termination of their year of office, and the same has not been discharged by them before their year of office is determined, such debt is payable by and recoverable from the succeeding overseers and chargeable upon the poor rate. If the debt was contracted during the year of office, but more than three months prior to its termination, it may be paid by their immediate successors if the vestry and the Local Government Board consent.

Overseers wilfully disobeying the legal and reasonable orders of the justices or guardians, in carrying the rules of the Local Government Board or the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834, into execution, are liable, on conviction before two justices, to pay a fine of not more than £5.

By the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 63, if the overseers wilfully neglect to make or collect sufficient rates for the relief of the poor, or to pay such money to the guardians as they require, and if, by reason of such neglect, any relief directed by the guardians to be given be delayed or withheld for seven days, every such overseer is, upon conviction, to forfeit not exceeding £20.

And by the 12 & 13 Vict. c. 103, s. 7, if the contribution to be made by the overseers to the board of guardians is in arrear, two justices may, on an application signed by the chairman of the board, summon

any of the overseers, and order the amount to be levied by distress and sale of their goods.

For the penalties imposed upon overseers fraudulently removing paupers, see the chapter post, upon Removal and Settlement.

Overseers were formerly forbidden, under a penalty

R

of £100, to supply provisions for the use of the poor of the union or parish, but the prohibition was removed by a recent act.

In addition to their duties in the levying of poor rates and the administration of the poor laws, overseers are also directed by the 6 Vict. c. 18, the 41 and 42 Vict. c. 26; the Representation of the People Act, 1884 (48 Vict. c. 3), and the Registration Act, 1885, (48 Vict. c. 15), to perform various duties in respect of publishing lists of voters and of claims and objections in counties and boroughs. They are required to attend the revising barrister's court, and are entitled to receive, out of the first moneys to be collected for the relief of the poor of their parish or place, such a sum as is allowed by the certificate of the revising barrister in respect of the expenses incurred by them in carrying the act into effect. They are also bound to repay to the town clerk of a borough all moneys properly expended by him in relation to the registration of voters, but not any remuneration for his loss of time or services.

As to their duties in connection with the burial of dead bodies cast on shore from the sea, see ante, p. 21. It is their duty (together with the churchwardens) to recover possession of any house or land belonging to the parish, into which any person has unlawfully intruded, or of which a tenant who has received due notice to quit refuses to surrender possession. As to their duty in regard to the preparation of jury lists see ante, p. 88.

Under the 53 Vict. c. 5, secs. 13 & 15, it is the duty of overseers to take steps for the confinement of

any lunatics wandering in their parish; and in parishes where there is no relieving officer, to take steps for sending to any asylum other lunatics present in their parish, but not under proper care and control, or cruelly treated. And by section 20 of the same act, when it is the duty of the overseer to take these steps, then i the overseer is satisfied that it is necessary for the publicsafety, or the welfare of the said lunatic that before he can be brought to a justice in order to be sent to an asylum, he should be placed under control, such overseer may remove the alleged lunatic to the workhouse of the union in which the alleged lunatic is, and the master of the workhouse shall, unless there is no proper accommodation for the alleged lunatic in the workhouse for the alleged lunatic, receive and relieve and detain him there; but no person shall be so detained for more than three days;" and before the expiration of that time the requisite steps must be taken to obtain from a justice an order for the consignment of the lunatic to an asylum.

Under the Public Health Act, 1875, the overseers of a parish included in a rural sanitary district are required (on receiving a precept from the rural sanitary authority) to raise and pay (out of the poor rate) any contributions required from their parishes in respect of the general expenses of the district; and they are also required to levy a separate rate in order to meet any special expenses, charged either upon the whole of their parish, or any part thereof, as a "contributory place." See further as to this, Chapter XV.

If the vestry of any parish when there is no Town

Council, Local Board, or other authority competent to provide the same, after due notice shall resolve that the overseers shall provide any fire-engine, ladder, or fire-escape for general use in the parish, the overseers must provide the same and pay out of the poor rate the cost thereof, and of procuring a proper place wherein to keep the same, and of maintaining it in a fit state of repair, and the charges of such persons as may be necessary for the use thereof, and the cost of suitable implements and accoutrements (30 & 31 Vict. c. 106s. 29).

CHAPTER XXIX.

OF ASSISTANT OVERSEERS AND COLLECTORS.

THE Vestry may nominate assistant-overseers, with such salary, to be paid out of the poor rates, as they may deem reasonable; the formal appointment being made by two justices, by warrant under their hand and seal.

The assistant-overseer or overseers (for the vestry may appoint one or more) are to perform all the duties of overseers, and continue in office until their appointment is revoked or they resign.

The offices of overseer and of assistant-overseer are not necessarily incompatible. But no assistant-overseer can be a guardian.

On the application of the guardians of a parish or union, the Local Government Board may direct the appointment of a paid collector of rates in such parish or union. The appointment is made by the guardians,

and, in fact, immediately such an order as that to which we have just referred has been made by the Local Government board, the power of the vestry or parish officers, or any other persons than the guardians to appoint a collector or assistant-overseer ceases, except where they are appointed under a local act for a parish containing above 20,000 inhabitants. All collectors and assistant-overseers are (subject to the rules of the Local Government board (to obey in all matters relating to the duties of overseer, the directions of the majority of the overseers for the parish for which they act. They are to give security for the performance of their duties to the guardians or (if there be none) to the overseers.

The vestry of a district for which an assistant-overseer or collector has been appointed under the order of the Local Government board, may, if they will, appoint him to discharge all the duties of an overseer, but this will not discharge the other overseers from their responsibility for the provision and supply of moneys necessary for the relief of the poor, or for any purposes for which poor rates may be made.

The Local Government board have, with respect to assistant-overseers and collectors, the same powers which they are authorized, as we shall see by a subsequent chapter, to exercise with reference to the paid officers of the board of guardians.

The duties of a collector are laid down by an order of the Poor Law board, dated the 17th of March, 1847. They are:-To assist the churchwardens in making and levying the poor rates; to collect the rates; to assist in filling up receipts, keeping books, and making