Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894

PART VISupplemental

31Use of schoolrooms

The parish electors on the application of not fewer than six of their number and the parish council (including a landward committee) shall be entitled to use, free of charge, at all reasonable times, except during ordinary school hours, and after reasonable notice, for any purpose under this Act, or under the [8 & 9 Vict. c. 83.] Poor Law (Scotland) Act, 1845, the Education Acts, or the principal Act, including public meetings in connexion with the candidature of any person for the county council or the parish council, any room in a school receiving a grant out of moneys provided by Parliament, and any room the expense of maintaining which is payable out of any rate levied by the parish council.

Provided that this enactment shall not authorise the use of any room used as part of a private dwelling-house.

Provided also that any .expense reasonably incurred by the person or persons having control over the room, or any damage done to the room or its contents in consequence of its being so used, shall be defrayed by such parish electors or the parish council who, when the meeting is called for the purposes of any candidature, shall be entitled to recover such expense from the person or persons calling the meeting.

32Incorporation of parish council

Every parish council elected in pursuance of this Act shall be incorporated under the name of the parish council of the parish, with power to sue and be sued, and shall have perpetual succession.

33Committees of parish councils

A parish council may from time to time appoint, from their own number, committees for the exercise of any powers which can properly be exercised by committees, and no committee of a parish council shall unless re-appointed hold office beyond the next statutory meeting of the council following its appointment, provided that a parish council shall not delegate to a committee any power of raising money by rate or loan.

34Appointment of joint committees

Any parish councils, or parish councils and county councils or district committees or town councils or burgh commissioners, may, from time to time, join in appointing, out of their respective bodies, a joint committee for any purpose of this Act in which they are jointly interested, and the provisions of section seventy-six of the principal Act, with regard to the appointment and powers of joint committees of county councils, or of county councils and town councils, shall, with the necessary variations, apply to joint committees appointed under this section.

35Parish accounts

(1)(a)All receipts of a parish council relating to or arising out of powers transferred to them by Part III. of this Act shall be carried to a general parish fund; and

(b)All receipts of a parish council or landward committee in relation to or arising out of powers conferred upon them by Part IV. of this Act shall be carried to a special parish fund; and

(c)All payments in relation to or arising out of the said powers respectively shall be made out of the said funds respectively.

A separate bank account shall be kept for each fund and all cheques for payment of moneys shall be signed by two members of the parish council or landward committee, as the case may be, and be countersigned by the clerk. The Board shall make rules as to the method in which payments shall be made by a parish council and by a landward committee.

(2)A parish council and a landward committee shall keep such accounts of the above-mentioned funds, and of the sums raised by rates, as will prevent a rate from being applied to any purpose to which it is not properly applicable. The Board shall prescribe forms in which such accounts shall be kept.

36Audit of accounts

The provisions contained in sections sixty-eight to seventy inclusive of the principal Act with respect to the making up and auditing of the accounts of a county council shall, with the substitution of " parish council " for " county council," and " clerk of the parish council" for " county clerk," and " parish" for " county " or " burgh," and " the Board " for " the Secretary for Scotland," apply to the making up and auditing of the accounts of a parish council, including those of a landward committee, subject to the following provisions, that is to say :

(1)The accounts of the parish council shall be audited by an auditor appointed by the Board.

(2)The Board may, by order, prescribe rules modifying the enactments as to the time and place of audit.

(3)The Board may prescribe a scale for the remuneration of auditors in respect of their duties under this section.

(4)The accounts of a parish council shall be transmitted annually by the clerk of the council as soon as may be after the fifteenth day of May but not later than the first day of August to the auditor appointed by the Board.

37Local annual budget

At a meeting in the month of July in each local financial year every parish council shall cause to be submitted to them the estimates of the receipts and expenditure of such council, including those of a landward committee or other committee thereof, during that financial year, whether on account of property, contributions, rates, loans, or otherwise, and shall revise such estimates (other than those of any landward committee), and authorise such expenditure and make such provision for meeting the same, as they shall approve.

38Borrowing by parish councils

(1)If and so long as the amount of loans owing by any parish council for the time being exceeds one fifth of the annual value of the lands and heritages within such parish as ascertained for the purposes of the [8 & 9 Vict. c. 83.] Poor Law (Scotland) Act, 1845, no further loan, other than a temporary loan in terms of section eighty-nine of the said Act, shall be raised by such parish council without the consent of the Board.

(2)Where money has been borrowed by a parish council, or by a parochial board, the parish council shall, until the loan has been extinguished, within twenty-one days after the expiration of each local financial year, transmit to the Secretary for Scotland a return in such form, and verified in such manner, as he may from time to time prescribe, showing the amount of the loan still outstanding, and the steps which have been taken to comply with the provisions of this or any other Act in regard to its payment and discharge.

39Duty of Board and of county and town councils and burgh commissioners to bring Act into operation

(1)It shall be the duty of the Board, and of every county council and town council, and of burgh commissioners in a police burgh, to exercise all powers which may be requisite for bringing this Act into full operation as soon as may be after the passing thereof.

(2)Where the Board are authorised or required by any Act to make or confirm any order, rule, or regulation, or to give any consent, sanction, or approval, or otherwise to act, they may cause a local inquiry to be held in terms of sub-section eight of section twenty-five of this Act, and the provisions of that sub-section shall apply accordingly.

40Chairman of district committee and of parish council to be justice

The chairman of a district committee and the chairman of a parish council, unless a woman or personally disqualified by any Act, shall by virtue of their office be justices of the peace for the county in which the district or parish is situate.

41Absence from meetings

If a parish councillor is absent from meetings of the parish council for more than six months consecutively, then, except in case of illness, or for some reason approved by the parish council, his office shall, on the expiration of the said six months, become vacant, and the vacancy may be filled as a casual vacancy.

42Protection of rights of way

(1)It shall be the duty of a town council or in a police burgh of the burgh commissioners, and of a district committee, and, where there is no district committee, of the county council, to assert, protect, and keep open and free from obstruction or encroachment any right of way, whether wholly within or partly within and partly without the burgh, police burgh, district, or county respectively, which it may appear to them respectively that the public have acquired by grant, prescriptive use, or otherwise, and they may respectively, for the purpose of carrying this section into effect, institute and defend any legal proceedings and generally take such steps as they may deem expedient.

(2)Where a parish council, or any six parish electors, of a parish have represented to the district committee or, where there is no district committee, to the county council, that any public right of way within the district, or beneficial to any inhabitants of the district, has been or is likely to be shut, or obstructed, or encroached upon, it shall be the duty of the district committee, or, where there is no district committee, of the county council, if they are satisfied that the representation is well founded, to take such proceedings as may be requisite for the vindication of the right of way, and if the district committee refuse or fail to take proceedings in consequence of such representation, the parish council, or the electors who made the representation, may petition the County council, and if the county council so resolve, the powers and duties of the district committee under this section, in relation to such right of way, shall be transferred to the county council.

(3)Any expenditure incurred by a county council or a district committee thereof in connexion with any legal or other proceedings, under the two preceding sub-sections, or either of them, shall be defrayed out of the road rate for the district, or, where a county is not divided into districts, out of the road rate for the county. Provided always, that any litigant who is successful against the county council or district committee shall not be assessed for such portion of the road rate as is rendered necessary by such expenditure.

(4)Within a county, district, or parish respectively it shall be in the power of the county council, or district committee, or parish council, and of any member or members of the public, with the consent of any one of these bodies, to erect and maintain guide posts and direction notices upon any right of way.

43Power to heirs of entail to grant land belonging to an entailed estate

Any heir of entail in possession of land in Scotland, and the trustee, tutor, and curator of such heir of entail, if in minority or subject to any legal incapacity, may give and grant to a parish council, or to the commissioners of a police burgh, land belonging to the entailed estate to be used for public recreation, but not exceeding in the whole twenty acres: Provided that no such grant shall be effectual unless the heir of entail next in succession of lawful age and any persons in right of heritable securities or other charges affecting such land shall consent thereto, or unless, in the event of the persons in right of such heritable securities or other charges refusing such consent, the sheriff, upon the application of the heir of entail in possession, duly intimated to such persons (who shall be entitled to appear and object), shall have found that the lands comprised in such heritable securities or charges, other than the lands proposed to be granted, afford adequate security; and the land so given and granted shall not be liable to nor affected by any other rights, titles, trusts, interests, or incumbrances to, in, or upon the same whatsoever, and such heir of entail shall not thereby be subject to nor incur any forfeiture or irritancy under the entail thereof: Provided always, that such land shall not be within a quarter of a mile of the mansion house in the natural possession of the proprietor, or part of any gardens, orchards, or enclosures adjacent to the mansion house which have usually been in the natural possession of the proprietor.

44Formation of lighting and scavenging districts, and provision of public baths

(1)It shall be lawful in a county for a parish council or for any two or more parish councils, or for not fewer than ten parish electors of any landward parish or of the landward part of any parish partly landward and partly burghal, to make a requisition in writing to the district committee of the county council, or when a county is not divided into districts to the county council, calling upon them to form such parish or parishes or landward part of a parish or any portion or portions thereof into a special district for the following purposes or any one or more of them ; that is to say,—

(a)The lighting of the special district and the adoption for such purpose by the district committee or county council as the case may be of the provisions contained in sections ninety-nine to one hundred and five inclusive of the [55 & 56 Vict. c. 55.] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, or any one or more of them :

(b)The scavenging of, and the removal of dust, ashes, and other refuse from, the streets, roads, footpaths, lands and premises in such special district, and the adoption for such purposes by the district committee or the county council, as the case may be, of the provisions contained in sections one hundred and seven to one hundred and twenty-seven, and two hundred and fifty-three to two hundred and fifty-five, inclusive, of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, or any one or more of them :

(c)The provision and maintenance of public baths or bathing places, wash-houses, and drying grounds, and the adoption for such purposes by the district committee or county council, as the case may be, of the provisions contained in sections three hundred and nine to three hundred and fourteen, inclusive, of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, or any one or more of them.

(2)Upon such requisition being received, the district committee or county council, as the case may be, shall be bound to meet, after twenty-one clear days notice, and shall consider the propriety of forming such parish or landward part of a parish or portion thereof into a special district, and shall by resolution either approve or disapprove of the formation of a special district (which shall in no case include a police burgh or any portion thereof) for the purposes stated in the requisition or any one or more of them, and, if they approve thereof, shall define the boundaries of such special district and specify which of the provisions of the [55 & 56 Vict. c. 55.] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, referred to in the preceding sub-section are to be adopted therein. Such resolution shall be final, subject to the provisions of sub-section three of this section, and in the event of the district committee or county council, as the case may be, disapproving of the formation of a special district as proposed in a requisition, it shall not be competent to make another requisition to the same effect until after the expiration of twelve months. A copy of every such resolution shall be forthwith published in one or more newspapers circulating in the district and transmitted to the Board and to the county council.

(3)Where the proposed special district is co-extensive with or comprises the whole or part of the area of any special drainage or water supply district formed under the Public Health Acts, the consent of the county council shall be required to any resolution approving of the formation of a special district under this section, and in giving or refusing such consent the county council shall take into consideration the whole circumstances of the case, including the amount of the rates levied for the time being under the Public Health Acts and the principal Act within the proposed special district, and the county council may consent to the resolution either with or without modifications.

(4)On the adoption by a district committee or county council, as the case may be, of any of the provisions above mentioned, such provisions shall have effect within or in relation to the special district, subject to the provisions of the Fourth Schedule to this Act annexed.

(5)The area of a special district formed under this section may be enlarged or altered, and two or more special districts may be combined, from time to time, by resolution of the district committee or county council, as the case may be, in terms of this section, with or without a requisition.

(6)Any expenditure attending the formation of a special district, or the carrying out within such special district of the purposes of this section or of any of them, shall be paid out of an assessment to be imposed by the county council within the special district, to be called the special district rate, and levied along with and as an addition to and in excess of the public health rate and with the same remedies and modes of recovery : Provided that such special district rate shall not exceed ninepence in the pound on the annual value of the lands and heritages within the special district as ascertained for the purposes of the [8 & 9 Vict. c. 83.] Poor Law (Scotland) Act, 1845, and a county council may borrow for such of the said purposes as the Secretary for Scotland may by order prescribe on the security of such special district rate.

(7)The total amount required to be raised (so far as within a county) by a public health rate (including any special district rate) may be certified by the county council to the parish council, and may be collected by the parish collector along with the poor rate of the parish. The amount collected in such case shall be paid over to the county council without any deductions, but the expense of collection (including the reasonable remuneration of the collector) shall be a debt from the county council to the parish council.

(8)Where a special district has been formed under this section, the district committee or the county council, as the case may be, may, subject to regulations to be from time to time made with the consent of the county council, appoint annually a sub-committee for carrying out the purposes for which -such special district has been formed, and such sub-committees shall in whole or in part consist of parish councillors of the parish or parishes in which the special district is situated, whether members of the district committee or not.

(9)From and after the first election in a county of parish councillors, sub-section one of section eighty-one of the principal Act shall be read as if for the words " shall in part consist of " persons, whether members of the district committee or not, who " are resident within the special drainage district or special water " supply district," there were substituted the words " shall in " whole or in part consist of parish councillors of the parish or " parishes in which the special district is situated, whether " members of the district committee or not," and the number of a sub-committee appointed under the said section may, failing agreement between a district committee or county council and a town council or the commissioners of a police burgh, be determined by the Secretary for Scotland.

(10)Upon the formation of a special lighting district under the provisions of this section it shall be lawful for the district committee to adopt the [39 & 40 Vict. c. 49.] Burghs Gas Supply (Scotland) Act, 1876, and any Act amending the same, but in such case the provisions of the principal Act with respect to capital, expenditure, borrowing, and audit of accounts shall apply in lieu of the corresponding provisions of the former Acts or of this section; and in the application of the former Acts the expression " burgh" shall be construed to mean special lighting district, " commissioners" " town council" and " commissioners of police " to mean district committee, and " elector" and " ratepayer" to mean a person registered as a county elector the subject of whose qualification is situated within the special lighting district.

45Valuation roll to show special districts

(1)The assessor of a county in making up the valuation roll of the county shall distinguish in the valuation roll lands and heritages situated within the boundaries of each police burgh, each police district formed under section fifty-eight of the [20 & 21 Vict. c. 72.] Police Act, 1857, each special water supply and special drainage district, each special district formed under section forty-four of this Act, and any part of a parish for which a landward committee is constituted in terms of this Act.

(2)The provisions of section five of the [30 & 31 Vict. c. 80.] Valuation of Lands (Scotland) Amendment Act, 1867, as extended by the [50 & 51 Vict. c. 51.] Valuation of Lands (Scotland) Amendment Act, 1887, with regard to separate valuations of portions of railways, waterworks, gasworks, and other undertakings included within the limits of burghs, towns, or populous places, shall extend to counties outwith the boundaries of police burghs in like manner as if they were herein re-enacted with the substitution of the expression " county clerk " for " town clerk, or " clerk of the commissioners, or trustees of police," and of " police " district formed under section fifty-eight of the [20 & 21 Vict. c. 72.] Police Act, 1857, " special water supply district, special drainage district, special " district formed under section forty-four of the Local Government " (Scotland) Act, 1894, and any part of a parish for which a " landward committee is constituted in terms of the said Act," for " burghs, towns, and populous places."

46Additional powers to alter parish areas

An order of the Secretary for Scotland, under section fifty-one of the principal Act, for altering the boundaries of any parish or for uniting several parishes or parts of parishes into one parish by the creation of a new parish or otherwise, or annexing one or. more of such parishes or parts of parishes to a larger parish, or for dividing any parish or for uniting any subdivision of a parish with any other parish, shall have effect for all purposes whether county council, justice, sheriff, militia, parochial board, parish council, school board, local authority, or other, save as herein-after provided. Before making any such order, the Secretary for Scotland shall consult with the authorities concerned, and, upon the application of any one or more of such authorities, shall 'cause a local inquiry in terms of the principal Act to be held, and shall cause the proposed order to be published in the Edinburgh Gazette, and in such other manner as to make the same known to all persons interested, and shall consider all objections and representations respecting such .order, and may, after the expiry of not less than forty days from the date of the publication of the proposed order in the Edinburgh Gazette, finally make the order and cause the same to be forthwith published in the Edinburgh Gazette, and such order shall thereafter have effect as if enacted by Parliament unless or until revoked or modified by subsequent order in terms of this section. In addition to the provisions of the principal Act any such order may be made on the representation of a parochial board or parish council, or the commissioners of a police burgh, or a school board.

An order of the Secretary for Scotland under the powers conferred by section fifty-one of the principal Act or this section may, without prejudice to the generality of the aforesaid powers, provide for all or any of the matters specified in sub-section six of section forty-nine of the principal Act.

The words " in the county" occurring in sub-section (e) of section fifty-one of the principal Act are hereby repealed, and the said section shall be read as if for the words " county burgh or parish," occurring in proviso (ii) thereof, there were substituted the words " county or burgh ; " and the words " this Act," in subsection (g) of the said section, and in sections ninety-five and ninety-six of the principal Act, shall be construed as meaning " the Local Government (Scotland) Acts."

47Current rates

(1)Every rate and requisition for sums of money made before the fifteenth day of May in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, may be levied and collected, and proceedings for the enforcement thereof may be taken in like manner, as nearly as may be, as if this Act had not passed.

(2)The accounts of all moneys received or expended before the fifteenth day of May in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, shall be audited and other consequential proceedings taken in like manner as nearly as may be as if this Act had not passed, and every officer whose duty it is to make up any accounts, or to account for any portion of the moneys received or expended in any account shall, until the audit is completed, be deemed for the purpose of such audit to continue in office and be bound to perform the same duties and render the same accounts as if this Act had not passed.

48Transfer of property

(1)All such property as belongs, or would, but for the passing of this Act, belong to, or be vested in, or held in trust for, any authority whose powers and duties are, by or in pursuance of this Act, transferred to a parish council shall, from and after such transference, pass to, and vest in, and be held in trust for, such parish council, subject to all debts and liabilities affecting the same, and shall be held by the parish council for the purposes for which such property is or would have been held, so far as such purposes are not modified by this Act; and if any question shall arise between any such authority and a parish council as to the heritable or movable property transferred by or in pursuance of this Act, the same, failing agreement, shall be determined by the Board.

(2)The parish council shall have full power to manage, alter, and enlarge, and, with the consent of the Board, to alienate lands and heritages transferred by this section, and may from time to time provide such accommodation and rooms, and such furniture, books, and other things as they may reasonably require for the transaction of their business.

49Transfer of debts and liabilities

All debts and liabilities of any authority, whose powers and duties are transferred by or in pursuance of this Act to a parish council, shall become debts and liabilities of such council, and shall, from and after such transfer and subject to the provisions of this Act, be defrayed by them out of the like funds out of which they would have been defrayed if this Act had not passed.

50Existing officers and servants

All persons who on the fifteenth day of May in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five hold office as inspector of the poor of the parish or collector of poor rates, or are officers of a parochial board, under any Acts of Parliament, or are servants of such board and perform any duties in respect of the business transferred by, or in pursuance of, this Act to a parish council, shall thereafter become the officers and servants of the parish council.

51Tenure and duties of officers transferred to parish council

(1)The officers and servants of any authority who hold office at the passing of this Act, and who by or in pursuance of this Act become officers and servants of a parish council (in this Act referred to as existing officers), shall hold their offices by the same tenure, and upon the same terms and conditions, as if this Act had not passed, and while performing the same duties shall receive not less salaries or remuneration and be entitled to not less pensions (if any) than they would have received or been entitled to if this Act had not passed: Provided that any re-arrangement of the duties and remuneration of existing medical officers, holding office under the [8 & 9 Vict. c. 83.] Poor Law (Scotland) Act, 1845, shall be subject to the approval of the Board.

(2)Subject to any general regulations of the Board, a parish council may distribute the business to be performed by existing officers and may combine their duties in such manner as the council may think expedient, and every existing officer shall perform such duties in relation to such business as may be directed by the council : Provided that if any existing inspector of poor is aggrieved by such distribution of business, or by the imposition or withdrawal of any duties, he may, within one month after the date of "any resolution of the council distributing such business or imposing or withdrawing such duties, appeal to the Board, whose decision shall be final.

(3)Any parish councils, or parish councils and county councils or district committees or town councils or burgh commissioners, may, from time to time, join in making such arrangements with regard to the conduct and management of their business, including the collection of rates, whether leviable by a parish council, or by a county council, or town council, or burgh commissioners, and the distribution of such business among their officers, as shall seem to them, in the whole circumstances of the case, to be most effective and economical.

52Saving for pending actions, &c

(1)If at the time of the transfer, any action or proceeding, or any cause of action or proceeding, is pending or existing by or against any authority in relation to any powers, duties, liabilities, or property by this Act transferred to the parish council, the same shall not be in anywise prejudicially affected by reason of such transfer, but may be continued, prosecuted, and enforced by or against the parish council, as successors of such authority, in like manner as if such transfer had not taken place.

(2)All contracts, deeds, bonds, agreements, and other instruments entered into or made and subsisting at the time of the transfer, and affecting any such powers, duties, liabilities, or property of any authority as are by this Act transferred to a parish council, shall be of as full force and effect against or in favour of the parish council, and may be enforced as fully and effectually as if instead of such authority the said parish council had been a party thereto.

53Saving for securities in discharge of debts

Nothing done in pursuance of this Act shall prejudicially affect any securities granted, before the time of the transfer, on the credit of any rate or property by this Act transferred to a parish council, and all such securities, as well as all unsecured debts, liabilities, or obligations lawfully incurred by any authority, body, or person, in the exercise of any power or in relation to any property transferred from them to the parish council under this Act, shall be discharged, paid, and satisfied by the parish council.

54Definitions

Expressions used in this Act have the same meaning, if not inconsistent with the context, as expressions used in the principal Act: Provided that, if not inconsistent with the context—

• The expression " police burgh " in the Local Government (Scotland) Acts, the [53 & 54 Vict. c. 60.] Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890, the [54 & 55 Vict. c. 32.] Roads and Streets in Police Burghs (Scotland) Act, 1891, and the [55 & 56 Vict. c. 51.] Education and Local Taxation Account (Scotland) Act, 1892, has the meaning assigned to it in the [55 & 56 Vict. c. 55.] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892:

• The expression " municipal register " includes the register of voters for the election in a police burgh of burgh commissioners :

• The expressions " municipal election, " " municipal electors, " and " municipal wards " include the election of burgh commissioners in a police burgh, the voters at, and the wards constituted for, such election respectively:

• The expression " town clerk " includes the clerk to the burgh commissioners of a police burgh :

• The expression " secretary " includes assistant secretary:

• The expression " parish, " means a parish quoad civilia which is at the passing of this Act or may hereafter be constituted a separate parish for the purposes of settlement and relief of the poor, and includes a combination of parishes within the meaning of section sixteen of the Poor Law (Scotland) Act, 1845 :

• The expression " burghal parish " means a parish which is wholly comprised within the boundaries of a burgh, and the expression " landward parish " means a parish no part of which is comprised within the boundaries of a burgh :

• The boundaries of burghs for the purposes of this Act shall be held to be the boundaries thereof as the same are or may be ascertained, fixed, or determined for police purposes, under the provisions contained in any general or local Act of Parliament, or, when no police assessment is levied, as the same are or may be ascertained, fixed, or determined for municipal purposes:

• The expression " burghal part of a parish " means any part of a parish comprised within the boundaries of a burgh, and the expression " landward part of a parish " means any part of a parish not comprised within the boundaries of a burgh :

• The expression " Public Health Acts " means the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1867, and any Act or Acts amending the same :

• The expression " Education Acts " means the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872, and any Act or Acts amending the same:

• The expression " burgh " means any royal or parliamentary burgh, and shall include the burgh of Coatbridge :

• The expression " ecclesiastical charity " includes a charity the endowment whereof is held for some one or more of the following purposes:—

  (a)

  For theological instruction or for the benefit of any theological institution; or

  (b)

  For the benefit of any ecclesiastical person or officer as such; or

  (c)

  For use, if a building, as a church, chapel, mission hall or room, or Sunday school, or otherwise by any particular church or denomination; or

  (d)

  For the maintenance, repair, or improvement of any such building as aforesaid, or for the maintenance of divine service therein; or

  (e)

  Otherwise for the benefit of any particular church or denomination, or of any members thereof as such :

Provided that where any endowment of a charity, other than a building held for any of: the purposes aforesaid, is held in part only for some of the purposes aforesaid, the charity, so far as that endowment is concerned, shall be an ecclesiastical charity within the meaning of this Act.

55Repeal of Acts

The Acts specified in the First Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent mentioned in the third column and as from the dates respectively specified in the fourth column of that schedule, and so much of any Act as is inconsistent with this Act is also hereby repealed.