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PUBLIC WORKS (IRELAND) (NO. 1) ACT 1846
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CHAPTER I.
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An Act for the further Amendment of the Acts for the Extension and Promotion of Public Works in Ireland [1]
[5th March 1846.]
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[Preamble recites 7 Will. 4. & 1 Vict. c. 21; 1 & 2 Will, 4. c. 33; 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 108; 1 & 2 Vict. c. 88. s. 14; 6 & 7 Vict c. 44. s. 17.]
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[S. 1 (authorizing Public Works Commissioners to make additional grants for the purposes of recited Acts and this Act) rep, 38 & 39 Vict. c. 66. (S.L.R.)]
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Provisions of former Acts to apply to grants under this Act.
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2. All and every the provisions, regulations, powers, privileges, advantages, forfeitures, and disabilities contained or expressed in the said recited Acts, or any Act amending the same, in respect of the grants authorized to be made thereunder, shall (save as herein-after provided) be applied and extended to the grants to be made under authority of this Act, as fully and effectually, to all intents and purposes, as if the same were herein repeated and re-enacted.
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Two justices and three cess-payers associated with them at the last special or presentment sessions may convene a meeting of justices and cess-payers for making an application to the lord lieutenant for the execution of any public works under recited Act.
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3. [Recital of 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 21. s. 3, authorising justices to convene a special meeting of the justices and cess payers associated with them at the last special or present ment sessions held for the purposes of the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 116.) in order to present a memorial to the lord lieutenant for the execution of certain works.] It shall and may be lawful for any two justices of the peace (not being stipendiary magistrates) in and for any county, county of a city, or county of a town in Ireland, and any three cess-payers associated with the justices at the then last special or presentmen sessions as aforesaid held in and for the barony, half barony, or place wherein any public work is proposed to be executed under the provisions of the said first recited Act, and this Act, (as far as the same are applicable,) by notice under their hands, to be posted as in the said last-recited provision directed, to convene any such special meeting of the justices and cess-payers for such purposes and subject to such regulations as in the said last-recited provision mentioned; and every such special meeting so convened shall be as valid and effectual for all and every the purposes of the said first-recited Act as if such meeting had been convened in such manner as in the said first-recited Act prescribed; and the several provisions of the said first-recited Act (subject to the variations thereof contained in this Act) shall extend and be applied to any such special meeting, and to the proceedings thereat, the application for the execution of the works, the advance of monies, the repayment on account of the same, and to the several other matters and things relating to any such works annlied for at such meeting.
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Such special meeting may apply for advances for the repair or extension of any existing public works, as well as for construction of works.
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4. It shall and may be lawful for any such special meeting as aforesaid, convened in the manner in the said first-recited Act or this Act prescribed, to make an application in like manner as aforesaid to the lord lieutenant for an advance as aforesaid for the alteration, extension, or improvement of any then existing public work, as fully and effectually as for the construction as aforesaid of any public work; and the provisions of the said first-recited Act shall extend and be applied to any such alteration, extension, or improvement of any existing public work, as fully and effectually as to the construction of any public work.
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Subsequent repairs of such public works to be provided for in same manner as repair of works for construction whereof grants have been made er 1 & 2 Will. 4. c. 33. &c.
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5. Whenever any such public work shall nave been constructed, altered, extended, or improved under the provisions of the said recited Acts or this Act, it shall and may be lawful for the said commissioners of public works from time to time to take such proceedings and exercise such powers and authorities for or relating to the subsequent repairs and maintenance of any such public work aforesaid, and such subsequent repairs and works of maintenance shall and may be executed, and the expence thereof shall and may be provided for, raised, and repaid, in such manner and subject to such provisions and regulations as by the Public Works (Ireland) Act, 1831, or any Act or Acts amending the same, are directed and provided in relation to the repair or maintenance of any road or bridge in aid of the construction whereof grants may be made or have been made by the said commissioners of public works.
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Commissioners of public works may make advances in aid of drainage or improvement of land, repayable within 20 years, as in case of other loans under 1 & 2 Will. 4. c. 33. &c.
Advances to be subject to provisions of recited Acts.
Priority of charges for securing repayment of advances.
Priority of loans when made to persons under disability, or having limited estates only, to be obtained only on application to Court of Chancery under 8 & 9 Vict. c. 56.
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6. [Recital of 1 & 2 Will. 4. c. 33; 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 108.] It shall and may be lawful for the commissioners of public works in Ireland, if they shall so think fit, subject to such restrictions and conditions as are herein-after provided, to make any loan or advance as aforesaid for or in aid of the drainage, embankment, reclaiming, or other permanent improvement of land, upon application duly made conformably to the provisions of the Public Works (Ireland) Act, 1831, and any other Acts amending the same, and this Act, in relation thereto, and which may be approved of by the said commissioners, and by the Treasury, upon the terms and conditions that the whole amount of such loan or advance shall be made repayable within such time or time, not exceeding twenty years after the period so fixed as aforesaid for the completion of such drainage, embankment, reclaiming, or other permanent improvement, at such rate of interest in the meanwhile, payable half-yearly, as by the said last-recited Act, or any Acts amending the same, is provided with respect to any other advances by way of loan thereunder, any thing in the said last-recited Act, or the other Acts amending the same, requiring a different period of payment, or a higher or other rate of interest on any loan or advance for any such drainage, embankment, reclamation, or other permanent improvement, to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided always, that any such loan or advance, and any charge, mortgage, assignment, or other assurance for securing the repayment thereof, shall be subject to the several provisions, regulations, and enactments in the said last-recited Act, and the other Acts amending the same, contained in relation to any loan or advance or security thereunder, so far as the same are applicable, and shall not be varied by this Act; and any such charge, mortgage, assignment, or other assurance for securing the repayment of any such last-mentioned loans under this Act shall take priority of all charges and incumbrances whatsoever and whensoever made: And provided further, that no such charge, mortgage, or other assurance to be made as last aforesaid shall have such priority as aforesaid in any case where such loan or loans shall be made, pursuant to the provisions aforesaid, to or for the use of any person or persons under any legal disability or incapacity, or being tenants for life, or having only particular or limited estates or interests in the lands whereon the same are to be charged, or whose estates therein shall be subject to any incumbrances whatever, unless, previous to the making such loan or advance, the person or persons to whom or on whose behalf the same shall be made shall have obtained the report of one of the masters of the High Court of Chancery in Ireland, authorizing such advance to be made, on a petition to be presented to the said court pursuant to the provisions of a certain Act passed in the eighth and ninth years of the reign of her present Majesty Queen Victoria, intituled “An Act to alter and amend an Act passed in the third and fourth years of the reign of her present Majesty, intituled ‘An Act to enable the owners of settled estates to defray the expences of draining the same by way of mortgage,’” and such report shall have been duly filed and absolutely confirmed according to the provisions of the same Act, and which provision shall be applicable to advances to be made under this Act in the same manner as if the same were here repeated.
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Corporations, and persons under legal disability or having limited estates, &c, may, under sanction of Court, charge the lands improved to secure loans, and give priority to such charges.
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7. [Recital.] It shall and may be lawful for any corporation, lay, or ecclesiastical, sole or aggregate, and for the husbands, trustees, committees, or attornies of or for the owners or proprietors of, or for any company or companies, or the directors thereof for the time being, interested in, any part or parts of any such lands in or for or in aid of the drainage, embankment, reclaiming, or other permanent improvement of which any such loan or advance shall be agreed to be made by the said commissioners of public works, in pursuance of the said last-recited Act, or the other Acts amending the same, and this Act, being under coverture, minors, lunatics, or beyond the seas, or otherwise incapable of acting for themselves, and to and for every of them for the time being, and to and for the owners and proprietors of all such lands, being tenants in tail or for life, or tenants in tail after possibility of issue extinct, or tenants by the courtesy or in dower, and for persons whose estates are encumbered as herein-after mentioned, and to and for every of them respectively for the time being, by and with the sanction and approbation of the High Court of Chancery, to be obtained in manner aforesaid, by indenture or indentures under their respective hands and seals, from time to time, and to which indenture or indentures one of the said commissioners shall be an executing party, and before obtaining any advance on account of such loan from the said commissioners, subject to such restrictions and conditions as are herein-after provided, to charge the said lands with any sum or sums of money which the said commissioners shall advance in or for or in aid of any such drainage, embankment, reclaiming, or other permanent improvement thereof as aforesaid; and for securing the repayment by instalments of such sum or sums of money which the said commissioners shall so advance, with interest from the date of the advance thereof, with the approbation of the Court of Chancery, to be obtained in manner aforesaid, to grant, mortgage, lease, or demise, or otherwise subject the said lands unto the said commissioners of public works, or to the secretary of the said commissioners, in trust for them, either in fee or for any term of years, so as every such grant, mortgage, lease, or demise be made with a proviso or condition to cease and be void, or under an express trust to be surrendered, in case and so soon as the sum or sums of money thereby to be secured, with the interest for the same, shall be fully paid and satisfied at the time or times to’ be appointed in that behalf, and also with a covenant to pay the instalments as they shall become due, and to pay and keep down the interest in the meanwhile; and in the case of every such grant, mortgage, lease, or demise such person or persons or bodies as aforesaid, as the case may be, and every succeeding tenant for life, or other person or persons having only a limited interest in the lands charged, shall be bound to pay the instalments of principal and the interest which shall become from time to time due and payable during the continuance of his, her, or their title in or to the said lands; but nevertheless, on the termination of such title, by death or otherwise, the estate in remainder or reversion in such lands, or the inheritance thereof, shall remain chargeable with all instalments, and interest and arrears thereof, then due or thereafter to become due; and every such charge, grant, mortgage, lease, or demise as aforesaid shall be good, valid, and effectual in the law for the purposes hereby intended, and shall take priority of all charges, and incumbrances whatsoever and whensoever made: Provided always, that it shall be lawful for any person or persons liable to repay any loans and interest by instalments under any of the provisions aforesaid to repay the same in one sum, or in a shorter time than that in which the same shall be made repayable under the provisions aforesaid.
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Advances to be made by instalments not exceeding one fifth of the entire sum to be advanced.
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8. Every loan or advance to be made by the said commissioners of public works for any such last-mentioned works or improvements as aforesaid under the provisions hereof shall be made by instalments not exceeding at any one time one-fifth of the entire sum agreed to be advanced; and no second or subsequent instalment of any such loan shall be advanced until it shall have been proved to the satisfaction of the said commissioners that the preceding instalment has been properly expended on such works or improvement, pursuant to the application for such work approved by the said commissioners: Provided always, that no one instalment shall in any case exceed three hundred pounds.
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Incorporated companies for improvement of land in Ireland empowered to borrow money from the commissioners.
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9. And whereas societies or companies incorporated by an Act of Parliament or established by charter, in Ireland or in England, for the improvement of land in Ireland, or for reclaiming land in Ireland, may be desirous of applying for advances of money under the provisions of this Act and the Acts herein recited, but doubts may arise whether such societies are within the provisions of the Acts herein recited, and whether they are authorized to borrow money, by reason of the absence of special authority in their Acts or charters of incorporation, or by reason of the powers to borrow therein contained not having arisen or being inapplicable to the securities which must be taken under the said recited Acts and this Act: Be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the trustees or directors of any such society or company incorporated by Act of Parliament or by royal charter for the improvement of land in Ireland, or for reclaiming land in Ireland, to convene a special general meeting of the shareholders, with such notice as may be required by the respective Act or charter of incorporation, and specifying in such notice the object of such meeting, and to submit to such meeting a proposition for borrowing money under the provisions of this Act; and if the majority of the shareholders present at such meeting shall authorize the directors to borrow a sum of money under the provisions of this Act, it shall and may be lawful for the said commissioners of public works, if they shall think fit, upon the application of the trustees or directors of such society or company, to advance any sum of money not exceeding the sum by such resolution of the special meeting authorized, upon the security herein-after mentioned; and such trustees or directors shall and may mortgage, assign, or charge all or any part of the property of such society or company, or all or any of the interests of such society or company in the leases of lands which they may have taken for the purpose of improvement, or the monies to arise from the sale, letting, or disposal of such lands or any of them, for securing the repayment, according to the provisions of this Act, of the money so advanced, with interest, although such society or company may not have power, independently of this Act, to borrow money, or may have special powers of borrowing which shall not have arisen; and the securities made under the provisions of this Act shall, so far as respects the property therein comprised, have priority over all mortgages or charges subsequent in date and registry, any provisions in the Acts or charters of incorporation of such societies or companies notwithstanding.
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1 & 2 Will. 4 c. 33.
6 & 7 Will. 4 c. 108.
Commissioners may receive applications for loans from companies without bond.
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10. And whereas, under the Public Works (Ireland) Act, 1831, and the Public Works (Ireland) Act, 1836, all persons, save as therein excepted, to whom advances may be made for the use of any person or persons, body or bodies politic or corporate, or company or companies, in Ireland, or for any other purpose, under the provisions of said Acts, are required, besides the securities in each case respectively therein directed to be taken before any advance shall be made in respect of any loan under the provisions of the said Acts or of either of them, to make and enter into, or cause some sufficient persons or person, to the satisfaction of the said commissioners, to make and enter into, a bond or obligation in writing to the secretary for the time being of the said commissioners, together with a warrant of attorney for confessing judgment thereon, binding the obligors or obligor therein named, their, his, or her heirs, executors, or administrators, in such penalty as the said commissioners should direct, conditioned to be void, as in the said Acts mentioned: And whereas it may be convenient that such bond and warrant of attorney should be dispensed with in the case of bodies politic or corporate, or incorporated societies or companies: Be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for the said commissioners, when they shall think fit, to receive applications for and make any loan or advance, under the provisions of the said recited Acts or this Act, to or for the use or in aid of any body or bodies politic or corporate, or incorporated society or company, without requiring such bond or warrant of attorney to be made or entered into as aforesaid; and the said commissioners may, if they shall think fit, in lieu thereof require such security, under the seal of any such body politic or corporate, or incorporated society or company, for the due application of the money advanced, as they shall think fit; and the said commissioners shall amend the regulations established by them under the said Acts accordingly.
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In case of misapplication of or neglect to apply any such loan to the purpose agreed upon, the commissioners may recover the advances made, or may complete the works.
Money advanced for completion to be a charge on the lands.
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11. If default shall be made in the due application of any instalment of any loan or advance made for the purpose of any such drainage, embankment, reclamation, or other improvement, or incase the party or person to whom any such loan or advance may have been so agreed to be made, or if the person or persons entitled for the time being to the rents and profits of the lands which may be the subject of such drainage, embankment, reclamation, or other improvement, shall omit or neglect to proceed with the completion of such drainage, embankment, reclamation, or other improvement, it shall and may be lawful for the said commissioners to proceed for the recovery of any such instalment, loan, or advance, or any part thereof, with the interest due thereon, and to stop all further advances or loan in respect of such work, or it shall and may be lawful for the said commissioners, or any person authorized by them for that purpose, if they shall so think tit, to enter upon such lands, and proceed to complete the drainage, embankment, reclamation, or other improvement of such lands, according to the original plan and specification which may have been agreed upon for the same, and out of the residue of the monies so agreed to be advanced by and then remaining in the hands of the said commissioners to complete and finish such drainage, embankment, reclamation, or other improvement; and all monies so advanced and paid as last aforesaid by the said commissioners shall be deemed and taken as part of the money agreed to be advanced by the said commissioners, and secured and charged on such lands as aforesaid, and shall be repaid to the said commissioners out of such lands, and out of the monies to be raised: from such lands by means of such charge, grant, lease, mortgage or demise, or other assurance as aforesaid.
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Definition of terms in tills Act,
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12. In the construction of this Act (except where the nature of the provision or the context of the Act shall exclude such construction) the word “land” shall extend to all arable, pasture, or otherwise profitable, and to all waste uncultivated land, whether bog land or land covered with water, and shall also extend to messuages, tenements, and other hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal, and any estate or interest therein, and any undivided part thereof; and the expression “the said commissioners” shall mean the commissioners of public works in Ireland or any two or more of them (except where otherwise provided); and the words “person or persons” shall extend to all bodies politic, corporate, or collegiate, and to any number of persons associated together as a company or partnership; and the word “county” shall extend and be applied to all counties, counties of cities, and counties of towns; and every word importing the singular number only shall extend and be applied to several persons or things as well as one person or thing; and every word importing the plural number shall extend and be applied to one person or thing as well as several persons or things; and every word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to a female as well as a male.
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[S. 13 rep. 38 & 39 Vict. c. 66. (S.L.R.)]
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[1 Short title, “The Public Works (Ireland) Act, 1846.” See 55 & 56 Vict. c. 10.] |
