 30). (d) The London County Council now take the place of the Metropolitan Board of Works (Local Government Act, 1888, s. 40 (8)). 9. The undertakers shall on or before the twenty-fifth day of March in every year fill up an annual statement of accounts of the undertaking made up to the thirty-first day of December then next preceding; and such statement shall be in such form and shall contain such particulars and shall be published in such manner as may from time to time be prescribed in that behalf by the Board of Trade. The undertakers shall keep copies of such annual statement at their office, and sell the same to any applicant at a price not exceeding one shilling a copy. In case the undertakers make default in complying with the provisions of this section, they shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings for each day during which such default continues. The forms of accounts prescribed by the Board of Trade in the case of local authorities and companies respectively will be found post, pp. 274 and 282. The section in the text contemplates the annual accounts being made up to the 31st day of December in each year. This date for making up the accounts has been found inconvenient, inasmuch as under the Local Government (England and Wales) Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), it is enacted that the local financial year shall be the twelve months ending the 31st day of March; and the accounts of all county councils and urban and rural authorities are now made up in conformity with that enactment; and as to parishes, see the Local Government Act, 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73). Accordingly, of late years, whenever a municipal corporation authorised to supply energy has been in Parliament with a Bill for any purpose, it has been the practice to insert a clause to the effect that the above section shall be read as if the 24th of June and the 31st of March were therein inserted instead of 25th March and 31st December. The instances of this are numerous. Sect. 9. NOTE. powers of under license or provisional order. 10. The undertakers may, subject to and in accordance with the General provisions and restrictions of this Act, and of any rules made by undertakers the Board of Trade in pursuance of this Act, and of any license, order, or special Act authorising or affecting their undertaking, and for the purpose of supplying electricity, acquire such lands by agreement, construct such works, acquire such licenses for the use of any patented or protected processes, inventions, machinery, apparatus, methods, materials, or other things, enter into such contracts, and generally do all such acts and things as may be necessary and incidental to such supply. This section is excluded from incorporation by three of the Power Acts, and other provisions on the subject are substituted. See the chapter on POWER ACTS, post. By s. 17 (post, p. 115) it is provided that "in the exercise of the powers in relation to the execution of works . . . the undertakers shall cause as little detriment and inconvenience, and do as little damage as may be, and shall make full compensation to all bodies and persons interested for all damage sustained by them by reason of or in consequence of the exercise of such powers .." . Section 32 provides that "the expression works' means and includes Works. electric lines, also any buildings, machinery, engines, works, matters, or things of whatever description required to supply electricity and to carry into effect the object of the undertakers under this Act." For definition of "electric line" see same section. See p. 133. In addition to the general powers above-mentioned, the Electric Lighting (Clauses) Act, 1899, contains general provisions for the execution of works, various specific provisions with regard to street boxes, the breaking up of streets, alteration of pipes, etc. See ss. 11-20. As to above-ground works, such as overhead wires, see s. 14, p. 109 and notes thereto, and s. 10 of the Schedule to the Act of 1899, post, p. 163. The power given by the above section to purchase land by agreement Land. contains no restriction as to quantity. Companies sometimes find it expedient to acquire more land than is actually required for their works in order to avoid complaints of vibration or other nuisance. It has not been the practice to insert any clause in orders in favour of companies or persons limiting the quantity of land which they may acquire. On the other hand, there has always been inserted in orders in favour of local authorities a clause |