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Preliminary inquiry by grand jury at summer assizes.
Appeal from provisional approval.
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5. At the summer assizes of the same year the said grand jury shall, on the application of the promoters, inquire whether or not the requirements contained in the foregoing enactments have been complied with (for which purpose they shall have power to summon witnesses, and require the production of documents, and take evidence on oath or otherwise), and shall hear any person interested in contending that such requirements have not been complied with, who shall lodge with the secretary of the grand jury a memorial complaining of non-compliance in some particular specifically stated in such memorial, and shall then proceed to inquire generally into the primâ facie merits of the undertaking. With reference thereto the grand jury shall take into consideration the report of the county surveyor on the undertaking, (who is hereby required to make a report thereon to the grand jury, and to deliver a copy thereof to the promoters three clear days at least before the inquiry by the grand jury,) and shall hear in opposition to the application any owner, lessee, or occupier of any lands proposed to be taken for the purposes of the undertaking, or alleged to be injuriously affected thereby, and any railway or other company or person desiring to be heard in opposition on the ground of competition, or any part of whose rails, trams, stations, works, or accommodations is proposed to be taken or in any manner used or interfered with for the purposes of the undertaking, and the inhabitants of any town, place, or district alleged to be injuriously affected by the under-taking. The grand jury shall then approve provisionally or disapprove, as they may think fit, of the undertaking, with or without modification, having regard to the compliance or non-compliance of the promoters with the requirements aforesaid, and to the primâ facie merits of the undertaking, in engineering, financial, and other respects; and such provisional approval or such disapproval (with, in case of disapproval, the grounds thereof) shall be certified in writing under the hand of the secretary of the grand jury; and in all cases where the proposed undertaking is provisionally approved of by any grand jury or grand juries, it shall be lawful for any railway company or owner of land who may have opposed the application for the same to appeal against any such provisional approval to the Lord Lieutenant in Council, who shall, as soon as may be, inquire into the grounds of such provisional approval, and allow or disallow the appeal.
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