The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-26 00:00:00

IMPORTANT TO LOCAL BOARDS
HEALTH.

/Acre Were POCeedings before the 13 tidal Magistrates,
Aispecial sessions, at Slough, on Saturday afternoon, of
considerable importance to local boards of health. Five
residents of Slough, formerly members of the Slough
Local Government Board, were summoned to shew
cause why warrants should not issue to enforce pay.
ment of £319 is. 7d. surcharged against them by Mr.
G. Barnes, the district auditor. The Right Hon.
Gathorne Hardy, the Home Secretary, was present,
having been subpoenaed by Mr. Charsley. In the spring
of 1866 the Slough Local Government Board opposed the
bill of the Slough Gas Company in Parliament, and the
opposition was unsuccessful, except as to one or two alte-
rations in the bill, which passed. In the following
June five members of the board signed cheques for the
payment of £319 ls. 7d., the costs of the opposition.
The legality of these payments was challenged by
certain of the ratepayers, and at the audit there
were four grounds of objection, viz.-1. That it was an
illegal expenditure by the local board of the money of the
ratepayers as costs of opposing the gas company's bill ; 2.
That some of the members of the local board voting the
money, and voting for a resolution in favour of opposing
the gas company's bill, were members of a company of a
like nature (an opposition gas company that had a bill in
Parliament), and were therefore disqualified from voting;
3. That in no such item of £319 Is. 7d. appeared in the esti-
mate of the rate out of which such payment was made;
4. That the resolution to oppose such bill was not made
and passed in accordance with the bye-laws of the Local
Board of Health. The auditor held that a local board has
not any legal authority, direct or implied, to charge
general district rates with the costs of opposition to
a gas bill in Parliament ; and that a local board,
having a six 'months' retrospective power vested in
it by the Legislature to meet unexpected contin-
gencies, could have no justification whatever to pay
bills in June out of the proceeds of a rate made in the
previous January, in the estimate for which they had not
been included. The auditor accordingly disallowed the
items which formed the £319 is. 7d., and surcharged
that amount upon the five members of the board who had
signed the cheques. An appeal was made to the Secre-
tary of State and Mr. Charsley, the former clerk to the
Local Government Board ; but the appeal was dismissed
by Mr. Gathorne Hardy, and the surcharge was con-
firmed. In a subsequent application to the Home Secre-
tary for the remission of the surcharge, a local inquiry was
held before Mr. Arnold Taylor, and upon thatgentleman's
report the Home Secretary refused to remit. Counsel for
the defendants raised a number of technical objections,
and attempted to reopen the whole case ; but Mr. Michael
contended that the duty of the magistrates was simply
ministerial, on the various formalities required by the statute
having been proved ; and the magistrates refused to take
a course which would appear in the nature of an appeal
from a decision of the Home Secretary. An adjournment
was then asked for. Mr. Gathorne Hardy thereupon rose
and warmly protested against the wanton insult that had
been offered him, wasting the time of the country also in
compelling his attendance at Slough to hear an application
for adjournment. He considered it one of the most wan•
ton insults ever offered to an officer of State. The
magistrates directed the issue of a warrant to recover the
money at the expiration of a month, so that the defendants
might, if so advised, eppeal to the Court of Queen's
Bench.