thereof, and they may make by-laws for all these purposes.

Contracts, purchase of lands.

Every district council may enter into such contracts as are necessary
for carrying into execution the various purposes of the Public Health
Acts. A district council being a corporation, the general law applies
in the case of a rural council that they must contract under their
common seal, the exception to this rule including the doing of acts
very frequently recurring or too insignificant to be worth the trouble
of affixing the common seal. In the case of an urban council certain
stringent regulations are laid down. A contract made by an urban
council, whereof the value and amount exceed L50, must be under seal,
and certain other formalities must be observed, some of which are
imperative; for example, the taking of sureties from the contractor,
and the making provision for penalties to be paid by him in case the
terms of the contract are not observed. Every local authority may
also, for purposes of the act, purchase or take on lease, sell or
exchange, any lands. Such lands as are not required for the purpose
for which they were purchased must, unless the Local Government Board
otherwise direct, be sold. Powers of compulsory purchase of lands are
also given under the Lands Clauses Acts, but before these can be put
in operation certain conditions must be observed. The Local Government
Board must make inquiry into the propriety of allowing the lands to be
taken, and the power to acquire the lands compulsorily can only be
conferred by means of a provisional order confirmed by parliament.

By-laws.

With regard to the by-laws which district councils may make for many
purposes, the subjects of which have been already from time to time
mentioned, it is only necessary to state that these require to be
confirmed by the Local Government Board. Such confirmation does not,
however, give validity to a by-law which cannot be justified by the
provisions of the act, and many by-laws which have been so confirmed
have been held to be invalid under the general law as being uncertain,
unreasonable or repugnant to the law of the realm. For the guidance of
local authorities, the Local Government Board have from time to time
issued model series of by-laws dealing with the various subjects for
which by-laws may be made, and these are for the most part followed
throughout E