Burial
Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878
Part III Burial Grounds
160. Sanitary authority to be burial board
The sanitary authority of each sanitary district, except towns or townships having commissioners under local Acts, shall be the burial board for such district, and such burial board shall, in carrying into execution the provisions of this part of this Act, be subject to the control and direction of the Local Government Board. In towns or townships having commissioners under local Acts, the guardians of the poor of the poor law union or unions in which the town or township is situated shall be the burial board for the town or township, or the part thereof situated within the union of which they are the guardians, as the case may be.
161. Vesting of burial grounds by Church Temporalities Commissioners
Every burial ground heretofore vested in a board of guardians by the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland shall be transferred to and shall vest in the burial board as constituted by this Act of the district within which it is situate, subject to all rights, liabilities, and obligations affecting the same, and any burial ground hereafter to be vested by the said Commissioners in a burial board shall be vested by them in the burial board of the district in which such burial ground shall be situate, anything to the contrary heretofore enacted notwithstanding.
All burial grounds and all property real and personal, including all interests, rights, and easements in, to, and out of property, real and personal (including things in action), heretofore belonging to or vested in any burial board under the Burial Grounds Acts shall be transferred to and vest in the burial board (as constituted by this Act) of the district within which the same are situate, subject to all rights, debts, liabilities, and obligations affecting the same.
Provided that every burial ground heretofore acquired by any burial board under the provisions of the Burial Grounds Acts, or of any local Act, situate wholly or in part without the limits of the district of such burial board, shall for all the purposes of this Act be deemed to be situate wholly within the limits of the district of such burial board.
All such property shall be held by such burial board upon trust for the district or several places respectively within its jurisdiction as a burial board under this Act.
162. On representation duly made, Local Government Board may restrain the opening of new burial grounds and order discontinuance of burials in specified places
In case it shall appear to the Local Government Board, upon representation made to it or otherwise, that for the protection of public health the opening of any new burial ground in any city or town, or within any other limits in Ireland, save with the approval of the Local Government Board, should be prohibited, or that for such protection of public health, or for the maintenance of public decency, or to prevent a violation of the respect due to the remains of deceased persons, that burials in any city or town, or within any other limits, or in any burial ground or places of burial in Ireland, should be wholly discontinued, or should be discontinued subject to any exception or qualification, it shall be lawful for the Local Government Board to order that no new burial ground shall be opened in any city or town or within such limits, without such previous approval, or that after a time mentioned in the order burials in any such city or town, or within such limits, or in such burial grounds, or places of burial shall be discontinued wholly or subject to any exceptions or qualifications mentioned in such order, and so from time to time as circumstances may require.
163. Power to direct local inquiry
When and so often as such representation shall have been made, or otherwise as occasion may require, it shall and may be lawful for the Local Government Board, if it shall think fit, to direct an inquiry to be made in the place or district in which any such burial ground or place of burial may be situate, in respect of any matter in relation thereto, after notice shall have been given of the time, place, and subject of such inquiry, such notice to be published once in the Dublin Gazette, and affixed on the doors of the church and chapel of, or in some other conspicuous places within, the parish in which such burial ground may be situate, three weeks before the time of holding such inquiry; and it shall be lawful for one of the inspectors of the said Local Government Board to hold such inquiry, and upon receipt of the report of such inspector as to the result of such inquiry, and of the evidence, if any, taken thereon, it shall be lawful for the Local Government Board to act, and deal with, and make such order in the case, in such manner and in such form, and without further notice, as to them may seem meet; and at any time thereafter to vary such order as occasion may require, and every such order or amended order shall be deemed in all respects valid and effectual in law.
164. Local Government Board may postpone order for discontinuance of burials, &c.
It shall be lawful for the Local Government Board to postpone the time appointed by any order for the discontinuance of burials, or otherwise to vary any order made under this Act, (whether the time thereby appointed for the discontinuance of burials thereunder or other operation of such order shall or shall not have arrived,) as to the said board shall seem fit; and every order of the said board made for varying any order previously made under this Act shall be deemed valid and effectual in law.
165. Order not to extend to burial grounds of Quakers, unless expressly included
No such order as aforesaid shall be deemed to extend to any burial ground of the people called Quakers, used solely for the burial of the bodies of such people, unless the same be expressly mentioned in such order, and nothing in this Act shall prevent the burial of the bodies of such people in any such burial ground in which for the time being interment is not required to be discontinued.
166. Order not extend to burial grounds of French Protestants, unless expressly included
No such order as aforesaid shall be deemed to extend to the burial grounds or cemeteries situate respectively in Merrion Row and Peter Street in the city of Dublin, the property of the French Protestants, and used solely for the burial of the bodies of descendants of the French Protestant refugees, unless the same be expressly mentioned in such order, and nothing in this Act shall prevent the burial as heretofore in such burial grounds or cemeteries respectively, so situate in Merrion Row and Peter Street aforesaid, of the bodies of such descendants of French Protestant refugees.
168. Saving of certain rights to bury in vaults
Notwithstanding any such order as aforesaid where, by usage or otherwise, there is at the time of the passing of this Act any usage or right of interment in or under any church or chapel affected by such order, or in any vault of any such church or chapel, or of any churchyard or burial ground affected by such order, and where any exclusive right of interment in any such burial ground has been purchased or acquired before the passing of the Burial Grounds (Ireland) Act, 1856, it shall be lawful for the Local Government Board, from time to time, on application being made to it, and on being satisfied that the exercise of such right is not injurious to health, to grant a license for the exercise of such right, during such time and subject to such conditions and restrictions as the said board may think fit; but such license shall not prejudice or in anywise affect the authority of any who if this Act had not been passed might have prohibited or controlled interment under such right, nor dispense with any consent which would have been required under such right, nor otherwise give to such right any greater force or effect than the same would have had if this Act had not been passed.
169. New burial grounds not to be opened contrary to order
Where by any such order as aforesaid it is ordered that no new burial ground shall be opened in any city or town or within any limits in such order mentioned, without the previous approval of the Local Government Board, no new burial ground or cemetery shall be provided and used in such city or town or within such limits without such previous approval.
170. No corpse to be buried in private grave without consent
Where by usage or otherwise any grave, vault, or place of interment in any burial ground or cemetery has been the burying place of and used as such by any family, no corpse of any person not having been a member of such family shall be buried in such grave, vault, or place of interment without the consent in writing of some immediate relative of the member of such family last interred therein; and if any person shall knowingly act or assist in any burial contrary to the provisions of this section, every such person shall be liable, on summary conviction before a court of summary jurisdiction, to a penalty not exceeding €12.70 [ten pounds]; and upon any complaint made under this section it shall be lawful for the court to make such order for the exhumation and re-interment of such corpse so buried as to such court shall seem fit.
171. No animal to be allowed to graze in burial places
No animal of any description shall be allowed to graze or to be within the limits of any burial ground having a sufficient fence; and it shall be lawful for a court of summary jurisdiction to order the owners of any animal or animals so found within such burial ground to pay as a fine a sum not exceeding [€1,269.74 [£1,000]] and not less than €0.07 [one shilling] for each animal so found as aforesaid, and to levy and dispose of said fine in the same manner as fines for trespass of cattle are now levied and disposed of under the provisions of the law at present in force in Ireland.
172. Upon requisition, meeting of board to be convened to determine whether burial ground shall be provided.
In any district in which no burial ground had been closed the clerk to the burial board shall, on the requisition in writing of ten or more persons assessed for the relief of the poor in such burial board district, or upon the requisition in writing of any two or more members of the burial board, convene a special meeting of the burial board for determining whether a burial ground shall be provided under this Act for the burial board district or any part thereof; and if a majority of such meeting shall resolve that a burial ground shall be provided under this Act, such new burial ground shall be provided, in the same manner as if an old burial ground had been closed as hereinafter directed.
173. When burial grounds are closed by order, board to provide suitable burial grounds, &c.
Whenever any burial ground shall have been closed in any burial board district, by order, the burial board may, if it shall seem necessary or expedient, forthwith proceed to provide a suitable and convenient burial ground in place thereof, and to make arrangements for facilitating interments therein, under the provisions of this Act
174. Consent of owners of houses to new burial grounds, where necessary
A burial ground may be provided under this Act either within or without the limits of the burial board district, and such burial ground shall, for the purposes of this Act, be considered as if the same was within such limits; [ … ].
175. Board may purchase land for cemeteries, or contract with cemetery companies
It shall be lawful for the burial board to contract for and purchase or take any lands, and buildings thereon, for the purpose of forming a burial ground, or for making additions to any burial ground formed or purchased under the Burial Grounds Acts or this Act, as such board may think fit, or to purchase from any company or persons entitled thereto any cemetery or cemeteries or part or parts thereof, subject to the rights in vaults and graves and other subsisting rights which may have been previously granted therein: Provided always, that it shall be lawful for such board, in lieu of providing any such burial ground, to contract with any such company or persons entitled as aforesaid for the interment in such cemetery or cemeteries, and either in any allotted part of such cemetery or cemeteries or otherwise, and upon such terms as the burial board may think fit, of the bodies of persons who would have had rights of interment in the burial grounds of such district or place.
176. Liabilities of old burial grounds transferred to new burial grounds
Where any burial ground is closed under the provisions of the Burial Grounds Acts or this Act, and a new burial ground provided in place thereof, the whole burthen upon and liabilities attaching to the burial ground so closed shall be transferred to and become burthens upon the burial ground provided in place thereof, and the revenues of the new burial ground shall be liable for the same in like manner as the revenues of the burial ground so closed were liable.
177. Management to be vested in burial boards
The general management, regulation, and control of the burial grounds provided under the Burial Grounds Acts or this Act shall, subject to the provisions of this Act and the regulations to be made thereunder, be vested in and exercised by the respective burial boards providing the same: Provided always, that any question which shall arise touching the fitness of any monumental inscription placed or proposed to be placed in any part or portion of such grounds shall be determined by the proper ministers of the religious denomination to which such part or portion shall have been allotted: Provided also, that at the burials of the bodies of members of any church or religious denomination, burial service according to the respective rites of such church or denomination may be performed or celebrated by the proper ministers of such church or denomination.
178. Boards may sell exclusive rights of burial, and rights to erect monuments, &c.
Any burial board, under such restrictions and conditions as they think proper, may sell the exclusive right of burial, either in perpetuity or for a limited period, in such parts of any burial ground provided by such board as may be appropriated to that purpose, and also the right of constructing any chapel vault, or place of burial, with the exclusive right of burial therein, in perpetuity or for a limited period, and also the right of erecting and placing any monument, gravestone, tablet, or monumental inscription in such burial ground, subject to the provisions herein-before contained: Provided always, that such exclusive rights shall not extend in all to a space of one half of such burial ground.
179. Boards may make arrangements for facilitating the conveyance of bodies to burial grounds
Any burial board may make such arrangements as they may from time to time think fit for regulating and facilitating the conveyance of the bodies of the dead from the place of death to any burial ground subject to the provisions of this Act and subject thereto and to the regulations to be made thereunder; and it shall be lawful for any of the aforesaid cemetery companies from whom the burial board shall have made any such purchase, or with whom the burial board shall have made any such contract as herein-before provided, to undertake any such arrangement, and to carry the same into effect subject to the provisions and regulations aforesaid.
180. Places may be provided for reception of bodies until interment
It shall be lawful for any burial board, subject to the provisions of this Act and the regulations to be made thereunder, to hire, take, or lease, or otherwise to provide, fit and proper places in which bodies may be received and taken care of previously to interment, and to make arrangements for the reception and care of the bodies to be deposited therein; and for providing such places such boards may exercise all the powers vested in them under this Act for providing burial grounds.
grounds, &c.
It shall be lawful for the Local Government Board from time to time to make such rules and regulations in relation to the burial grounds and places of reception of bodies previous to interment under this Act as may seem proper for the protection of the public health and the maintenance of public decency, and for the proper registry of interments, and to provide for the imposition and recovery of penalties, not exceeding €12.70 [ten pounds] for each offence, for the breach or non-observance of such regulations; and the burial boards, and all other persons having the care of such burial grounds and places for the reception of bodies, shall conform to and obey such regulations.
182. Exemption of burials from toll
No funeral procession, or carriage in such procession, and no foot passenger, shall, while going to or returning from the place of interment on the occasion of any interment, be liable to any toll or pontage.
183. Board may lay out and embellish burial ground
It shall be lawful for any burial board to enclose, lay out and embellish any burial ground, subject to the jurisdiction of such board, in such manner as may be fitting or proper: Provided always, that in all cases in which a burial board shall provide a new burial ground under this Act, it shall be lawful for such burial board, with the sanction of the Local Government Board, to divide such new burial ground or some part thereof into certain parts and proportions, to be allotted in such manner as to the Local Government Board shall seem fit, for the burial of the members of any particular religious denomination; and each such allotment shall, as the me may require, be consecrated according to the rites and by the proper ministers of the respective religious denominations for which each such allotment is so set apart
184. Provisions of Act extended to additions to existing burial grounds
It shall be lawful for any burial board to contract for and purchase any lands, and buildings thereon, for the purpose of making additions to any burial ground, although such burial ground shall not have been formed or purchased under the authority of this Act or any other Act of Parliament, provided that such burial ground is not attached or contiguous to any church or chapel or place of worship actually used for divine worship, nor is situate in a private demesne; and such burial board shall have and may exercise, with respect to the acquisition and management of such additions, all the powers and authorities and all the provisions contained in this Act with respect to the acquisition and management of new burial grounds.
185. When burial ground not fenced or kept in decent order by owner, burial board may serve a notice requiring the same to be fenced, &c.
When any burial ground not being attached or contiguous to any such church, chapel, or place of worship, nor situate as aforesaid, is without any sufficient fence, or is not kept in decent order, the burial board for the district within which such burial ground shall be situated may, by notice in writing to the owner of such burial ground, require him properly to fence tae same or put the same in decent order within a time to be specified in such notice, not being less than six calendar months, and if such notice be not complied with within the time specified in such notice, the said burial board may securely fence such burial ground, and put the same into decent order, and the expense thereof shall be deemed part of the expenses incurred by the burial board in the execution of this Act; and whenever it shall be necessary for obtaining convenient access for the purposes aforesaid, the said owner, or the burial board, and all persons authorised by them, may for the purpose of such access enter upon any lands adjoining the burial ground, doing no unnecessary damage, and any person injured by such entry shall be compensated in the manner provided by this Act in that behalf: […].
186. After six months from service of notice, &c. burial board empowered to fence burial ground, and keep the same in order and take the management
When such owner cannot be ascertained, or notice as aforesaid cannot be served, such burial board may give notice, by public advertisement in some newspaper circulating in the county wherein such burial ground is situated, of their intention to fence such burial ground, or put the same in decent order, as the case may be, and after the expiration of a time to be specified in such notice, not being less than six calendar months, may proceed to fence such burial ground, or put the same in decent order; and when such notice shall have been given or advertisement published and the expense of fencing of such burial ground or putting the same in decent order shall have been defrayed by such burial board, as herein-before mentioned, such burial ground shall be under the control and management of such burial board, and they shall be deemed the owners thereof until such time as they shall have been reimbursed by the owner thereof the expense so incurred by them, with interest thereon at the rate of five pounds per centum per annum.
187. Burial boards may accept the management of burial grounds
When the owner of any burial ground shall be desirous of putting the same under the management of the burial board of the district, it shall be lawful for such burial board to accept the management thereof, and thereupon the said burial board shall be deemed the owners thereof, and shall have and exercise all the powers and authorities of this Act, with respect to the same, until the owner, his heirs or assigns, shall repay to the said burial board all expenses incurred by them in securely fencing such burial ground or putting the same into decent order, with interest thereon at the rate of five pounds per centum per annum.
188. Board to fix payments for interments in burial grounds
Every burial board under this Act may, subject to the approval of the Local Government Board, fix and receive such fees and payments in respect of interments in any burial ground provided by such board as they shall think fit, and from time to time revise and alter such fees and payments; and a table showing such fees and payments shall be printed and published, and shall be affixed and at all times continued on some conspicuous part of such burial ground.
189. Minutes of proceedings of board to be entered in a book. Board to keep accounts, which shall be open to inspection
Minutes of all proceedings of the burial board under this Act, with the names of the members who attend each meeting, shall be kept; and the burial board shall provide and keep books in which shall be entered true and regular accounts of all sums of money received and paid by such board for or on account of the purposes of this Act, and of all liabilities incurred by them for such purposes, and of the, several purposes for which such sums of money axe paid and such liabilities incurred; and all such books shall at all reasonable times be open to the examination of every member of the burial board and of every person liable to pay poor rates in respect of property within the district, without fee, who way take copies of or extracts from such books, or any part thereof, without paying for the same.
190. Board may appoint and remove officers, &c.
A burial board may appoint and may remove at pleasure a clerk and such other officers and servants as shall be necessary for the business of the board in respect of or for the purposes of their burial ground, and may appoint reasonable salaries, wages, and allowances for such clerk, officers, and servants, and, when necessary, may hire a sufficient office for transacting the business of such burial board; and the provisions and clauses of the Commissioners Clauses Act, 1847, with respect to the “appointment and accountability, of the officers of the commissioners,” shall, so far as the same are not varied by or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, be incorporated therewith; and the commissioners in the said Act shall signify the “burial board” under this Act.
191. Register of burials in every ground provided under this Act to be kept by burial board
All burials within any burial ground provided under this Act shall be registered in a register book to be provided by the burial board providing such ground, and kept for that purpose; and such register book shall be so kept by some officer appointed by the said board to do that duty; and in such register book shall be distinguished in what parts of the burial ground the several bodies (the burials of which are entered in such register book) are buried; and such register book, or copies or extracts thereof, or any document purporting to be a copy or extract thereof, shall be received in all courts as evidence of the burials entered therein; The clerk or secretary, or registrar to every burial board and cemetery company, or other authority having charge of any burial ground, shall make or cause to be made, at such times and in such manner as the Local Government Board may direct, a return of the names, addresses, dates of death and causes of death, so far as ascertained by him, of the persons whose bodies have been interred in such burial ground to the registrar of the district in which such persons resided at the dates of their deaths respectively, and such clerk, secretary, or registrar of each such cemetery company shall be paid therefor by the sanitary authority during the period he is required to perform such duty such sum as the Local Government Board may direct, [ … ].
192. Guardians or council may appropriate lands for purposes of Act
Subject to the provisions of this Act, it shall be lawful for the guardians of any union or the council of any borough to appropriate for the purposes of burial grounds under this Act any land belonging to the board of guardians of such union or to the body corporate of such borough respectively, or vested in any trustees, or others for the general benefit of the union or borough respectively, or any specific charity: Provided always, that when any land so appropriated shall be subject to any charitable use such land shall be taken on such conditions only as the Court of Chancery, in the exercise of its jurisdiction over charitable trusts, shall appoint and direct.
193. Certain provisions of 10 & 11 Vict. C.65 incorporated with this Act
The provisions of the Cemeteries Clauses Act, 1847, with respect to the protection of the cemetery, shall be incorporated with this Act, and be applicable to any burial ground under this Act; and the words “the Company” in the Cemeteries Clauses Act, 1847, shall signify the “burial board” under this Act.
194. Assessment to local rates not to be increased after purchase for the purposes of this or any former Act
No land already or hereafter to be purchased or acquired under the provisions of this Act for the purpose of a burial ground (with or without any building erected or to be erected thereon) shall, while used for such purposes, be assessed to any grand jury cess, poor’s rates, or other local rates, at a higher value or more improved rent than the value or rent at which the same was assessed at the time of such purchase or acquisition.
195. Burial Board may let land not required for burials
It shall be lawful for any burial board [ … ] to let any land purchased by and vested in them under this Act, and which has not been consecrated, and in which no body has been at any time interred, and which is not for the time being required for the purposes of a burial ground, in such manner and on such terms as such board may see fit, but so, nevertheless, that power shall be reserved to such board to resume any such land which may be required for the purposes aforesaid, upon giving six months notice.
196. Burial board to keep in order closed burial grounds, &c.
In every case in which any order has been or shall hereafter be issued for the discontinuance of burials in any churchyard or burial ground not vested in any other person or persons, the burial board shall maintain such church yard or burial ground in decent order, and also do the necessary repair of the walls and other fences thereof; and any costs and expenses incurred in so doing shall be deemed to be expenses of the burial board, and shall be defrayed accordingly, unless there shall be some other fund legally chargeable with such costs and expenses.
197. Burial ground already provided by the county and city of Waterford
Whereas the grand juries of the county and city of Waterford, acting under the Act of the fortieth year of King George the Third, chapter ninety-three, purchased a piece of ground situate in the townland of Ballynasheagh, in the, barony of Gaultier in the county of Waterford, for the purpose of a cemetery, in lien of the ancient burial plains of the six several parishes of Trinity Within, Saint Michael, Saint Stephen Within, Saint Olave, Saint John Within, and Saint Patrick, in the borough of Waterford, and of the three parishes of Trinity Without, Saint John Without, and Saint Stephen Without, partly in the borough and partly in the county of Waterford, and of the two parishes of Kilbarry and Kil Saint Laurence in the county of Waterford: And whereas the said eleven parishes are all situate within the Poor Law Union of Waterford, and it has been provided by statute that the said piece of ground should be used as a burial ground for all the said parishes as if all the said parishes were situate without the limits of the said borough of Waterford, and as if the said piece of ground had been provided as the burial ground under the Burial Grounds Acts for the said several parishes; and that the said piece of ground should, without further conveyance, be vested in the guardians of the poor of the Waterford Union as the burial board, and for the use of all the district at present comprised in the said eleven parishes, subject to all the powers and regulations contained relative to burial grounds, and as if the same had been purchased and acquired under the said Acts: Be it enacted that, unless the said piece of ground shall be discontinued as a burial ground by the Local Government Board under the provisions of this Act, all the said parishes and portions of parishes situate in the borough of Waterford shall, for the purposes of this part of this Act, be considered as if the same were without the limits of the said borough of Waterford.
198. Certain plot of ground to be deemed to be within the limits of the borough of Limerick
Whereas the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the borough of Limerick have, with the consent and approbation of the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, executed a lease of a certain plot of ground situate at Gortuemanagh in the barony of Clanwilliam and county of Limerick (which plot of ground is part of the property of the said corporation of Limerick, but is not situate within the limits or boundaries of the borough of Limerick,) unto certain parties for the term of two thousand years, at a certain yearly rent, for the purpose of the same being used as a cemetery or burial ground: Be it enacted, that for the purposes of this part of this Act the said plot of ground shall be deemed and taken to be within the limits or boundaries of the said borough of Limerick.
199. Not to apply to private mausoleums
The provisions of this part of this Act shall not apply to any private and exclusive family mausoleum or burial place not being within the limits of any public burial ground.
202. Power to purchase lands
Any sanitary authority may for the purposes and subject to the provisions of this Act purchase or take on lease, sell, or exchange any lands, whether situated within or without their district; they may also buy up any water-mill, dam, or weir which interferes with the proper drainage of or the supply of water to their district; [and may, for the purpose of drainage or sewage disposal, purchase either within or without their district any sewerage undertaking;] and may, for the purpose of supplying their district with water for drinking and domestic purposes, purchase either within or without their district any land covered with water [or any waterworks] or any water or right to take or convey water.
Any lands acquired by a sanitary authority in pursuance of any powers in this Act contained and not required for the purpose for which they were acquired shall, except where otherwise expressly provided by this Act (unless the Local Government Board otherwise direct), be sold at the best price that can be gotten for the same, and the proceeds of such sale shall be applied towards the discharge of any principal moneys which have been borrowed by such authority on the security of the fund or rate applicable by them for the general purposes of this Act, or if no such principal moneys are outstanding shall be carried to the account of such fund or rate.
[In this section ‘sewerage undertaking’ includes sewers, drains, pumps, tanks, sluices, culverts and engines, and all machinery, lands, buildings and things for the purposes of drainage or sewage disposal.]
203. Regulations as to purchase of land
With respect to the purchase of lands, or of any of the other properties aforesaid (herein included under the term “lands”), by a sanitary authority for the purposes of this Act, the following regulations shall be observed; (that is to say,)
(1). The Lands Clauses Acts shall be incorporated with this Act, except the provisions relating to access to the special Act, and except section one hundred and twenty-seven of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845:
(2). The sanitary authority, before putting in force any of the powers of the said Lands Clauses Acts with respect to the purchase end taking of lands otherwise than by agreement, shall
Publish once at the least in each of three consecutive weeks in the month of November, in some newspaper or newspapers circulating in their district, an advertisement describing shortly the purposes in respect of which the lands are proposed to be taken, naming a place where a plan of the proposed undertaking may be seen at all reasonable hours, and stating the denominations and quantity of lands that they require; and shall further
Serve a notice in the month of December on every owner or reputed owner, lessee or reputed lessee, and occupier of such lands, defining in each case the particular lands intended to be taken, and requiring an answer stating whether the person so served assents, dissents, or is neuter in respect of the taking such lands:
(3). On compliance with the provisions of this section with respect to advertisements and notices, and not sooner than fourteen days after the service of the last-mentioned notices, the sanitary authority may, if they think fit, present a petition under their seal to the Local Government Board. The petition shall state the lands intended to be taken, and the purposes for which they are required, and the names of the owners, lessees, and occupiers of lands who have assented, dissented, or are neuter in respect of the taking such lands, or who have returned no answer to the notice; it shall pray that the sanitary authority may, with reference to such lands, be allowed to put in force the powers of the Lands Clauses Acts with respect to the purchase and taking of lands otherwise than by agreement, and such prayer shall be supported by such evidence as the Local Government Board requires:
(4). On the receipt of such petition, and on due proof of the proper advertisements having been published, and notices served, the Local Government Board shall take such petition into consideration, and may either dismiss the same, or direct a local inquiry as to the propriety of assenting to the prayer of such petition; but until such inquiry has been made no provisional order shall be made affecting any lands without the consent of the owners, lessees, and occupiers thereof:
(5). After the completion of such inquiry the Local Government Board may, by provisional order, empower the sanitary authority to put in force, with reference to the lands referred to in such order, the powers of the Lands Clauses Acts with respect to the purchase and taking of lands otherwise than by agreement or any of them, and either absolutely or with such conditions and modifications as the Board may think fit, and it shall be the duty of the sanitary authority to serve a copy of any order so made in the manner and on the person in which and on whom notices in respect of such lands are required to be served:
Provided that the notices by this section required to be given in the months of November and December may be given in the months of September and October, or of October and November, but in either of such last-mentioned cases an inquiry preliminary to the provisional order to which such notices refer shall not be held until the expiration of one month from the last day of the second of the two months in which the notices are given; and any notices or orders by this section required to be served on a number of persons having any right in, over, or on lands in common, may be served on any three or more of such persons on behalf of all such persons.
204. Power to let lands
Any sanitary authority may, subject to the provisions of this Act, with the consent of the Local Government Board, let for any term any lands which they may possess, as and when they can conveniently spare the same.
205. Power to repeal and alter Local Acts
The Local Government Board may, on the application of the sanitary authority of any district, by provisional order, wholly or partially repeal, alter, or amend any Local Act, other than an Act for the conservancy of rivers which is in force in any area comprising the whole or part of any such district, and not conferring powers or privileges on any persons or person for their or his own pecuniary benefit, which relates to the same subject matters as this Act.
Any such provisional order may provide for the extension of the provisions of the Local Act referred to therein beyond the district or districts within the limits of such Act, or for the exclusion of the whole or a portion of any such district from the application of such Act; and may provide what sanitary authority shall have jurisdiction for the purposes of this Act in any area which is by such order included in or excluded from such district.
206. Transfer of powers of grand jury
The Local Government Board may, on the application of the urban sanitary authority of any urban district, by a provisional order, transfer from the grand jury or grand juries of the county or counties within which such district is situate to such sanitary authority the jurisdiction, power, and authority with respect to roads, bridges, footpaths, and public works within such district, vested in such grand jury or grand juries under any Act or Acts; and prevent such grand jury or grand juries, after such transfer, from making any presentment with regard to any road, bridge, footpath, or other public work within such district; and provide for the due payment of the balance of the grand jury cess to which such district will then, in future, be liable; and may make such provisions for the fixing and payment of the amount of any contribution to the cost of the making and maintaining of roads, bridges, and footpaths in the barony or baronies surrounding or adjoining such district as the Local Government Board may think reasonable; and may make provisions for securing that such district shall be adequately represented at the presentment sessions of such barony or baronies; and may authorise the making and levying of further rates in addition to and in excess of the maximum amount of rates authorised to be made and levied by the sanitary authority of such district to enable them to defray the expenses consequent upon and incident to such transfer from the grand jury, when the maximum amount of rates authorised is insufficient to defray expenses as aforesaid:
Provided that no such provisional order shall be granted unless a previous application has been made to the grand jury or grand juries affected thereby, and unless such grand jury or grand juries shall consent to the making of such provisional order, such consent being testified by a presentment or presentments to that effect; or unless, notwithstanding such grand jury or grand juries shall not have so consented, the Local Government Board shall, on special grounds, think fit to make such provisional order, but in every such last-mentioned case the Local Government Board shall make a special report to Parliament, stating the grounds on which they have made such provisional order.
207. Transfer of burial grounds
The Local Government Board may, on the application of any sanitary authority acting as a burial board, by a provisional order transfer any burial ground to which this Act applies from any burial board to any other burial board, and provide for the rights of all persons interested therein, and for the discharge of any liabilities and the adjustment of any claims affecting the same, and may make all such other provisions as may be proper for carrying such transfer into effect.