The Dublin General Cemetery Company's Act, 1933

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Number 2 (Private) of 1933.

THE DUBLIN GENERAL CEMETERY COMPANY'S ACT, 1933.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

SCHEDULE

Number 2 (Private) of 1933.

THE DUBLIN GENERAL CEMETERY COMPANY'S ACT, 1933.

AN ACT TO ENABLE THE GENERAL CEMETERY COMPANY OF DUBLIN TO ENLARGE THEIR CEMETERY, TO EXTEND THEIR POWERS OF RAISING MONEY AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. [17th July, 1933.]

Preamble.

WHEREAS by an Act passed in the Session of Parliament held in the 4th and 5th years of King William the Fourth, Chapter 65, intituled “An Act for Establishing a General Cemetery in the Neighbourhood of the City of Dublin” (which Act is hereinafter referred to as “the Act of 1834”) certain persons were united into a Company under the name of “The General Cemetery Company of Dublin” (hereinafter called “the Company”) and were authorised to raise a sum of £12,000 by means of shares and to borrow on mortgage £9,000 and to purchase and hold lands not exceeding twenty-five acres for the purpose of the said undertaking to be vested in trustees to be nominated by the directors of the Company:

AND WHEREAS by an Act passed in the Session of Parliament held in the 37th and 38th years of Queen Victoria, Chapter 28, intituled “An Act to enable The General Cemetery Company of Dublin to enlarge their Cemetery to raise a further sum of money and for other purposes” (which Act is hereinafter referred to as “the Act of 1874”) the Company were authorised to hold a small piece of land containing about five acres and described in the First Schedule thereto in addition to the lands authorised to be purchased by the Act of 1834 and by the same Act sections 36 to 39 inclusive of the Act of 1834 relating to money to be borrowed by the Company upon mortgage were repealed and power was given to the Company to raise additional capital not exceeding £8,000 by means of shares or stock and to borrow on mortgage £5,000 and to purchase and hold additional lands not exceeding twenty-one acres one rood twenty perches:

AND WHEREAS the Company in pursuance of the said powers have constructed and enlarged near Harold's Cross, in the County Borough of Dublin, a cemetery which occupies a space of about forty-seven acres, and also hold the small piece of land containing about five acres described in the First Schedule to the Act of 1874:

AND WHEREAS by reason of the increase in the population of the County Borough of Dublin it has become necessary that additional space should be provided for the interment of the dead and it is expedient that the said cemetery should be further extended and enlarged and that the Company should be authorised to purchase for that purpose certain lands and property adjoining the said cemetery and described in the Schedule to this Act:

AND WHEREAS owing to the difficulty of finding twelve suitable directors as prescribed by section 70 of the Act of 1834 it is expedient that the Company should be permitted to reduce the number of directors but so that the minimum number shall not be less than six:

AND WHEREAS it is expedient that the provisions of sections 77 and 81 of the Act of 1834 in so far as they relate to any person being concerned or interested in any contract under the Company being chosen or continuing a director and to directors taking or being concerned or interested in any contract under the Company should be amended but not so as to permit any such director voting in respect of any such contract:

AND WHEREAS the payment by the Company of fees upon interment to incumbents of parishes is no longer necessary and it is expedient that the Company should be relieved from the payment of same and from other duties in connection therewith as prescribed by sections 90 to 96 inclusive of the Act of 1834:

AND WHEREAS the Company out of the authorised capital of £20,000 have raised the sum of £17,000 in shares and do not owe any money upon mortgage, and it is expedient that the powers of the Company to borrow money on mortgage up to but not exceeding the sum of £5,000 should be extended so as to enable the Company to borrow on mortgage a sum not exceeding in the whole £10,000:

AND WHEREAS a plan showing the lands required or which may be taken for the purposes or under the powers of this Act and a book of reference containing the names of the owners or lessees or reputed owners or lessees and of the occupiers of such lands were duly deposited with the Principal Clerk of the Private Bill Office and are hereinafter referred to as the deposited plan and the deposited book of reference respectively:

AND WHEREAS it is expedient that the other powers in this Act mentioned should be conferred on the Company:

AND WHEREAS the purposes aforesaid cannot be effected without the authority of the Oireachtas:

BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

Short title and citation.

1.—(1) This Act may be cited for all purposes as The Dublin General Cemetery Company's Act, 1933.

(2) This Act the Act of 1834 as amended by the Act of 1874 and by this Act and the Act of 1874 as amended by this Act shall be read and have effect as one Act and may be cited for all purposes as the Dublin General Cemetery Company's Acts 1834 to 1933.

Incorporation of Acts.

2.—The Lands Clauses Acts so far as the same are not inconsistent with the Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act, 1919 , as amended by the Acquisition of Land (Reference Committee) Act, 1925 with the modification that the expression “the promoters of the undertaking” shall include the Company and the said Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act, 1919 , as so amended with the modification that the expression “public authority” shall include the Company are incorporated with this Act.

Correction of errors, omissions, etc., in plan or book of reference.

3.—If any omission, misstatement or erroneous description shall have been made of any lands required for the purposes of this Act or of the owners, lessees or occupiers of any such lands in the deposited plan or book of reference it shall be lawful for the Company after giving ten days' notice to the owners, lessees and occupiers of the lands affected by such proposed correction to apply to one of the Circuit Judges for the time being assigned to Dublin City and County for the correction thereof and if it shall appear to such Circuit Judge that any such omission, misstatement or erroneous description shall have been made he shall certify the same accordingly and he shall in such certificate state the particulars of any such omission and in what respect any such matter shall have been misstated or erroneously described and such certificate shall be deposited with the Principal Clerk of the Private Bill Office and such certificate shall be kept by such clerk along with the other documents to which it relates, and thereupon the deposited plan or book of reference shall be deemed to be corrected according to such certificate and the Company may take any lands or property required by them in accordance with such certificate.

Power to purchase additional land for cemetery.

4.—Subject to the provisions of this Act the Company or the trustees of the Company for the time being appointed pursuant to the Act of 1834 (in this Act referred to as the trustees) may enter upon purchase and take all or any part of the lands and property described in the Schedule to this Act and shown on the deposited plan and described in the deposited book of reference relating thereto and all the powers and provisions of the Act of 1834 as amended by the Act of 1874 and this Act except those as to the limitation of the quantity of lands to be held by the Company shall extend and be applicable to the said lands.

Restrictions on displacing persons of the working class.

5.—(1) The Company shall not, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by this Act, purchase or acquire in any local area any house or houses which, on the 1st day of January, 1932, were or have been since that date or shall hereafter be, occupied, either wholly or partially, by thirty or more persons belonging to the working class as tenants or lodgers, unless and until the Company shall—

(a) have obtained the approval of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health (in this section referred to as the Minister) to a scheme (in this section referred to as a new dwellings scheme) for providing new dwellings for the persons residing in such houses, or for such number or proportion of such persons as the Minister shall, after inquiry, deem necessary, having regard to the number of persons residing in the houses liable to be taken, and working within one mile therefrom, and to the amount of vacant suitable accommodation in the immediate neighbourhood of the houses liable to be taken, or to the place of employment of such persons and all the other circumstances of the case, and

(b) have given security to the satisfaction of the Minister for the carrying out of such new dwellings scheme.

(2) The approval of the Minister to any new dwellings scheme may be given either absolutely or conditionally, and after the Minister has approved of any such scheme he may from time to time approve either absolutely or conditionally of any modifications in such scheme.

(3) Every new dwellings scheme shall contain provisions—

(a) prescribing the time within which it shall be carried out;

(b) requiring the new dwellings proposed to be provided under such scheme to conform to standards to be approved by the Minister, and

(c) requiring such new dwellings to be completely fit for occupation before the persons residing in the houses the purchase or acquisition of which necessitated the making of such scheme are displaced.

The Minister may, if he so thinks fit, in the case of any new dwellings scheme, dispense with the insertion in such scheme of the requirements of paragraph (c) of this sub-section, and such dispensation may be granted subject to such conditions as the Minister may think proper in the circumstances.

(4) Every provision contained in a new dwellings scheme, and every condition subject to which the Minister may have approved of such a scheme, and every condition subject to which the Minister has dispensed with the requirement of paragraph (c) of the foregoing sub-section shall be enforceable by a writ of mandamus to be obtained by the Minister out of the High Court.

(5) If the Company acquire or appropriate any house or houses for purposes of the Dublin General Cemetery Company's Acts 1834 to 1933 in contravention of this section or displace or cause to be displaced the persons residing in any house or houses in contravention of the requirements of a new dwellings scheme they shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred pounds in respect of every such house and such penalty shall be recoverable by the Minister by action in the High Court.

The High Court may if it so thinks fit in any action brought under this sub-section reduce the penalty imposed by this sub-section.

All moneys recovered by the Minister under this sub-section shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall direct.

(6) For the purpose of carrying out a new dwellings scheme the Company may appropriate any land for the time being belonging to them or which they have power to acquire.

(7) For the purpose of carrying out a new dwellings scheme the Company may purchase such land as they may require and for the purposes of such purchase section 202 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 , section 203 of the same Act as modified by sub-section (1) of section 10 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898 and section 68 of the Local Government Act, 1925 shall be incorporated with this Act and shall apply to the purchase of land by the Company for the purpose of any such scheme in like manner in all respects as if the Company were a sanitary authority within the meaning of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 and such scheme were one of the purposes of that Act.

(8) The Company may erect on any land belonging to them or purchased or acquired by them under this Act or any Provisional Order duly confirmed made under and by virtue of any enactment hereby incorporated with this Act such dwellings of the working class as may be necessary for the purpose of a new dwellings scheme and may sell, demise, let or otherwise dispose of such dwellings and any land purchased or acquired as aforesaid.

(9) All land on which any buildings have been erected or provided by the Company in pursuance of a new dwellings scheme shall for a period of twenty-five years from the date of the approval of such scheme by the Minister be appropriated for the purpose of such buildings and every conveyance, lease or demise of such land made or granted from time to time during the said period shall have endorsed thereon a notice that the land comprised therein is subject to such appropriation.

The Minister may if he so thinks fit, at any time dispense with all or any of the requirements of this sub-section subject to such conditions (if any) as he may prescribe.

(10) The Company may apply for all or any of the purposes of this section (being purposes to which capital is properly applicable) any moneys which they may be authorised to raise or apply for the general purposes of their undertaking.

(11) The Minister may hold such inquiries as he may think fit for the purposes of his powers and duties under this section and sub-articles (1) and (3) of article 32 of the schedule to the Local Government (Application of Enactments) Order, 1898, shall apply for the purpose of any such inquiry as if the Company were a local authority thereunder.

(12) The Company shall pay to the Minister such sum as the Minister shall certify to be the amount of the costs and expenses incurred by him in respect of the application for, preparation, making and confirmation of any Provision Order under any enactment incorporated with this Act.

(13) Any house purchased or acquired by the Company for or in connection with any of the purposes of a new dwelling scheme which may have been occupied by persons of the working class within five years before the passing of this Act shall for the purposes of this section be deemed to have been acquired under the powers conferred by this section and to have been occupied on the said 1st day of January, 1932, by the same number of persons belonging to the working class as were occupying the said house at the date of its purchase or acquisition.

In the event of the Minister being unable to ascertain the number of such persons occupying such house at the date of such purchase or acquisition, such house shall be deemed to have been at such date occupied by such number of persons as in the opinion of the Minister it might have been sufficient to accommodate.

(14) In this section—

the expression “local area” means and includes an urban or rural district, a borough or a county borough;

the word “house” means any house or part of a house occupied as a separate dwelling;

the expression “the working class” means mechanics, artisans, labourers and other persons working for wages, hawkers, costermongers, persons not working for wages but working at some trade or handicraft without employing others except members of their own family, and persons, other than domestic servants, whose income in any case does not exceed an average of sixty shillings a week, and the families of any of such persons who may be residing with them.

Period for compulsory purchase of lands.

6.—The powers of the Company or of the trustees for the compulsory purchase of lands for the purposes of this Act shall not be exercised after the expiration of three years from the passing of this Act.

Power to stop up roads, lanes or paths.

7.—The Company may stop up all roads, lanes or paths within the limits of the lands by this Act authorised to be acquired and may extinguish all rights of way in or over any such roads, lanes or paths and may appropriate the soil and site thereof to the purposes of the Company: Provided that this section shall not authorise the Company to stop up the footpath referred to in the deposited plan and book of reference or to extinguish or interfere with the public right of way in or over the said footpath and provided also that nothing in this Act contained shall interfere with or alter the rights of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses of Dublin with respect to the watercourse mentioned in the Schedule to this Act or alter or affect anything contained in the Acts relating to the waterworks of the said Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses of Dublin.

Power to demise land not required for purposes of burial.

8.—The Company shall have the like powers of demising and leasing all such portions of the lands described in the First Schedule to the Act of 1874 and of the lands acquired under the authority of this Act not required for the interment of bodies therein as are conferred on the Company by section eleven of the Act of 1874 in respect of lands authorised to be purchased by the Act of 1874.

Power to widen or improve roads to cemetery.

9.—The Company may widen or improve any existing roads or lanes to the cemetery which they think fit: Provided always that the Company shall not widen or improve any existing road or lane without the consent of the owner thereof if the road or lane be private or if the road or lane be public without the consent of the persons in whom the management of the road or lane is vested by law.

Power to enter into agreements for widening or improving roads.

10.—The Company and the owner or person having the management of any such road or lane as aforesaid may enter into such agreements as they think fit for enabling the Company to widen or improve any such road or lane and for maintaining the same.

Reservation of site for new road.

11.—For the purpose of enabling the Right Honourable The Lord Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses of Dublin in the event of their desiring at any time during the period hereinafter mentioned to construct a new road through or over the lands acquired under this Act connecting Mount Argos Road with the lands of Rathland West to acquire such portion of the lands acquired under the authority of this Act as may be requisite for the purpose of constructing such new road the Company shall during the period of ten years from the passing of this Act reserve a strip of ground measuring forty feet in width immediately adjoining the site of the wall to be built by the Company in accordance with the provisions of section 12 of this Act along the boundary of the lands of Argos in the occupation of the Passionist Fathers: Provided that if by reason of any diversion of such new road any portion of the lands acquired under this Act shall be severed and remain lying between the new road so diverted and the boundary of the lands of Argos and if the Company shall decide to sell or part with possession of such severed portion the Passionist Fathers shall have the option of purchasing such severed portion at a price to be fixed (in default of agreement) by arbitration.

Preserving privacy of Mount Argos.

12.—Before using any part of the lands acquired under the authority of this Act for the interment of bodies therein, or in the event of the construction of the new road referred to in section 11 of this Act then before the construction of such new road the Company shall build and erect a concrete or masonry wall measuring nine feet in height as a boundary wall between the lands acquired under the authority of this Act and the said lands of Argos and upon the former lands but immediately adjoining the said lands of Argos: Provided that in the event of the strip of ground to be reserved by the Company as provided by the said section 11 or any part thereof being acquired by the Right Honourable The Lord Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses of Dublin for the purposes of the construction of the said road the said boundary wall and the site thereof shall be deemed to be the property of the Passionist Fathers.

Funerals not to enter cemetery from Mount Argos Road.

13.—The Company shall not without express authority given by the Oireachtas open an entrance for funerals into the cemetery from any part of the Mount Argos Road or from any part of any new road that may be built on any portion of the land acquired pursuant to this Act for the purpose of admitting funerals approaching the cemetery from the Mount Argos Road.

Power to fix number of Directors by resolution of General Meeting.

14.—The Company in general meeting may from time to time fix the number of directors and prescribe the number to go out of office by rotation at the end of each year and sections 70 and 73 of the Act of 1834 shall apply as if the number of directors so fixed and prescribed by the Company in general meeting were substituted for the numbers “twelve” and “three” in the said respective sections mentioned: Provided always that the number of directors so fixed shall not be less than six and if that number be exceeded not less than nine and if that number be exceeded not less than twelve and that in no event shall the number of directors so fixed exceed twelve.

Directors contracting with Company not disqualified if nature of interest disclosed.

15.—Notwithstanding anything contained in sections 77 and 81 of the Act of 1834 no director shall be disqualified by his office from entering into any contract with the Company or from being concerned or interested in any contract under the Company nor shall any contract or arrangement entered into by or on behalf of the Company in which any director shall be in any way concerned or interested be avoided, nor shall any person so contracting or being so concerned or interested be disqualified from being chosen or continuing or acting as a director, or be liable to account to the Company for any profit realised by any such contract or arrangement by reason of holding that office or of the fiduciary relation thereby established, provided that the nature of his interest is disclosed at the meeting of the directors at which the contract or arrangement is determined on, if his interest then exists, or in any other case at the first meeting of the directors after the acquisition of his interest, but a director may not as a director vote in respect of any such contract or arrangement in which he is so concerned or interested as aforesaid. A general notice that a director is a member of a specified firm or company and is to be regarded as interested in any subsequent transaction with such firm or company shall, if recorded in the directors' minutes, be sufficient disclosure under this section, and after such general notice it shall not be necessary to give any special notice relating to any particular transaction with such firm or company.

Repeal of sections of Act of 1834.

16.—Sections 90 to 96 inclusive of the Act of 1834 relating to the payment by the Company of fees upon interment to incumbents of parishes and other matters in relation to such fees are hereby repealed.

Amendment of section of Act of 1834.

17.—Section 97 of the Act of 1834 shall be read and construed as if the words “the auditor or auditors of the Company” were therein substituted for the words “Two at least of the auditors of the Company” wherever the latter words appear in the said section.

Extension of borrowing powers.

18.—Section 20 of the Act of 1874 shall be amended by substituting for the word “five” therein the word “ten” and the borrowing power of the Company, shall be extended accordingly.

Saving for Acts of 1834 and 1874.

19.—Nothing in this Act contained shall interfere with the constitution, operation, internal government and powers of the Company under the Act of 1834 and the Act of 1874 or alter the provisions of the Act of 1834 or the Act of 1874 further or otherwise than as by this Act is expressly provided.

Costs of Act.

20.—All the costs charges and expenses of and preparatory and incidental to the application for and passing of this Act shall be paid by the Company.

SCHEDULE.

Lands and property in the Parish of Saint Catherine Barony of Uppercross and County Borough of Dublin to be taken under the powers of this Act.

The lands hereinbefore described are bounded on the North by the townland of Dolphin's Barn and the said townland boundary, on the South partly by the lands of Argos, in the occupation of the Passionist Fathers, and partly by Mount Argos Road, on the East partly by other part of the lands of Rathland East and partly by the lands of Mount Jerome, both in the occupation of the said General Cemetery Company of Dublin, and on the West by the watercourse flowing between the lands of Rathland East and Rathland West and vested in the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses of Dublin.