business of the council are also the same in the case of a borough as
in that of a county council.
Finance audit.
The entire income of the borough council is paid into the borough
fund, and that fund is charged with certain payments, which are
specifically set out in the 5th schedule to the act of 1882. These
include the remuneration of the mayor, recorder and officers of the
borough, overseers' expenses, the expenses of the administration of
justice in the borough, the payment of the borough coroner, police
expenses and the like. An order of the council for the payment of
money out of the borough fund must be signed by three members of the
council and countersigned by the town clerk, and any such order may be
removed into the king's bench division of the High Court of Justice by
writ of _certiorari_ and may be wholly or partly disallowed or
confirmed on the hearing. This is really the only way in which the
validity of a payment by a borough council can be questioned, for, as
will be seen hereafter, the audit in the borough is not an effective
one. The borough fund is derived, in the first instance, from the
property of the corporation. If the income from such property is
insufficient for the purposes to which it is applicable, as usually is
the case, it has to be supplemented by a borough rate, which may be a
separate rate made by the council or may be levied through the
overseers as part of the poor rate by means of a precept addressed to
them. In the event of the borough fund being more than sufficient to
meet the demands upon it without recourse to a borough rate, any
surplus may be applied in payment of any expenses of the council as a
sanitary authority or in improving the borough or any part thereof by
drainage, enlargement of streets or otherwise. The borough treasurer
is required to make up his accounts half-yearly, and to submit them,
with the necessary vouchers and papers, to the borough auditors. These
auditors are three in number--two of them elected annually by the
burgesses. An elective auditor must be qualified to be a councillor,
but may not be a member of the council. The third auditor is appointed
by the mayor and is called the mayor's auditor. The auditors so
appointed are charged with the duty of auditing the accounts of the
treasurer, but they have no power of disallowance or surcharge, and
their audit is therefore q
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