Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/322

 3io The Library. lodgers), and married women, i.e., such as have the necessary qualification to be enrolled on the parochial electors' list. Each elector has one vote and no more. The majority of the electors present and voting at the meeting decides the question in the first instance, and the chairman's decision as to the result is to be final, unless a poll is demanded, which may be done by any one parochial elector. Such poll is to be taken by ballot, and subject to rules to be framed by the Local Government Board. Presumably the chairman of the parish meeting is to cause the poll to be taken, but he does not appear to be directly required to do so, nor does he commit any offence should he fail. The expenses of the meeting and of the poll are to be paid out of the Poor Rate, but as regards the poll, they are not to exceed the scale to be adopted by the County Council, or on their default by the Local Government Board. Thus, by a few words the whole system of ascertaining the opinion of the voters by voting papers (approved so recently as 1892), is abolished as regards rural parishes, following its abolition in urban districts in 1893, and leaving it to flourish in metropolitan districts only. At the same time there is a reversion to the principle recognised by the Act of 1855, for the adoption of the Act by the inhabitants at a public meeting, as also a considerable extension of the electorate who are to decide the questions submitted to them. The sec- tion applies not merely to the question of adoption, but also to the limitation of expenditure. The result is most confusing and complicated ; thus, in London there will be one system for adoption, in urban districts another, and in rural parishes another ; the same observations applying to the same districts as regards the persons who are to vote. In the County of London they will be the County electors, in the urban districts the urban authority to the exclusion of the electors, and in rural parishes the parochial electors. Section 7, sub-section 4, provides that where under the Act the consent or approval, or other act on the part of the vestry of a rural parish is required, in relation to any expense or rate, the Parish Meeting is to be substituted for the vestry, and for this purpose the expression " vestry " shall include any meeting of ratepayers or voters. This effects a complete alteration of many sections in the principal Act and will raise considerable doubt. To explain it would necessitate the quotation of all the sections where vestries are referred to in the Public Libraries Act, 1892, e.g., section 5 (Constitution of Commissioners for