Second Schedule., The Rural Area (2) This Ordinance shall come into operation on the first day of January, 1950, or

PART I.-VALUATION OF PREMISES. 1. (1) For th~ purpose of compiling the :first Valuation List the valuers shall before a day to be appointed by the Rural Area Council assess the annual value of all premises assessable within the meaning of section 16 and shall prepare and sign the :first Valuation List in the form prescribed in the Fourth Schedule. Thereafter they shall on or before the 1st day of June in every year a~:;sess the annual value of such assessable premises, and prepare and sign a Valuation List in the prescribed form. (2) If the valuers are of the opinion that the value of any premises shown in the Valuation Roll in force at the time of assessment correctly shows the annual value of such premises, they shall accept such valuation for the purposes of the Valuation List then in course of preparation, but otherwise shall revise such valuation and enter the revised valuation in such Valuation List. 2. (1) The valuers may require any owner, occupier or mortgagee of any premises to give his full name and address and to produce any rent book, receipts for rents, lease, agreement or other document, and may require such owner or the person in receipt of any rent thereof, or the person renting such premises or part thereof, or the agent of such person to make a declaration in writing in the form prescribed in the Fourth Schedule as to the amount of yearly rent paid or payable for such premises, or to give any other information which may be required for the purpose of duly making any Valuation List. (2) Any person refusing or failing to produce any such book or document or sign such declaration or to give any such information or signing any such declaration knowing the same to be false shall be liable to a :fine of twenty-five pou!lds or in default of payment to imprisonment for three months. 3. Whenever the valuers have assessed the annual value of any premises which during the immediately preceding period of twelve months have been erected, altered or rebuilt, or have reassessed any premises at an increased annual value, they shall cause a notice signed by them and specifying the annual value assessed by them to be served on the owner, occupier or mortgagee of such premises. 4. The valuers may in the discharge of their duty enter upon any premises between the hours of six o'clock in the forenoon and six o'clock in the afternoon on any week day not being a public holiday and any person refusing admission to or obstructing the valuers in the discharge of their duty shall be liable to a fine of twenty-five pounds or in default of payment to imprisonment for three months. 5. When any new building is erected or whenever any building is rebuilt or enlarged the owner of such building shall within :fifteen days of the completion of work thereon or O(]CUpation thereof whichever is the sooner give notice thereof in writing to the President. In case of failure to give such notice the owner shall be guilty of an offence. 6. The Valuation List shall be divided into six parts corresponding with the six rural districts. Each part shall be made in duplicate and signed by the valuer. The original of each part shall forthwith be deposited in the office of the Rural Area Council and the copy in the office of the appropriate rural district council. The Rural Area Council shall forthwith cause to be published a notice of the deposit of such list and of the parts thereof as hereby required. Any person owning or in the occupation of or interested in any assessable premises shall on payment of a fee of one shilling be entitled to inspect the Valuation List at the office of the Rural Area Council or the copy of the appropriate part at the office of the rural district council at which it is deposited; and such person shall be entitled to take copies thereof and extracts therefrom without payment of any further fee. 7. Any person aggrieved by any Valuation List on the ground of unfairness or incorrectness in the valuation of any premises included therein, or on the ground of the inclusion of any premises in or the omission of any premises from such Valuation List, may at any time after the deposit as aforesaid of such list, and before the expiration of twenty-one days after the publication of the notice of the deposit, give to the Assessment Committee a notice in writing of his objection specifying the grounds thereof. When the ground of any objection is unfairness or incorrectness in the valuation of any premises in respect of which any person other than the person objecting is liable to be assessed or the omission of any assessable premises, the person objecting shall also give notice in writing of such objection and of the ground thereof to such other person. 8. (1) The assessment Committee shall hold meetings to hear objections to Valuation Lists, and shall fourteen days at least before holding any meeting except a meeting by adjournment, cause to be published notice of such meeting; and the Assessment Committee may at any such meeting hear and determine such objections or may from time to time adjourn any such meeting and adjourn or postpone the hearing or further hearing and determination of any such objections, and may direct notice in writing of any such objection to be given by the valuers or by the persons objecting to third parties before the further hearing thereof. When the ground of such objection is unfairness or incorrectness in the valuation of any premises in respect of which any person other than the person objecting is liable to be assessed, or the omission, of any assessable premises from the Valuation List, the Assessment Committee shall not hear any objection to such Valuation List, unless such notice as aforesaid of such objection has been given to them and to such other person by the person objecting, except when such other person by himself or some other person on his behalf consents to the hearing of such objection. (2) The Assessment Committee may, upon the hearing of objections to Valuation Lists, examine witnesses on oath and take evidence in writing. (3) Such witnesses shall be summoned under the hand of the President in the same manner as nearly as circumstances permit as witnesses at a trial in the Supreme Court. (4) Upon the hearing of objections to the Valuation List, such person as the President may direct shall take down in writing a full record of the proceedings including the evidence of all witnesses examined on oath. Objections to Lists. Procedure for dealing with objections. 9. Any person who wilfully refuses to attend in obedience to a lawful Penalty, etc. summons of the Assessment Committee, or to give evidence or to produce any rent book, receipts for rent, lease, agreement, or other document which may be required to be produced before the Assessment Committee for the purpose of ascertaining the annual value of any assessable premises in the town shall be guilty of an offence. The Assessment Committee, after hearing the parties interested, shall have power to order the withdrawal of all persons from such meetings during their deliberations. S.L.-VOL. II-14* Assessment Committee may direct further valuation and rnay correct Lists. Appeals against decision of Assessment Committee. Section 44. Meetings. 10. (1) The Assessment Committee may, whether any objection be or be not made to any Valuation List and after giving any known owner, occupier or mortgagee of the premises concerned opportunity to be heard, make such alterations in the valuation of any premises included in the Valuation List, and may insert therein any assessable premises omitted therefrom, and may delete therefrom any premises which are not assessable, and make such corrections in names, descriptions, and particulars in any Valuation List, upon such information as to them may seem sufficient, and may employ a person to survey and value any assessable premises comprised in or omitted from the Valuation List, or may take such other means for ascertaining the correctness of the Valuation List as the Assessment Committee may think fit. (2) The decisions of the Assessment Committee shall not require the approval of the Rural Area Council. (3) When the Assessment Committee has heard and determined all such objections as aforesaid and has made all alterations, insertions and corrections in the Valuation List, it shall approve the same and thereupon such Valuation List shall become a Valuation Roll. 11. (1) Any person who- (a) has appealed to the Assessment Committee and is aggrieved on account of its decision, or (b) is aggrieved by any alteration to the Valuation List made by the Assessment Committee of its own motion, may at any time within fourteen days after the publication of the notice of the deposit of the Valuation Roll appeal to a Police Magistrate. (2) The appellant shall give to the Assessment Committee seven clear days' notice in writing of his intention to appeal and the grounds thereof. (3) The Police Magistrate shall hear and determine the appeal, and either allow or disallow the same, or make such order as shall be just. (4) The Police Magistrate shall, subject to this Ordinance, have the same powers, jurisdiction and authority with respect to such appeals and the proceedings therein and to the costs as if the appeal were an ordinary suit. (5) Any person who has appealed to a Police Magistrate and is aggrieved on account of the decision on his appeal may within fourteen days appeal to the Supreme Court whose decision shall be final. (6) Where the Police Magistrate orders the Valuation Roll to be amended, and no appeal has been lodged in the prescribed period, or if an appeal has been lodged and the Supreme Court orders the Valuation Roll to be amended, the Assessment Committee shall cause the Valuation Roll to be amended in conformity with the decision so made, and shall add to such amendments the words " by order of the Court." PART !I.-STANDING ORDERs OF LocAL AuTHORITIES. 1. A meeting of a local authority shall be convened by the chairman at least once in every quarter and at such other times as the chairman may appoint: Provided that the chairman shall convene a meeting within fourteen days whenever so requested in writing by any two or more members of the local authority. Rural Area [Cap. 75 769 2. At every meeting of a local authority, the chairman or in his absence, Presiding his deputy, shall preside: Member. Provided that in the absence of both the chairman and his deputy a rural district council or a village committee shall appoint one of its members to preside. 3. All acts whatsoever hereby authorised or required to be done by a Voting. local authority and all questions that may come before a local authority shall be done and decided by the majority of votes: Provided that a local authority shall not be disqualified from the transaction of business by reason of any vacancy or vacancies among members: Provided further that no business, except that of adjournment, shall be transacted unless there be present- (i) in the case of a village committee, at least four members; (ii) in the case of a district council, or the Rural Area Council, at least six members: Provided further that whenever the post of President is vacant, the members of the Rural Area Council shall elect a President. 4. The chairman or member presiding shall have an original vote in Chairman's common with the other members, and also a casting vote if upon any question vote. the votes be equal. 5. A local authority may from time to time appoint out of their number Committees. such and so many committees, either of a general or special nature, and consisting of such number of persons as it shall think fit, for any purpose which the local authority may think would be better regulated or managed by means of such committees and any such committee may include persons who are not members of the local authority: Provided that the proceedings of every such committee shall, except as herein otherwise provided, be submitted to the local authority for approval, and shall be subject to such approval. 6. (1) Minutes of all the proceedings of a local authority shall be Minutes. regularly kept by the member or officer appointed in that behalf by the local authority in a Minute Book kept for that purpose; and, at each meeting of the local authority, the minutes of the last preceding meeting shall be read over and confirmed or amended, as the case may require, and shall be signed by the chairman or member presiding. (2) The Minute Book shall be open to inspection during office hours by any person whose name appears on the Voters List on payment of a fee of one shilling. (3) The chairman of a village committee shall furnish the chairman of the rural district council to which the village committee is subordinate and the President with certified copies of the minutes after confirmation by the village committee. (4) The chairman of a rural district council shall furnish the President and the Minister with certified copies of the minutes after confirmation by the rural district council. (5) The President shall furnish the Minister with certified copies of the minutes after confirmation by the Rural Area Council. First meeting of village committee after geneml election. First meeting of a rural district council after general election. Section 80. 7. The first meeting of a village committee after a general election shall be held at the office of the village committee or at such other place as the President may determine as soon as conveniently may be after such election and the first business to be transacted thereat shall be the election of a chairman. 8. The first meeting of a rural district council after a general election shall be held at the office of the rural district council or such other place as the President may determine and the first business to be transacted thereat shall be the election of a chairman. 9. Until the chairman of a local authority is elected or appointed as the case may be, a member may be elected by the meeting to preside over the meeting. 10. (1) The Rural Area Council shall have power to co-opt any Government official as a member for any particular meeting. (2) A co-opted member shall not have a vote and shall not be deemed to -be a member for the purpose of forming a quorum.