III.   Fund

The Local Government Board is a type of Privy Fund formed in 1871 (34&35Vict.c.70) by vesting the Powers and Duties of Secretary of State in respect to registrations of births, deaths and marriages, public health, local government, sanitation, public improvements and local taxation as well as the Powers and Duties of the Privy Council in respect to prevention of disease and disorder to a new body known as the Local Government Board, with powers to appoint “agents” within the sanitation and local government districts.

In respect to the Local Government Board:

(i) The 1871 act is a culmination of acts throughout the 19th Century in the formation of central records of births, deaths and marriages and subsequent acts viewing the fiduciary obligations of the Executive Government for the health and well being of the population as completely under their custody and care; and

(ii) The 1871 act makes clear the Local Government Board is in effect the Executive Government of the Capital Fund, yet acting through its local secretaries, assistant secretaries, inspectors, auditors, clerks, messengers and other officers; and

(iii) It is the powers of the Local Government Board as a Privy Fund that underwrites the powers of local courts in being able to claim custody of persons, the entry of records onto rolls and the determination of the sanity or imprisonment of those deemed “nuisances”.