The 158^th Section of the Act of Parliament 33 Geo. III. c. 52, Act XXVIII of 1836, and Act XXII of 1841 of the Government of India, are repealed, except as to any assessment which shall be unpaid, and as to any proceeding for the recovery of the same which shall have been commenced, before this Act shall come into operation.

The assessment on houses, buildings, and grounds, payable under the Statute 33 Geo. III. c. 52 s. 158, and Act XXII of 1841, shall, until revised and altered under the provisions of this Act, remain in full force and effect, and shall be levied and recovered as a rate payable under this Act.

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' Island, Singajjore, and Malacca, is incorporated with this Act; and in construing the said Act 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 Governor in Council of the Presidency of Port St. George.

There shall be three Commissioners for the purposes of this Act, and for the conservancy and improvement of the Town of Madras under Act XIV of 1856, who shall be appointed by the Governor in Council and shall be re moveable at his pleasure.

The Governor in Council shall appoint one of the said Commissioners to be President of the Board of Commissioners.

The Commissioners appointed under this Act shall be styled The Municipal Commissioners for the Town of Madras, 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 in every week at least. The attendance of two Commissioners shall be necessary to constitute a meeting. At a meeting of two Commissioners, on questions on which they are divided in opinion, if the President be one of them, his voice shall decide; otherwise the question shall be reserved for the decision of the three Commissioners.

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 Governor in Council. Provided that the allowances for any Commissioner shall not exceed the rate often thousand Rupees a year, if the Commissioner holds no other appointment or occupation; or the rate of four thousand Rupees a year if he bolds any other appointment or occupation.

Houses, buildings, and lands in the said Town shall be liable to an annual rate, to be fixed, from time to time, by the Governor in Council, not exceeding seven and a half per cent, of the annual value of the houses, buildings, and lands subject to the rate. The rate fixed by the Governor in Council shall be published, from time to time, in the Government Gazette.

The said rate shall be assessed for every year within the first quarter of the year, and shall be due and payable by the owners of the said houses, buildings, and lands, from and after the end of the said first quarter.

Houses, buildings, and lands in Fort St. George, and any houses, buildings, and lands, without the Fort, occupied by Troops composing the Garrison of Fort St. George, 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 fourteen Rupees, if the same be the sole rateable property of the owner.

When any house or building shall have been vacant for not less than 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 or building may have remained unoccupied, provided that the owner of such house or building, 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, bandies, horses, ponies, and mules, kept within the said Town, and upon all carriages, carts, bandies, horses, ponies, and mules, used upon the roads of the said Town and kept at any place not more than three miles distant from the limits thereof, at the rates specified in the annexed Schedule; and shall be payable quarterly by the owners or persons in 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.

Transfer of ownership. 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 from 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-makers 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 stablekeepers 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 Rupee eight annas, kept and let out for hire within the said Town, and every cart or bandy kept and used within the said Town, and every such carriage let out for hire and used within the said Town, and every cart or bandy used within the said Town, if such carriage, cart, or bandy be kept at any place within three miles from 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 bandy, which has not been registered, may obtain registration on application to the Commissioners at their Office. When any registered carriage, cart or bandy 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 bandy required to be registered by the provisions of the last preceding Section, with out 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 bandy (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 of vehicle, together will the animals seized with it, may he sold by auction, by order of the Magistrate, and the proceeds applied to the, payment of the file, and all costs and charges incurred on account of the detention and sale, and the Overplus (if any), if not claimed by the owner within a further period of twenty days shall be paid to the Municipal Commissioners.

If any person to whom a Schedule shall have been sent under Section XV of the incorporated Act, shall brings or cause to be brought upon the roads of the said Town, any carriage, cart, or bandy, horse, pony, or mule, kept at any place not more than three miles distant from the limits of the said Town, without having entered the same in the said Schedule; such person shall be liable to the penalty provided in the said Section.

Any person keeping within three miles from the limits of the said Town any carriage not required to be registered by the provision's of this Act, if he can satisfy the Commissioners that such carriage has not been used on the roads of the Town more than fifteen days in any quarter, shall be entitled to a remission of the tax for that quarter. Provided that, if such person have more than, one such carriage, and his carriages, one with another, have been used on the Town roads more than fifteen; days in the quarter, though no one of them has been used more than fifteen days, he shall be entitled to the remission for only one such carriage.

Bills and notices of demand may be served on persons keeping carriages beyond the limits of the Town, either in the manner provided in the incorporated Act, or by delivery of the same to the driver of the carriage, when such carriage is found within the limits of the Town.

Nothing contained in this Act shall be so construed as to render liable to the said tax, any person residing and keeping any carriage, cart, or bandy, horse, pony, or mule at a distance of more than three miles from the limits of the said Town, on account of the same being brought for a temporary purpose upon the roads of the said Town; or to require that any hack carriage, cart, or bandy, belonging to any such person, and kept as aforesaid, when brought upon the roads of the said Town for a temporary purpose, should be registered.

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 Madras, and shall be 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.

Rupees per quarter.

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