Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/353

1896.

An Act to facilitate the Construction of Small Piers and Harbours in the Counties of Orkney and Zetland. [14th August 1896.]

E it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. This Act shall be cited as the Orkney and Zetland Small Piers and Harbours Act, 1896.

—(1.) It shall be lawful for a parish council, or for any two or more parish councils, or for not fewer than ten parish electors, of any landward parish or parishes within the meaning of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1894, in the counties of Orkney and Zetland, to make a requisition in writing to the district committee of the county council of the respective county, calling upon them to form such parish or parishes or any portion thereof within the district into a special district for the following purposes, or any one or more of them; that is to say, the construction and maintenance of small harbours, piers, and boatslips.

(2.) Upon such requisition being received, the district committee shall be bound to meet after twenty-one clear days notice, and shall consider the propriety of forming such parish or parishes or land-ward part of a parish or parishes or portion thereof into a special district, and shall by resolution either approve or disapprove of the formation of a special district for the purposes stated in the requisition, and if they approve thereof, shall define the boundaries of such special district. Such resolution, subject to the consent of the county council and the Local Government Board, shall be final; and in giving or refusing such consent the county council and the Local Government Board respectively shall take into consideration the whole circumstances of the case, including the amount of rates levied for the time being within the proposed special district and the sanitary requirements of the said district; and the county council and the Local Government Board respectively may consent to a resolution either with or without modifications. In the event of the district committee, or county council, or the Local Government Board disapproving of the formation of a special district as proposed in the requisition, it shall not be competent to make another requisition to the same effect until after the expiration of twelve months. A copy of every such resolution shall be forthwith published in one or more newspapers circulating in the district, and transmitted to the Local Government Board and to the county council.

(3.) The area of a special district formed under the provisions of this Act may be enlarged or altered, and two or more special districts may be combined, from time to time, by resolution of the district committee or committees, as the case may be, with or