otherwise give audible and sufficient warning

of the approach of the carriage.

Any person summarily convicted of offending against the regulations made by this section shall, for each and every such offence, forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding 40s.

The Act of 1878 also makes provision (by sec. 24) for the discontinuance of unnecessary highways. Such highways may be declared not repairable at the public expense by an order of justices in petty sessions (subject to appeal to quarter sessions) made on the application of a highway authority.

CHAPTER XIII.

OF HIGHWAY DISTRICTS UNDER THE HIGHWAY ACTS OF

1862, 1864, AND 1878.

UNDER Acts of Parliament,* passed in 1862, 1864, and 1878 provision is made for the division of England into highway districts. The formation of such districts is not, however, compulsory, but is left to the discretion of the justices.

It is of course impossible for us, in the space at our disposal, to give a complete analysis of these important acts; but it is believed that nearly all the leading points will be found included in the following summary.

Any five or more justices of the county may, by writing, under their hands, require the clerk of the

* 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61, 27 & 28 Vict. c. 101, and 41 & 42 Vict. c. 77.

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peace to add to or send with the notice required by law to be given of the holding of courts of general or quarter sessions a notice that, at the court therein mentioned, a proposal will be made to the justices to divide the county or some part thereof into highway districts, or to constitute the whole or some part thereof a highway district. The justices assembled at the court of general or quarter sessions mentioned in the notice may then entertain such proposal, and make a provisional order dividing their county or some part thereof into highway districts, or constituting the whole or some part of their county a highway district, for the more convenient management of highways, but this order will not be valid, unless it is confirmed by a final order of the justices assembled at some subsequent court of general or quarter sessions. And when it is proposed that only a part of a county shall be divided into a bighway district, not less than two out of the five justices making such proposal must be resident in the said district, or acting in the petty sessional division in which such district, or some part thereof, is situate.

Under the Highways Act, 1878, it is provided that in forming any highway district, or altering the boundaries of any highway district, the county authority must have regard to the boundaries of the rural sanitary districts in their county, and shall, so far as may be practicable form highway districts, so as to be coincident in area with rural sanitary districts, or wholly contained within rural sanitary districts.

The justices making a provisional order are to appoint some subsequent court of general or quarter

sessions, to be held within a period of not more than six months, for taking into consideration the confirmation of the provisional, by a final, order.

The justices assembled at the appointed court of general or quarter sessions may make a further order -quashing the provisional order, or confirming it with or without variations, or respiting the consideration of such provisional order to some subsequent court of general or quarter sessions.

The provisional order is to state the parishes to be united in each district, the name by which the district is to be known, and the number of waywardens (such number to be at least one) which each parish is to elect.

There must not be included in any highway district formed in pursuance of these Acts any of the following places that is to say, any part of a county to which the Act passed in the session holden in the 23rd and 24th years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chap. 68, and intituled An Act for the better Management and Control of the Highways in South Wales, extends: The Isle of Wight: Any district constituted under the Public Health Act, 1848, and the Local Government Act, 1858, or either of such Acts: Any parish or place within the limits of the metropolis as defined by the Act passed in the session holden in the 18th & 19th years of Her Majesty, chapter 120, and intituled An Act for the better Local Management of the Metropolis: Any parish or place, or part of a parish or place, the highways whereof are maintained under the provisions of any local act of parliament. And no parish or place, or part of a parish or place,

within the limits of a borough, can be included in any highway district formed in pursuance of this Act without the consent, firstly, of the council of such borough, and secondly, of the vestry of the parish which, or part of which, is proposed to be included.

It is moreover provided by the Public Health Act, 1875 (as we saw in the last chapter), that every urban sanitary authority is also to be the highway authority in its own district; and although rural sanitary districts may in the first instance be included in highway districts, and be as to their highways subject to a highway board, the continuance of this arrangement is, or at least may be, dependent on the pleasure of the rural sanitary authority; for it is enacted by the Highways and Locomotives Act (Amendment Act), 1878, 41 & 42 Vict. c. 77, that when a highway district, whether framed before or after the passing of that Act, is or becomes coincident in area with a rural sanitary district, the rural sanitary authority of such district may apply to the county authority, stating that they are desirous to exercise the powers of a highways board, under the Highways Acts, within the district. And on such application the county authority may, if they see fit, order that such rural sanitary authority shall, from a day named, exercise all the powers of a highway board under the Highways Acts; that the existing highway board (if any) for the district shall be dissolved; and the waywardens, or surveyors, shall not hold office for any parish in the district. All expenses incurred by a rural sanitary authority, in discharge of their duties as a highway board, are to be

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deemed general expenses of such an authority within the meaning of the Public Health Act, 1875.

Assuming a highway district governed by a separate board to be in existence, we must next ask how such a board is constituted? The answer is that the highway board of each highway district consists of the waywardens elected in the several places within the district, in the manner we shall presently describe, and of the justices acting for the county and residing within the district.

The following are the regulations with respect to the election of waywardens in highway districts :

In every parish forming part of a highway district there shall be elected every year for the year next ensuing a waywarden, or such number of waywardens, as may be determined by order of the justices.

By section 11 of the Highway Act, 1878, waywardens are to continue in office till the 30th day of April in the year following the year in which they were elected, and on that day their successors are to come into office.

Such waywarden or waywardens shall be elected in every parish forming part of a highway district at the meeting and time, and in the manner, and subject to the same qualification and the same power of appointment in the justices in the event of no election taking place, or in the event of a vacancy, at, in, and subject to which a person or persons to serve the office of surveyor would have been chosen or appointed if this act had not passed.

The justices shall in their provisional order make provision for the election of a waywarden or way.