Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/65

 AREA AND POPULATION

13

elected for three years, on the system of the single transferable vote. The Council of each county and rural district, immediately after any triennial election, may choose additional members to hold office till the next triennial election. The administrative business formerly man- aged by the grand juries and presentment sessions has been transferred to these Councils. The Act of 1898 gave them the assessment and collection of the rates, except in urban areas, the maintenance in part of asylums and infirmaries, and the appointment of Coroners. They have functions also in respect of many other matters, such as technical instruction, school attend- ance and medical inspection of school children, regulation of motor car traffic, collection of licence duty on mechanically-profiled vehicles, treatment of tuberculosis and venereal disease, and the alteration of Parliamentary Polling Districts and Places. The general business relating to public health an*! labourers' cottages, formerly vested in the Board of Guardians, now devolves on the Rural District Council. The administration of the poor relic: is exercised by Boards of Guardians. Each Board comprises the councillors of each rural district in the union, together with specially elected repre- sentatives of each urban district in the union. The cities of Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Londonderry, and Waterford are county boroughs, and they, together with five other corporate boroughs, have a mayor, aldermen, and councillors, whose powers are regulated by 3 4 4 Vict. c. 108. The ordinary affairs of the borough, such as lighting, paving, and cleansing, are administered by the Council, which has power to levy rates for these purposes. The County Boroughs, Corporate Boroughs, and other populous centres are Urban Districts, and their Councils are the local authorities for the purposes of the Public Health, Local Government and Housing Acts. In the absence of any other form of incorporation, the Urban, District Council, and not the town itself, is the body corporate. In a few small towns, the local affairs are administered by a body of Commissioners appointed under the Towns Improvement Act, 1854, who have powers to discharge certain municipal functions, and are em- powered to levy rates to defray the cost of administration. Towns must have 1,500 inhabitants to enable them to obtain municipal government under this md any such town may be constituted an Urban District. Under the Local Government Act of 1898 and the Local Authorities (Ireland) (Qualification of Women) Act, 1911. women are eligible for election as members of all local government elected bodies in Ireland, in the same manner and on the same conditions as men.

Area and Population. I. Progress and Present Condition-. The population was thus distributed at the census, taken April 2, 1911 : —

Divisions

England (including Monmouth

shire) .... Wales .... Scotland .... Ireland .... Isle of Han Channel Islands Army and Navy abroad.

Total.

Area in sq. miles

7,466

-

16.421,298 1,024,310

Fmralei

L800.8 n

Total Population on Aprils, 1*11

60,670

4,760,904

4,3yO,21i'

52,016

96,899

145,7»

121,633 ; 22,162,390 23,353,869 ' 45,516,259