The Short Title of this Act is “The Town Boards Act, 1908.”

This Act is a consolidation of the enactments mentioned in the Schedule hereto, and with respect to those enactments the following provisions shall apply:—

Savings.

In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context,—

“The Local Elections and Polls Act, 1908,” “The Public Works Act, 1908,” “The Rating Act, 1908,” and Divisions V and VI and Part XLII of “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1908,” are hereby incorporated with this Act, and shall be read with the necessary changes of words and phrases to render them applicable to the purposes of this Act.

The inhabitants of any locality outside a borough, wherein there are not less than fifty householders, may apply by petition to the Governor praying that such locality may be constituted a town district under this Act.

No such locality shall exceed two square miles in area, and no one point in such area shall be distant more than four miles from any other point therein.

In every such locality not less than two-thirds of the number of the resident householders shall concur in any such petition, and each signature to such petition shall be verified by the attestation of some respectable witness.

Such petition shall set forth accurately the boundaries of the locality to which such petition refers.

Every person who signs the name of any householder to such petition without the authority of such householder for so doing, or attesting the signature of any person thereto without first ascertaining that such person is a householder in such locality, is liable for every such offence to a fine not exceeding five pounds, to be recovered in a summary way.

On the receipt of any such petition the Governor may by Proclamation declare that the provisions of this Act shall come into force within such locality, and that the same shall be a town district under this Act.

Such Proclamation shall accurately define the boundaries of the district in accordance with the description contained in the petition, and shall declare the name by which such district shall thereafter be known.

The Governor may exercise the power conferred on him by this section in any county, notwithstanding that it is provided in any Act that no local body or authority other than the County Council shall, within the limits of that county, be created or exercise any jurisdiction or authority over any roads or over or in relation to any matter or thing in respect of which jurisdiction is conferred upon a County Council under “The Counties Act, 1908.”

The Governor may from time to time alter, curtail, or enlarge, within the limits hereinbefore mentioned, the boundaries of any town district.

Where two town districts in the same county are situate within half a mile from each other, and a natural boundary such as a river, stream, or road runs through or along the lands intervening between the boundaries of such town districts, the Governor may by Proclamation extend the boundaries of either of such districts so as to include all lands intervening between the boundary of the town district and such natural boundary aforesaid, notwithstanding that the limits fixed for the extent of a town district may be thereby exceeded.

Any town district constituted under this Act shall thereafter cease to be a part of the road district within which it was theretofore included; but such last-mentioned district shall be deemed to be the same and the Corporation thereof the same as before such town district was severed therefrom.

Notwithstanding anything in this Act or “The Counties Act, 1908,” every town district having on the twenty-ninth day of October, one thousand nine hundred and six (being the date of the coming into operation of “The Town Districts Act, 1903”), or on its constitution after that date, a population of not less than five hundred shall, for the purposes of “The Counties Act, 1908,” be deemed not to form part of the county within whose boundaries it lies, but the entity of the Corporation of such county shall not thereby be destroyed.

Every main road or county road, or portion of any such road respectively, within the limits of such town district shall be under the control of the Town Board, who shall bear the cost of making and maintaining the same.

Where a town district is proposed to be constituted, the limits whereof extend into more than one county, the Governor shall in the Proclamation constituting the same declare the county wherein the whole of such town district shall be deemed to be included, and shall declare in the same Proclamation the boundaries of such county to be altered accordingly.

As soon as any town district is constituted, the Board of the town district and the Board of the road district of which the town district was theretofore a part shall agree together and determine as to the following matters:—

Such agreement shall be in writing, and shall be final as between the parties.

If such agreement is not made within two months after the first election of the Board of the town district, the Governor may, on the application of either the Town Board or the Road Board, appoint any fit person or persons to hold an inquiry and make an award as to the several matters above mentioned, and such award thereon shall be final.

All property, real or personal, allotted to the town district by any such agreement or award shall become vested in the Board thereof as from the date of the constitution of the town district.

The foregoing provisions of this section shall extend land apply as between the Board of the town district and the Council of the county in any case where a town district ceases to form part of the county.

Nothing in this Act shall in any way affect the rights or interests of any bondholder or other creditor of any district from which a town district has been taken, or shall relieve the ratepayers for the time being in the area comprised in such town district from their liability to pay any special rate made under the provisions of any Act as a security for any loan.

In each town district there shall be established a Board of Commissioners called “The Town Board.”

Each such Board shall be a Corporation, with perpetual succession and a common seal.

The Board shall consist of not less than five nor more than seven members, as the Governor appoints, and they shall hold office for two years.

When any Board consists of five members only, and has been constituted for two years, the Governor may, if he sees fit, increase the number to be elected to seven, in the same manner as at the first constitution of the Board.

Every person whose name appears on the electoral roll for any riding of the county of which the district forms part or, as the case may be, did form part, and who owns or occupies property situated within the district, shall be entitled to vote at elections of members prior to any rate being levied by the Board under this Act; and there-after the ratepayers of the district and none others shall be entitled to vote as electors.

For the purposes of elections by the ratepayers every person of the full age of twenty-one years whose name appears on the valuation roll of a town district as the occupier of any property shall be an elector of the. district so long as such roll is in force and his name appears thereon.

The Clerk shall, during the month of April in each year, cause to be compiled from the valuation roll of the district a list of all the ratepayers thereof: and such list, when signed by the Chairman and Clerk, shall be the ratepayers roll for the district, and the entry of any person’s name on such roll shall be conclusive evidence of the right of such person to vote at any election in the district of which such roll declares him to be a ratepayer.

If such ratepayers roll is not made out in any district, then the entry of any person’s name on the valuation roll as an occupier of any property in the district shall be conclusive evidence of the right of such person to vote at any election in the district of which such roll declares him to be an occupier.

Any written or printed copy attested by the Clerk to be a correct copy of the ratepayers roll shall be evidence of the said roll and of the contents thereof, and shall be evidence that such roll has been made according to law, unless the contrary is proved; and no defect in the title to office of any person exercising the duties thereof, making, correcting, or signing such roll by virtue of such office, shall invalidate such roll.

The Chairman, or such person as the Board appoints, shall keep the valuation roll and the ratepayers roll (if there is one) in the office of the Board, and allow them or printed copies thereof to be inspected without fee by all persons interested therein during all office hours.

Every elector shall be entitled to vote at every election of members according to the following scale, that is to say:—

Every elector who is duly qualified to vote at any election under this Act is, subject to the provisions of this Act, qualified to be elected a member.

On the third Wednesday in September, one thousand nine hundred and eight, and on the same day in every second year thereafter, all the members of every Town Board shall go out of office, and a general election of members shall take place in the manner prescribed by “The Local Elections and Polls Act, 1908,” all the provisions of which shall apply to every election and poll under this Act.

Every member shall hold office until his successor is elected and comes into office, which shall be on the day when the result of the election is publicly notified by the Returning Officer as prescribed by the last-mentioned Act.

The Returning Officer’s expenses incurred in publicly notifying the result of any general or particular election shall be expenses incident to the election.

If any member of the Board resigns his office by writing addressed to the Board, or dies, or becomes of unsound mind or bankrupt, or is convicted of any indictable offence, or absents himself without the leave of the Board from four or more consecutive meetings of the Board, or becomes interested either solely or jointly with any other person in any contract with the Board, otherwise than as a member of any incorporated or registered company or of any body corporate, or accepts or holds any place of profit under the Board, he shall immediately cease to be a member, and the vacancy thereby created shall be deemed to be an extraordinary vacancy.

On any member of the Board ceasing to be a member from any of the causes mentioned in this section the Chairman of the Board shall thereupon in writing under his hand direct a fresh election to be held, and a fresh election shall thereupon be held under the provisions of “The Local Elections and Polls Act, 1908”; but the member to be then elected shall hold office only for the remainder of the term for which the retiring member would have held office.

Whenever there is a failure from any cause whatever to elect a member or members of the Board at any election, an extraordinary vacancy shall be deemed to be created, which shall be supplied as provided by the last-mentioned Act.

Where any first election or any general election of the whole of the members of a Town Board takes place within six months of the period fixed for the biennial general election of members, it shall not be necessary to hold such biennial election as prescribed; but the members of the Board in office at the time appointed for the biennial election shall remain in office till the next succeeding biennial election.

On the constitution of any new town district the Governor may make all appointments and do all things necessary for the due conduct of the first election of members of the Board and for the holding of their first meeting.

Where any appointment, or other necessary act, matter, or thing requiring to be made or done under this Act has not been made or done before the expiration of the time or of the power for doing the same, the Governor may make any such appointment or do any such act, matter, or thing respectively in the stead of the persons who ought to have made or done the same.

The Chairman or any member of the Board may be ousted from his office in the same manner as the Mayor or a member of a Borough Council may be, and the like proceedings shall be had for the purpose.

The provisions of Part VIII of “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1908,” shall, mutatis mutandis, apply in every such case.

The Board may from time to time make regulations not inconsistent with this Act for the orderly conduct of its business and for determining the times and places of meeting of the Board.

The members present at the first meeting of the Board after its election shall elect some member of the Board to be Chairman, who whilst a member of the Board shall continue to be Chairman until the next biennial election of the Board, or until, by writing addressed to the Board, he resigns his office as Chairman, in which case the members at their next meeting shall elect some other member of the Board to be the Chairman thereof as in the case of his predecessor.

The Board shall provide and maintain a public office within the district, and shall publicly notify the situation of such office, and the hours during which it will be open for public business; and may from time to time appoint and remove such officers as it thinks proper and necessary, and may out of its funds pay such salaries and allowances to the said officers as it thinks reasonable.

No Chairman or other member of the Board shall be capable of being or continuing an officer of the Board unless he consents to act without salary; and no person shall be capable of filling the offices of Chairman and Clerk at the same time.

The following provisions shall be in force relating to the meetings of the Board and the members thereof:—

Notices of ordinary meetings.

Chairman to preside at meetings.

Majority to decide. Casting-vote.

Quorum of Board.

Members not to vote if interested.

Adjournment of Board.

Ordinary meetings of Board.

Meetings to be open.

Extraordinary business.

Revocation of resolutions. 1883, No. 35, sec. 10

Special meetings. 1881, No. 35, sec. 30

Special order.

Notices of meetings.

Vacancy in Board not to invalidate acts.

Minutes of meetings.

Minutes to be evidence.

Minutes to bo open to inspection. 1883, No. 35, sec. 11

Every Collector or other person appointed to receive any rate levied under this Act shall give to the Board sufficient approved security for the faithful execution of his office and the duly accounting for all moneys received by him on behalf of the Board.

The Board shall have all the powers conferred upon a Borough Council by Divisions V and VI of “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1908,” and by any enactment relating to auctioneers, cattle trespass, cemeteries, dog nuisance, fencing, fire-prevention, licensing publicans, municipal police, public pounds, roads or highways, and any other matter of social economy.

Such powers shall include power to prohibit the erection of any fence composed wholly or partly of barbed wires within the limits of the town district or within such portions thereof as are provided by any by-law from time to time made in that behalf.

The Board shall have the power to make by-laws in manner provided with respect to Borough Councils by Part XLII of “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1908,” and in relation to any matters comprised therein.

The said Part XLII shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to all by-laws made by the Board in relation to any of the aforesaid matters.

Where any by-law made under this Act provides a penalty for the breach thereof, such penalty may, in all cases where the breach is a continuing one, be any sum not exceeding five pounds for every day or part of a day during which the breach continues.

The Board shall, once at least in every year, and from time to time as it thinks fit, make and levy general rates on all rateable property within the district for carrying into effect the general purposes of this Act:

Provided that the maximum general rate that may be made and levied in any year in any town district shall be a rate of three halfpence in the pound on the capital value of the rateable property of the district, or its equivalent on the unimproved value, or two shillings in the pound on the annual value, as the case may be.

Before making any such rate the Board shall cause an estimate to be prepared of the proposed expenditure of the Board during the period for which the rate is to be made, showing any sums already available for such purpose, the additional sum required, the total rateable value of rateable property on the valuation roll, and the rate thereon necessary to raise the money required; and such estimate, being approved by the Board, shall be publicly notified in the district at least seven days before making the proposed rate.

Where it appears to the Board that any work which the Board is authorised to execute is for the special benefit of any particular portion of the district, the Board may, for defraying the expenses incurred in executing such work, by special order distinctly defining such portion, make and levy a separate rate; but the total amount of all such separate rates made for any one year in any part of the district shall not exceed one shilling in the pound on the annual value or its equivalent as aforesaid.

No such special order shall be made unless a petition is presented to the Board praying that a separate rate may be made and levied, signed by a majority of the ratepayers in the portion of the district liable to be rated for such separate rate.

The Board shall apply the moneys collected and received from any such portion of the district respectively by virtue of any such separate rate towards the expense of such works as herein mentioned, or towards recouping to the Board the expense of any such works constructed before such separate rate was resolved on.

Nothing herein shall apply to the case of a water rate, or other rate fixed by any Act or Provincial Ordinance.

If at any time it is desired to raise money for the purpose of constructing or establishing public works deemed necessary for the convenience, safety, or health of the inhabitants of any town district, the Board may borrow sums by way of special loan in the manner prescribed by “The Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1908.”

For the purpose of providing the interest and sinking fund (if any) upon any such loan, and as security therefor, the Board shall make and levy special rates in manner prescribed by the last-mentioned Act.

The Board may, in anticipation of its current revenue, from time to time borrow moneys from the bank by way of overdraft; but the amount of such overdraft shall never at any time exceed the total amount of the income of the Board for the year ending the thirty-first day of March previous, not including in such income any moneys received by way of grant from the General Government, or any moneys borrowed, or any moneys received for separate rates or special rates.

All revenues accruing within a town district from fees or other similar payments in respect of licenses or otherwise under any Act relating to auctioneers, cemeteries, dog-registration, pounds, slaughterhouses, or the sale of liquors, or from fines imposed thereunder respectively for any offence committed within the district, and all other revenues of any kind whatever accruing as aforesaid which if accruing within a borough would under any Act for the time being in force be paid to the Council of such borough, except sums to be paid for licenses for vehicles or drivers, shall be paid over to the Board of the town district wherein the same respectively accrue.

All revenues as aforesaid which accrue within any town district shall be paid to the Board thereof by the persons or local authority receiving the same, and, if not so paid on request of the Board, may be sued for and recovered by the Board from such persons or local authority respectively in any Court of competent jurisdiction.

All fines imposed by this Act or any by-law made there-under may, unless the contrary is expressed, be recovered before any two Justices in a summary manner, and when recovered shall be paid over to the Board of the district within which the offence or breach for which such fines are imposed has been committed.

The Clerk or other proper officer of the Court in which any such fines are recovered shall, within ten days after the receipt thereof, pay the same over to the Town Board entitled thereto.

Where such fines are required to be paid in stamps, and have been so paid, the Clerk or such officer shall certify to the Minister of Finance the amount of the same, that they have been so paid, and the name of the Board entitled to receive the same; and thereupon the said Minister, without further appropriation than this Act, shall pay the same out of the Consolidated Fund to the said Board.

Every person receiving any moneys of the Board, on behalf of the Board, amounting to five pounds and upwards shall, within seven days after they have come to his hands, pay the same into such bank as the Board from time to time appoints for that purpose, to the credit of the Board.

The bank shall give receipts for such moneys so paid in, and any such receipt shall be a sufficient discharge to such person for the amount named therein.

The Board shall from time to time appoint a Treasurer, who, provided he does not derive any profit or emolument from his office, may be a member of the Board.

The Treasurer shall keep full and true accounts, in which he shall enter every sum received and every sum paid on account of the Board in the order of date of each such receipt and payment.

The Board may require from the Treasurer, at any time and from time to time, a full and particular statement of the accounts, assets, and liabilities of the Board.

On or before the seventh day of April in each year the Treasurer shall prepare and send to the Board a yearly balance-sheet, being an abstract of all the transactions in each of the accounts above mentioned during the year ending on the thirty-first day of March previous, together with the statements following:—

The Board shall in the month of May hold a special meeting for considering such balance-sheet and settling the same, and when so settled the Chairman shall sign the balance-sheet.

The Board shall cause such balance-sheet and detailed statement of account to be published or posted in some public place for the information of the ratepayers.

The accounts of the Treasurer shall be audited by the Audit Office under “The Public Revenues Act, 1908.”

Where a town district becomes a borough under “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1908,” the following provisions shall apply:—

Any summons or notice, or any writ or other proceeding requiring to be served on the Board, may be served by the same being left at the office of the Board or by being given personally to the Chairman or Clerk.

Every order, summons, notice, or other document requiring authentication by the Board shall be sufficiently authenticated if signed by two members thereof, or by the Chairman and Clerk; and it need not be under the common seal of the body corporate.

In all proceedings in which the Board is concerned under any Act relating to bankruptcy the Clerk or Treasurer of the Board may represent the Board and act in its behalf in all respects as if he and not the Board were the party concerned.

In all proceedings in any Magistrate’s Court or before any Justice under this Act in which the Board is concerned, the Clerk, or any person to be from time to time appointed by the Board for the purpose, may represent the Board and act in its behalf in all respects as if he and not the Board were the party concerned.

The Clerk, or Treasurer, or person appointed as aforesaid shall be reimbursed out of the District Fund all damages, costs, charges, and expenses to which he is put or with which he may become chargeable by reason of anything contained in either of the two last preceding sections.