present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: (a) The Act 2 Will. IV. c. 42, as stated in this preamble, only enables 2 Will. IV. allotments to be made to "industrious cottagers of good character, being day c. 42. labourers or journeymen legally settled in the said parish, or dwelling within or near its bounds." The Act will be found in App. I. to this Book, post. The Poor Allotments Management Act, 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. 19), relates Poor only to lands allotted for the benefit of the poor under Inclosure Acts passed Allotments Management previously to 8 & 9 Vict. c. 118, in the Act called Local Inclosure Acts. It Act, 1873. was designed to meet cases where the number of allotment wardens, trustees or other functionaries, was larger than was convenient for the management of allotments. It accordingly provides for the annual appointment of committees of not more than twelve, or less than six, members of their own body by (1) allotment trustees, (2) the vestry of any parish empowered to make an order in respect of poor allotments under 2 Will. IV. c. 42, when the allotment trustees, or persons entitled to attend the vestry respectively, exceed twenty sect. 2. It was provided by sect. 16 that nothing in the Act should affect a scheme made by the Charity Commissioners under the Charit. Trusts Acts. The Act will be found in App. I. to this Book, post. The present Act was passed, as stated in the preamble, for the purpose of Object of extending the benefit of 2 Will. IV. c. 42 to all the irremovable poor, its present Act. main object being to provide for the letting in allotments of land held in trust for dole charities. It applies to all allotments within 2 Will. IV. c. 42, whether within the Poor Allotments Management Act, 1873, or not. This Act has given rise to considerable difficulties. Some of them are Difficulties in mentioned in the notes to the particular sections under which they arise: working Act. see n. (a) to sect. 9, and n. (a) to sect. 11, post. Others, and also the suggestions which have been made with regard to further legislation, will be found ante, pp. 460, 461. Sect. 13, sub-s. (2), of the Allotments Act, 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 48), Allotments empowers trustees, with the sanction of the Charity Commissioners, to sell Act, 1887. or let land applicable for allotments under this Act to the sanitary authority. The section is printed post, p. 697. tation. 1. In this Act "trustees" shall mean trustees, feoffees, Interpreand managers, whether corporate or sole, or a committee of the same in such cases as are provided for in the Poor 36 & 37 Vict. Allotments Management Act, 1873. c. 19. 2. This Act may be cited as the Allotments Extension Short title. Act, 1882. 3. This Act shall not apply to Scotland or Ireland. Extent of lands vested 4. All trustees in whom lands are vested or by whom Trustees of the same are held or managed for the benefit of the poor for benefit of of any parish or place in or adjoining to that in which give notice as the poor to to letting (a). Sect. 4. such lands are situate, and whereof the rents or produce are distributed in gifts of money, doles, fuel, clothing, bread, or other articles of sustenance or necessity (b), shall, where such lands are not otherwise used for the benefit of the parish in which it is situate as a recreation ground, or otherwise for the enjoyment or general benefit of the inhabitants, take proceedings, subject as hereinafter mentioned, for letting such lands in allotments to cottagers, labourers, and others (c), and (1.) They shall set apart for the purpose of this Act (2.) If any applications for an allotment are received soon as they have power so to do to set apart Provided that (a.) If application is made within the time aforesaid for part only of the field or portion so set apart, the remainder thereof may be let as provided by this Act in the case of unlet allotments (e), and (b.) It shall not be necessary for the trustees to set apart any portion of any such lands as aforesaid, the separation of which from the remainder of such lands not set apart for the time being may make it impossible to let such remainder without substantial loss to the charity, when the whole of such lands cannot conveniently be set apart for allotments; and they shall have the same powers of letting any remainder of such lands, not set apart for the time being, as if this Act had not passed; and (c.) If no application is made within the time aforesaid for any part of the field or portion so set apart, the like public notice as is required in the first instance shall be given by the trustees once in every succeeding year; and (d.) Where the said lands are at any time held on lease, the trustees shall proceed to act in pursuance of this Act upon the expiration of such lease, and this Act shall apply as if such expiration were the passing of this Act. (a) This Act does not interfere with the power of authorizing a sale of charity lands possessed by the Charity Commissioners under the Charit. Trusts Acts: Parish of Sutton to Church, 26 Ch. D. 173. The language of this section is wide enough to include land allotted under a Local Inclosure Act in lieu of rights of cutting fuel, even though such land is not within 2 Will. IV. c. 42: ibid. (b) These words must probably be confined to gifts in the nature of doles, which are precarious and uncertain. They would not, it is conceived, apply to permanent forms of relief, such as the stipends of almspeople, or pensions, which are free from the mischievous incidents attaching to doles. (c) See note (a) to sect. 3, ante. (d) Sect. 13, post. (e) Ibid. sub-s. (6). Sect. 4. lands incon 5. If any of the said lands shall be found to lie at an Power to let inconvenient distance from the residences of any cot- veniently tagers or labourers it shall be lawful for the trustees to situated (a). Sect. 5. Suggested extension of section. Saving old rights. Preference to cottagers living in parishes where the lands are situate. let such lands, or any part thereof, for the best rent that can be procured for the same, and to hire in lieu thereof, for the purposes of this Act, other land more favourably situated for allotments to the poor of the parish or place for whose benefit such lands are held in trust. (a) It was suggested by the Select Committee of 1884 on the Charit. Trusts Act, in the separate report which they published with regard to this Act (see ante, p. 460), that this section should be extended to the case of lands which it is desirable to exempt for other reasons than distance, as where the letting of land in allotments would greatly diminish its value (in the case, for instance, of breaking up old pasture land), and that the Charity Commissioners should be empowered to make their certificate of exemption under sect. 11 (see note (a) to that section, post) conditional on the trustees taking steps to hire land in substitution. 6. Neither this Act nor section twelve (a) of the Poor Allotments Management Act, 1873, shall extend or be applicable to any lands with regard to which the provisions of the second William the Fourth, chapter fortytwo, have been put into operation; but all industrious cottagers of good character, being day labourers or journeymen, whether legally settled in any parish in which the said Act of second William the Fourth, chapter forty-two, has been put into operation, or dwelling within its bounds or those of the adjoining parishes, or being poor persons in any such parishes, shall at all times be entitled to and enjoy the benefits, rights, and privileges created and conferred by the second William the Fourth, chapter forty-two, in as full and ample a manner as they would have been entitled to and have enjoyed the same if they had been legally settled in the parish and this Act and section twelve of the Poor Allotments Management Act, 1873, had not been passed. (a) This section provides that, notwithstanding anything in 2 Will. IV. c. 42, it shall be lawful for the authority executing the powers of that Act and of the Poor Allotments Management Act, 1873, to require the rent of any land let under it to be paid for the whole year in advance. The Act is printed in App. I. to this Book, post. 7. The provisions of this Act shall apply to lands held for the benefit of the poor of any parish or place situated in or adjoining to the same parish in which such poor dwell; but where the said lands are situated in or adjoining to several parishes, preference shall be given to the cottagers and labourers being inhabitants of the parish or place for the benefit of the poor of which lands are so held. Sect. 7. are held partly for benefit of poor. 8. Where any lands shall be held as aforesaid (a), Where lands partly for the benefit of the poor, and partly for other objects, the provisions of the Act shall apply to such a proportion of the entire quantity of the said lands as the amount of the gross income applicable to the poor shall bear to the entire gross income thereof; and in case of difference as to the amount of such gross income, or as to the said proportion, the difference shall be referred to the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales, in this Act referred to as the Charity Commissioners, whose decision shall be final. (a) Sect. 4, ante. missioners to 9. The trustees or the majority of them may from Charity Comtime to time make and, when made, revoke and vary settle rules in such rules as may be necessary for the appointment and certain cases. powers of local managers of allotments under this Act, whether as tenants or agents of the trustees or otherwise, and for preventing the same being built upon or sublet, and preventing any undue preference in such letting, and all other necessary rules, and for giving effect to the provisions of the Act; and such rules as are for the time being in force under this section shall be binding on all persons and corporations whatsoever. Provided that (a) A copy of all rules made under this section shall be sent to the Charity Commissioners as soon as (b) Such public notice as is provided by the schedule T. Y Y |