Act X of 1852, Section L Act XII of 1852, and Act XXVIII of 1854 are hereby repealed, except, so far as they repeal any other Act, and except as to any assessment made before this Act comes into operation.

Recovery of arrears of assessment. Any sum of money due, or which may become due, in respect of such assessment, may be levied and recovered under the provisions of this Act.

And whereas the quarterly, assessment last, made under Act X of 1852 includes, the month of January, 1857, and power is given by this Act to impose a rate upon houses, building and lands for a period including the same month, it is here by enacted that one-third of the sum payable on account of the said assessment shall be remitted.

Act XXV of 1856, entitled An Act to comprise in one Act the provisions necessary for the assessment and collection of Municipal rates and taxes in the Towns of Calcutta. Madras and Bombay, and the several stations of the Settlement of Prince of Wales' Islands Singapore, and Malacca, is incorporated with this Act;

Construction. and in construing the said let as incorporated with this Act, the expression the special Act shall mean this Act the expression the Commissioners shall mean the Municipal Commissioners constituted by this Act; and the expression the Local Government shall mean the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.

There shall be three Commissioners for the purposes of this Act, and for the conservancy of the Town of Calcutta under Act XIV of 1856. Such Commissioners shall be appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, and shall be removeable at his pleasure.

The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal shall appoint one of the said Commissioners to be President of the Board of Commissioners.

The Commissioners so appointed shall be styled the Municipal Commissioners for the Town of Calcutta, and shall by such name be a body corporate and have perpetual succession and a common seal, and by such name shall sue and be sued.

The Municipal Commissioners shall meet once at least in every week. The attendance of two shall be necessary to constitute a Meeting. At a Meeting of two on questions on which they are divided in opinion, if the President; be one of them, he shall have a casting vote; otherwise the question shall be reserved for the decision of a future Meeting.

The Municipal Commissioners may receive such allowances out of the funds to be raised under this Act as shall be, from time to time, fixed by the Lieutenant-Governor. Provided that the allowances for any Commissioner shall not exceed the rate of ten thousand Rupees a year if the Commissioner holds no other appointment or occupation, or the rate of four thousand Rupees a year if he holds any other appointment or occupation.

All annual rate of seven and a half per cent, of the annual value shall be imposed upon houses, buildings, and lands in the said Town, and shall be payable by the owners thereof by quarterly instalments.

Houses, buildings, and lands situate in Fort William, on the Esplanade of the Fort, and in Cooly Bazaar, and buildings used exclusively as places of public worship, shall not be liable to the rate.

The Commissioners may exempt from assessment any house, building, or land, the annual value whereof is less than twelve Rupees, if the same be the sole rateable property of the owner.

When any house shall have been vacant for sixty consecutive days during any year, the Commissioners shall remit so much of the rate for that year, as may be proportionate to the number of days the said house may have remained unoccupied; provided that the owner of such house, or his agent, shall have given notice in writing of the vacancy thereof to the Commissioners, and that the amount of rate to be remitted shall be calculated from the date of the delivery of such notice.

A tax shall be imposed upon all carriages, carts, hackeries, horses, ponies, and mules, kept within the said Town, and upon all carts and hackeries plying for hire within the said Town, or let for hire and used within the said Town, and kept at any place beyond the limits thereof, at the rates specified in the annexed Schedule; and shall be payable quarterly by the owners or persons having charge of the same.

Provided that the several vehicles and animals hereinafter mentioned shall be exempt from the tax, namely:

Gun Carriages, and Ordnance Carts and Waggons.

Cavalry Horses, and Horses of the Mounted Police.

Horses belonging to Officers doing Regimental duty at the Presidency, at the rate of one horse for each Officer.

Conservancy Carts, Horses, Ponies, and Mules belonging to the Commissioners.

Vehicles and animals kept for sale and not used for any other, purpose, if kept by bon fide dealers in such vehicles and animals.

Every person, who may have owned or had charge of any vehicle or animal kept within the said Town for a period exceeding thirty days in any quarter, shall be liable to the whole tax for that quarter. If the period do not exceed thirty days, no tax shall be chargeable for that quarter. Provided that, when any person owning or having charge of any vehicle or animal shall transfer the same to another person, he shall give notice thereof to the Commissioners within one week of the date of such transfer, or, if he fail to give such notice, shall be liable to the whole tax for the quarter, although the period during which he may have owned or had charge of such vehicle or animal shall not have exceeded thirty days.

When a carriage shall have been under repair at a carriage-maker's for more than thirty days in any quarter, the Commissioners shall remit so much of the tax for that quarter as may be proportionate to the number of days the said carriage may have been under repair.

The Commissioners, at their discretion, may compound, for any period not exceeding one year, with Livery Stable-keepers, and other persons keeping carriages and horses for hire, for a certain sum to be paid for the carriages and horses so kept by such persons, in lieu of the taxes specified in the Schedule.

Every carriage of the description rated in the Schedule at one eight annas, kept and let out for hire within the said. Town; and every cart and hackery kept and used within the said Town; and every cart and hackery, plying for hire within the said Town, or let for hire and used within the said Town and kept at any place beyond the limits thereof shall be registered in the Office of the Commissioners, with the name and residence of the owner, and shall bear, in such manner as the Commissioners shall direct, the number of such registration. The registration shall be made and the numbers assigned annually, upon such day in each year as the Commissioners shall appoint. Any person becoming possessed, within the year, of any such carriage, cart or hackery, which has not been registered, may obtain registration on application to the Commissioners at their Office. When any registered carriage, cart, or hackery is transferred within the year, it shall be registered anew in the name of the person to whom it has been transferred. A fee of four annas shall be paid for each registration.

Whoever keeps any such carriage, cart, or hackery required to be registered by the provisions of the last preceding Section, without being so registered, shall, on conviction before a Magistrate, be liable to a fine not exceeding ten Rupees; and the Commissioners, or any officer duly authorized by them, may seize or cause to be seized any such carriage, cart, or hackery (provided the same be not employed at the time of seizure in the conveyance of any passengers or goods), together with the horses, bullocks, or other animals drawing the same, and may deliver them over to the Police; and all Police officers are hereby required, on the application of the Commissioners or their officer as aforesaid, to seize and detain the same. If the carriage or other vehicle as aforesaid be not claimed, or if the fine be not paid within ten days, such carriage or vehicle, together with the animals seized with it, may be sold by auction by order of the Magistrate, and the proceeds applied to the payment of the fine, and all costs and charges incurred on account of the detention and sale; and the surplus (if any), if not claimed by the owner within a further period of twenty days, shall be paid to the Municipal Commissioners.

The Commissioners, with the sanction of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, may contract with the owners of any Gas-works for lighting with Gas such of the public streets of the said Town as the Commissioners, with the like sanction, shall from time to time determine.

To provide for the better lighting of the public streets of the said Town, an annual Lighting-rate of two per cent, of the annual value shall be imposed upon all houses, buildings, and lands in the said Town, the estimated monthly rent of which is not less than ten Rupees; and such rate shall be payable in quarterly instalments by the occupiers of such houses, buildings, and lands. The sum applicable annually to the-current expenses of lighting the said streets shall be the gross proceeds of the said Lighting rate and no more but the Commissioners may expend out of the funds at their disposal such further sums as may from time to time be requisite, for the purchase, setting up, and maintaining of lamps, lamp-posts, pipes and other necessary apparatus.

Every occupier shall be liable to the Lighting-rate for the time of his occupation; and when, any person shall have been an occupier for a part only of any quarter, the Commissioners shall charge him with only so much of the rate for that quarter as may be proportionate to the number of days during which he continued to be an occupier. To such rate shall be chargeable to any person on account of any unoccupied house for the time during which it may remain unoccupied. Provided always that, when any person ceases to he the occupier of any premises liable to the rate, he shall give the Commissioners notice thereof and of the place to which he has removed, or, if he fail to give such notice, shall be liable to the rate assessed on the said premises for the whole quarter, although he may have occupied them for a part only of such quarter.

When any house or building, or any land, is let by the owner in apartments or portions, the owner shall be liable to pay the Lighting-rate instead of the occupier or occupiers.

When any person, who rents from the owner any house or building, or any land, sub-lets the same in apartments or portions, such person, for the purposes of the Lighting-rate, shall be held to be the occupier.

The Commissioners shall carry out, with as little delay as possible, such a complete system of sewerage and drainage within the said Town, as shall be directed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, with the sanction of the Governor General in Council, subject to such alterations as may from time to time be ordered by the said Lieutenant-Governor with such sanction; and until such system of sewerage and drainage has been completed, and all the expenses thereof defrayed, and all monies borrowed for the payment of such expenses on the security of the rates, and interest thereon have been repaid, shall set apart for the purposes above mentioned an annual sum not less than one hundred and fifty thousand Rupees, out of the proceeds of the rate provided by Section IX of this Act.

The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal may determine what portions, if any, of the environs of the said Town shall be included in the said system of sewerage and drainage, and may declare the boundaries thereof by notification in the Calcutta Gazette. An annual rate, to be fixed from time to time by the said Lieutenant-Governor, not exceeding two and a half per cent, of the annual value, may be imposed upon all houses, buildings, and lands situate within the boundaries be notified, and shall be payable by the owners thereof by quarterly instalments. For the purposes of the said rate, the houses, buildings, and lands situate within such boundaries as aforesaid, shall be held and deemed to be a part of the said Town; and all the provisions of this Act and the incorporated Act, which relate to the assessment and collection of a rate payable by owners, shall have effect in respect to such rate.

Sections XLIY to LX, both inclusive, of Act XIV of 1856, entitled An Act for the conservancy and improvement of the Towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and the several stations of the Settlement of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and Malacca, shall have effect within the boundaries to be fixed under the last preceding Section, and all penalties, expenses, and compensation which, under the said Sections and by the provisions of the said Act, may be adjudged and determined by a Magistrate or by two Magistrates acting in, and for the Town of Calcutta, may be adjudged and determined within such boundaries by the Magistrate having jurisdiction therein.

Whenever the Commissioners shall have incurred any expenses in the execution of any of the works which, under Sections XXIV, LI, and LIII of the said Act XIV of 1856, the owners of any premises, houses, or buildings are required to execute, the Commissioners may either recover the amount of such expenses in the manner therein provided, or if they think fit, may take engagements from the said owners for the quarterly payment of such sums as will be sufficient to defray the whole amount of the said expenses, with interest thereon, at the rate of six per cent, per annum, within a period not exceeding five years; and such sums, when due, may be recovered by the same process by which rates may be recovered under the incorporated Act.

The Commissioners, under the direction of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, shall, with as little delay as possible, cause to be made and constructed such tanks, reservoirs, or other works, as shall be necessary to provide in convenient parts of the said Town, for the use of the inhabitants thereof, a proper supply of good and wholesome water for drinking and domestic purposes, and until such tanks, reservoirs, or other works, shall have been made and constructed, and all the expenses thereof defrayed, and all monies borrowed for the payment of such expenses on the security of the rates, and interest thereon, shall have been repaid, shall set apart, for the purpose above mentioned, an annual sum not less than thirty thousand Rupees, out of the proceeds of the rate provided by Section IX of this Act. If such supply of water shall have been provided, and all the expenses thereof defrayed, and all monies borrowed for the payment of such expenses and interest thereon shall have been repaid before the complete system of sewerage and drainage mentioned in Section XXV of this Act shall have been completed, the said annual sum of thirty thousand Rupees shall be added to the annual sum of one hundred and fifty thousand Rupees directed to be set apart by the said Section XXV of this Act.

All monies received by the Commissioners by virtue of this Act, or of Act XIV of 1856, or of any other Act, and all monies which may be assigned by Government for purposes of conservancy and improvement in the said Town, shall constitute a Fund, which shall be called the Municipal Fund of Calcutta, and shall he under the direction/management, and control of the Municipal Commissioners, and shall be applied to the purposes of this Act and of the incorporated Act and of Act XIV of 1856.

All fines and penalties levied under this Act, or the incorporated Act, shall be paid to the Municipal Fund.

This Act shall commence and take effect from and after the first of January 1857.

Ponies under eleven hands, and Children's Carriages, the wheels of which do not exceed twenty-four inches in diameter, exempt.