Power to make charge for use of unpaid charge and the expenses of such detention and sale, and the unsold articles, if any, on demand, to such person. The Council and the Commissioners respectively may from time to time make such reasonable charges for the baths, &c., not use of the baths and wash-houses and open bathing places provided under the Acts as they think fit, not exceeding the charges mentioned in the following schedule : exceeding those in the schedule. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 61, s. 7. Ib. Sch. Charges for use of baths and washhouses. Charges for the Baths and Wash-houses and open Bathing 1. Baths for the Labouring Classes. Every bath to be supplied with clean water for every person bathing alone, or for several children bathing together, and in either case with one clean towel for every bather. For one person above eight years old: Cold bath, or cold shower bath, any sum not exceeding 1d. Warm bath, or warm shower bath, or vapour bath, any sum not exceeding 2d. For several children, not above eight years old, or exceeding four, bathing together: Cold bath, or cold shower bath, any sum not exceeding 2d. Warm bath, or warm shower bath, or vapour bath, any sum not exceeding 4d. 2. Baths of any higher Class. Such charges as the Council and the Commissioners respectively think fit, not exceeding in any case three times the charges above mentioned for the several kinds of baths for the labouring classes. 3. Wash-houses for the Labouring Classes. Every wash-house to be supplied with conveniences for washing and drying clothes and other articles. For the use by one person of one washing tub or trough, and of a copper or boiler (if any), or, where one of the washing tubs or troughs shall be used as a copper or boiler, for the use of one pair of washing tubs or troughs, and for the use of the conveniences for drying: For one hour only in any one day, any sum not exceeding 1d. For two hours together, in any one day, any sum Any time over the hour or two hours respectively, if not exceeding five minutes, not to be reckoned. For two hours not together, or for more than two hours. in any one day, such charges as the Council and the Commissioners respectively think fit. For the use of the washing conveniences alone, or of the drying conveniences alone, such charges as the Council and the Commissioners respectively think fit, but not exceeding in either case the charges for the use for the same time of both the washing and the drying conveniences. 4. Wash-houses of any higher Class. Such charges as the Council and the Commissioners respectively think fit. 5. Open Bathing Places. Where several persons bathe in the same water, for one person d. negligence. As bearing on the liabilities of the Local Board or Liability for Commissioners in respect of injuries caused to persons by injuries caused by defective machinery, the following case will show how necessary it is for the officers in charge of the wash-houses to see that the machinery is kept at all times in proper order, and properly fenced where necessary. The corporation of a town caused a wash-house to be erected, with a wringing machine, under the Baths and Wash-houses Act, 9 & 10 Vict. c. 74, which vests such houses in the corporation, the actual management being in the Council, the members of which are not to be personally liable. The machine was originally intended to be worked by hand, and being worked by steam a projecting rod was needlessly retained, which went round with great rapidity, and had no protection. The persons who used the washhouse paid for the use of it, and a woman using the machine, without negligence on her part, was caught by the rod when revolving, and thereby received an injury. Under these circumstances it was held that the corporation were liable to an action for the injury so received. (1) ing at The following provision enabling the Local Board at Saving life Scarborough to provide life-boats, &c., for the prevention from drownof drowning may here be introduced. Such Board may Scarborough. purchase, provide, and maintain life-boats, life-buoys, 23 & 24 Vict. (1) Cowley v. Sunderland (Mayor, &c. of), 6 H. & C. 565; 4 L. T. (N.S.) c. 44, s. 4. 120; 30 L. J. Exch. 127. Public bathing. c. 89, s. 69. apparatus, matters, and things for the prevention of drowning, or for the recovery or search for the bodies of drowned persons, and the restoring to animation persons apparently drowned, and employ and remunerate persons in charge of such apparatus, or taking part in the services above enumerated. The Towns Police Clauses Act, s. 69, containing the pro10 & 11 Vict. visions as to public bathing being incorporated with the Public Health Act, where any part of the sea-shore or strand of any river used as a public bathing place is within the district, the Local Board may make bye-laws for fixing the stands for bathing machines; the limits within which persons of each sex shall bathe; for preventing indecent exposure of the persons bathing; the using of the machines and the charges to be made for them; and the distances at which boats let to hire shall be kept from persons bathing. With regard to the right of placing bathing-machines on parts of the sea beach which are private property, the following is to be noted:-Before bathing-machines came into use, certain parts of the sea-shore at Hastings had been used from time immemorial for the purpose of bathing. In 1855 bye-laws were made under the Public Health Act, 1848, prohibiting persons from bathing from the shore, except from bathing-machines, the owners of which were obliged to obtain a licence from the Local Board of Health for the district for permission to ply for hire of such machines; but the Court held that such licence did not confer a right on the proprietors of bathing-machines to place them on shore without the permission of the owner of the shore. (1) It is unlawful for men to bathe without any screen or covering so near a public footway frequented by women, that exposure of the persons of the men must necessarily occur; and men who so bathe are liable to an indictment for indecency. It will be no defence that there has been as long as living memory extends an usage so to bathe at the particular place, that there has been no exposure beyond what was necessarily incident to such bathing. (2) It is also indictable for a man to undress himself on the beach and to bathe in the sea near inhabited houses from which he may be distinctly seen; although such houses may have been recently erected, and till then it may have been usual for men to bathe in great numbers at the place in question. (3) (1) Mace v. Philcox, 9 L. T. (N.S.) 766; 15 C. B. (N.s.) 600; 33 L. J. C. P. 124; 10 Jur. (N.s.) 680. (2) Reg. v. Reed, 12 Cox, C. C. 1. (3) Rex v. Crunden, 2 Camp. 89. THE BURIAL ACTS. (15 & 16 VICT. c. 85; 16 & 17 VICT. c. 134; 17 & 18 VICT. c. 87; 18 & 19 VICT. C. 128; 20 & 21 VICT. c. 35; ID. c. 81; 22 VICT. c. 1; 23 & 24 VICT. C. 64.) THE subject of the powers of urban authorities acting as The Burial Burial Boards is one which is much too extensive to be Acts. exhausted in the present work; and, therefore, the provisions of the Burial Board Acts and of the Public Health Act, 1875, will be treated of only so far as they apply directly to urban authorities. The Burial Acts, 1852 to 1871, have been collated by the author of this work, and are published in a separate volume, with an introduction and notes of the decisions upon those Acts; and to the third edition of that work the reader is referred for detailed information on the subject of the provision of burial-grounds and the burial of the dead. Acts to exer 18 & 19 Vict. The first of the series of Burial Acts in which Local Local Boards Boards of Health are referred to is the 18 & 19 Vict. under local c. 128. By the 20th section of that Act it is enacted cise powers that any Local Board of Health acting as or created a of Burial Board under or by virtue of the powers of any local Act Boards. of Parliament shall and may have and exercise all the c. 128, s. 20. powers, rights, and privileges which by that Act, or by the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 134, are or can be had, enjoyed, or exercised by any Burial Board therein named. By the 19th section of the same Act it is enacted that nothing therein contained shall in any wise abridge, lessen, or Ib. s. 19. defeat any power, right, or privilege of any Local Board of Health, being the Burial Board of a borough created or to exist under or by virtue of any local Act. By a previous Act Her Majesty is empowered, by Order Town Counin Council, to invest Town Councils with the power of cils, when to provide providing burial-grounds; whereupon the Council is to burialhave all the powers vested in Burial Boards under the grounds. 16 & 17 Vict. c. 134. The Act also gives power to pay 17 & 18 Vict. the expenses of carrying it into execution out of the c. 87, s. 2. borough fund or borough rates, and contains other provisions exclusively applicable to a Town Council acting as a Burial Board, which need not here be further referred to. Constitution Burial Boards 20 & 21 Vict. c. 81, s. 4. Power to In case it appear to Her Majesty in Council, upon the petition of the Local Board of Health of any district established under the Public Health Act, or upon the petition of any Commissioners elected by the ratepayers, and acting under or by virtue of the powers of any local Act of Parliament for the improvement of any town, parish, or borough, stating that the district of such Local Board of Health or of such Commissioners is co-extensive with a district for which it is proposed to provide a burialground, and that no Burial Board has been appointed for such district, and that an Order in Council (1) has been made for closing all or any of the burial-grounds within the district, Her Majesty, with the advice of her Privy Council, in case Her Majesty see fit to do so, may order that such Local Board shall be a Burial Board for the district of such Local Board, or that such Commissioners shall be a Burial Board for the district of such Commissioners; and thereupon such Local Board or such Commissioners, as the case may be, shall be a Burial Board for such district accordingly. The powers and provisions of the 15 & 16 Vict. c. 85, 16 & 17 Vict. c. 134, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 87, and 18 & 19 Vict. c. 128 (except the provisions in the 15 & 16 Vict. c. 85, sections 11-14, relating to the constitution, appointment, and resignation of members of the Burial Boards), and the provisions contained in the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 81, shall extend to the Board and Commissioners, and to their districts respectively, and to any burial-ground and places for the reception of the bodies of the dead, previously to interment, which may be provided by the Board and Commissioners respectively, in like manner as to any parish or parishes, and the Burial Board thereof, and any burial-ground, and places for the reception of the dead provided by the lastmentioned Board; save that no approval, sanction, or authorization of any vestry shall be requisite. The Act also provides that notice of the petition, and of the time when it shall please Her Majesty to order it to be taken into consideration by the Privy Council, shall be published in the London Gazette, and in one of the newspapers usually circulating in the district of the Local Board or Commissioners, one month at least before the petition is to be considered. The foregoing provisions, however, shall not apply to any district exclusively consisting of the whole or part of one corporate borough, within the meaning of the Public Health Act, 1848. When the district of a Burial Board is included in or (1) See 16 & 17 Vict. c. 134, s. 1. |