Fire prevention and fire extinction

by James Braidwood

The return made in the June of one year shall not come into effect till the 1st of January of the succeeding year, and shall be the basis of the contributions for that year.

16. If any insurance company makes default in making such returns to the Board as are required by this Act, it shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every day during which it is so in default.

17. The secretary or other officer having the custody of the books and papers of any insurance company that is required to pay a contribution to the Board in pursuance of this Act shall allow any officer appointed by the Board to inspect, during the hours of business, any books and papers that will enable him to ascertain the amount of property insured by such company in the metropolis, and the amount for which it is insured, and to make extracts from such books or papers; and any secretary or other such officer as aforesaid of a company failing to comply with the requisitions of this section in respect of such inspections and extracts shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for each offence.

18. The Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury shall pay or cause to be paid to the Board by way of contribution to the expenses of maintaining the fire brigade such sums as Parliament may from time to time grant for that purpose, not exceeding in any one year the sum of ten thousand pounds.

19. For the purpose of defraying all expenses that may be incurred by the Board in carrying into effect this Act which are not otherwise provided for, the Board may from time to time issue their precepts to the overseers of the poor of every parish or place within the metropolis, requiring the overseers to pay over the amount mentioned in the precepts to the Treasurer of the Board, or into a bank to be named in the precepts, within forty days from the delivery of the precept.

The overseers shall comply with the requisitions of any such precept by paying the sums mentioned out of any monies in their hands applicable to the relief of the poor, or by levying the amount required as part of the rate for the relief of the poor, but no contribution required to be paid by any parish or place under this section shall exceed in the whole in any one year the rate of one halfpenny in the pound on the full and fair annual value of property rateable to the relief of the poor within the said parish or place, such full and fair annual value to be computed in all parts of the metropolis, exclusive of the city of London, according to the last valuation for the time being acted on in assessing the county rate, or, where there is no county rate, according to a like estimate or basis; and no liberty, precinct, or place, shall be exempt from the rate leviable for the purposes of this Act by reason of its being extra-parochial or otherwise; and in default of proper officers in any liberty, precinct, or place, to assess or levy the said rate, the Board may appoint such officers, and add the amount of any expenses so incurred to the amount to be raised by the next succeeding rate in such liberty, precinct, or place.

Overseers shall, for the purposes of levying any amount required to be levied by them under this Act, have the same powers and be subject to the same obligations as in levying a rate for the relief of the poor.

The word "Overseers" shall include any persons or bodies of persons authorized or required to make and collect or cause to be collected rates applicable to the relief of the poor; and such persons or bodies shall pay to the Board the amount so mentioned in the precept out of the said rates.

20. In case the amount ordered by any such precept as aforesaid to be paid by the overseers of any parish or place be not paid in manner directed by such precept and within the time therein specified for that purpose, it shall be lawful for any justice of the peace, upon the complaint by the Board or by any person authorized by the Board, to issue his warrant for levying the amount or so much thereof as may be in arrear by distress and sale of the goods of all or any of the said overseers, and in case the goods of all the overseers be not sufficient to pay the same, the arrears thereof shall be added to the amount of the next levy which is directed to be made in such parish or place for the purposes of this Act, and shall be collected by the like methods.

21. The Board may, with the consent of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, borrow any sum not exceeding forty thousand pounds, and apply the same for the purposes of this Act; and all powers contained in the Metropolis Local Management Acts authorizing the Board to borrow money, or any commissioners or persons to lend money to the Board, and all other provisions as to the mode of borrowing, the repayment of principal or interest, or in anywise relating to borrowing by the Board, shall be deemed to apply and to extend to this Act in the same manner as if the monies borrowed in pursuance of this Act were monies borrowed for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the Metropolis Local Management Acts, or one or more of those acts. The Board shall apply the monies received by them under this Act in liquidation of the principal and interest of the monies so borrowed, but no creditor shall be concerned to see to such application, or be liable for any misapplication of the monies received or borrowed by the Board in pursuance of this Act.