Local Authorities Pensions and Gratuities Act, 1919

This 1919 Act extends the power of local authorities (such as cantonment or port authorities) to grant pensions and gratuities to their own officers who were wounded, incapacitated, or died while serving "the State" (originally framed around wartime service dating from 4 August 1914, the start of World War I). Section 2 defines "officer" as someone who undertook service of the State and who, immediately before doing so, was paid and employed solely by a local authority and would otherwise have continued in that employment. It also defines the "appropriate Government" as the Federal Government for cantonment and major port authorities, and the Provincial Government for other local authorities.

Section 3 is the core power: a local authority may grant a pension or gratuity to any of its officers who, since 4 August 1914, was wounded or otherwise incapacitated in service of the State, or to the widow or child of an officer who died from injuries or illness contracted during such service. Section 4 clarifies this pension or gratuity can be granted in addition to whatever pension the officer would otherwise be entitled to, but generally cannot exceed what the officer (or their widow/child) would have received had their local-authority employment counted as State service for the same period and pay -- unless the appropriate Government specifically sanctions a higher amount. Section 4(2) allows such a pension to be backdated to any date after 4 August 1914, subject to conditions the local authority sets.

Section 5 requires that a local authority's decision to grant a pension or gratuity follow whatever procedure and sanction requirements apply under the relevant enactment or rules governing that authority, but in every case the sanction of the "appropriate Government" (Federal or Provincial, as applicable) is required.

This is a very old, narrow 1919 law tied specifically to World War I-era service, extensively amended through the decades to update terminology (from "Government" and "L.G." to "Federal Government" and "Provincial Government"). Given its historical, war-specific origin, its practical relevance today is likely limited, though it remains formally in force.