Dates for revised lists of voters. Transfer to councils of powers from vestries and district boards. (4) The revised lists of voters in each borough shall in each year after the year one thousand nine hundred be printed and signed before the twentieth day of October, and come into operation as the register for the purpose of borough elections on the first day of November. 4.-(1) On the appointed day every elective vestry borough and district board in the county of London shall cease to exist, and, subject to the provisions of this Act and of any scheme made thereunder, their powers and duties, including those under any local Act, shall, as from the appointed day, be transferred to the council for the borough comprising the area within which those powers are exercised, and their property and liabilities shall be transferred to that council, and that council shall be their successors, and the clerk of the council shall be called the town clerk, and shall be the town clerk within the meaning of the Acts relating to the registration of electors. Adaptation registra tion of 27.-(2) An Order in Council under this Act may of law for make such provisions as appear necessary for adapting the enactments relating to the registration of electors electors, by to the provisions of this Act with respect to the powers and duties of the town clerk and overseers, and in particular for applying, so far as appears necessary, the law regulating the registration of electors in a municipal borough outside London. Order in Parlia mentary (3) An Order in Council under this Act shall provide for the revised lists of voters in the administrative county of London outside the city being, in the year One thousand nine hundred, printed and signed before the twentieth day of October, and coming into operation as the register for the purpose of borough elections on the first day of November, and may provide for such adjustment of the lists of voters and registers with respect to any alteration under this Act of parish boundaries as may appear required for the purpose of those elections. 31.-(3) Nothing in or done under this Act shall be construed as altering the limits of any Parliamentary limits not borough or Parliamentary county. altered. Appointed day and * * 33.-(1) For the purposes of this Act the appointed day shall be the day on which the members of the borough councils first elected under this Act come into transitory office, or such other day not being more than six months provisions. earlier or later, as the Lord President of the Council may appoint, either generally, or with reference to any particular provision of this Act, and different days may be appointed for different purposes and different provisions of this Act, whether contained in the same section or in different sections or for different boroughs. 35.-(1) This Act may be cited as the London Short title Government Act, 1899. and repeal. (2) As from the appointed day the enactments mentioned in the Third Schedule to this Act shall be repealed to the extent in the third column in that Schedule mentioned. FIRST SCHEDULE. AREAS WHICH ARE TO BE BOROUGHS. THIRD SCHEDULE. ENACTMENTS REPEALED. 48 & 49 Vict. The Redistribution of In section twelve, the words c. 23. Seats Act, 1885. "and also the town clerk 63 & 64 VICT. c. 8. An Act to remove Electoral Disabilities which may arise in the case of Members of the Reserve, Militia, and Yeomanry Forces, and in the case of Volunteers, by reason of absence on the military service of the Crown. [25th May, 1900.] 1-(1) A person shall not be disqualified for being Absence of registered or voting, either as a parliamentary or as a certain persons in perfor- local government elector, in respect of a qualification for mauce of which any residence or inhabitancy is required, by military duties not reason only that during the whole or any part of the to disquali- qualifying period he has as a member of the Reserve, Militia, Yeomanry, or Volunteer Forces, or otherwise as a volunteer, been absent on actual military service on behalf of the Crown, whether beyond the seas or not. fy as elector. Short title. Duration of Act. (2) A person so absent shall not be disqualified by reason of his wife or children having received poor relief during such absence. (3) The claim to be registered as a lodger may be made and signed, in the case of a person so absent, by any other person on his behalf, and the form of the claim and declaration may in those cases be modified accordingly. (4) In this Act the expression "a volunteer" shall include any person who is enlisted for temporary service only in connection with any war as a member of the regular forces. 2. This Act may be cited as the Electoral Disabilities (Military Service) Removal Act, 1900. 3. This Act shall apply only to absence during the continuance of the present war in South Africa. Short title. Amendment of law as to qualification of London county electors. Definitions. 63 & 64 VICT. c. 29. An Act to assimilate the County Council and Borough [30th July, 1900.] 1. This Act may be cited as the London County Council Electors Qualification Act, 1900. 2. A parochial elector shall be entitled to vote at the election of a county councillor for the administrative county of London in the same manner as a county elector, and subject to the same provisions. 3. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the expression" county elector" means a person entitled to vote at the election of a county councillor, under the Local Government Act, 1888, and the expression "parochial elector" means a parochial elector within the meaning of the Local Government Act, 1894. THE right of voting in counties before the 8 H. 6, Before c. 7, probably belonged to the freeholders at large, 1832. R. P. Act, independently of the value of their freeholds. That Freestatute, after reciting that elections have been made by very great, outrageous, and excessive numbers of people, of small substance, and of no value, whereof every of B holders. Before Under R. P. Acts. ?4=/ 2 & 3 W. 4, c. 45. Free holders. them pretended a voice equivalent with the most worthy knights and esquires, provided that the knights of the shires to be chosen within the same realm of England to come to the Parliaments, shall be chosen by people "whereof every one of them shall have free land or tenement to the value of forty shillings by the year at the least, above all charges." All persons, therefore, who possessed freehold land of the value of 40s. were entitled to the franchise without regard to the quantity of interest (ie., whether their estates were estates of inheritance or for life), so long as such interest was of a freehold nature. The words of the statute being limited to "free land or tenement," copyholders were in effect excluded; and further, in the year 1758, they were expressly prohibited (by 31 G. 2, c. 14) from voting, under a penalty of 507. By the Representation of the People Acts, 1832 (a), 1867 and 1884, 2 & 3 W. 4, c. 45, 30 & 31 V. c. 102, and 48 & 49 V. c. 3, however, the county franchise has while restricted as to estates for life, exceeding 40s. but under 51. of annual value (except under certain conditions) been extended to the holders of all real property of whatever tenure, and to certain chattel interests, i.e., estates in land of less than a freehold nature, as well as by the latter Act to inhabitant householders and lodgers. By R. P. Act, 1832, s. 18, it is enacted, "That no person shall be entitled to vote in the election of a knight or knights of the shire to serve in any future Parliament, or in the election of a member or members to serve in any future Parliament for any city or town being a county of itself, in respect of any freehold lands or tenements whereof such person may be seised for his own life, or for the life of another, or for any lives whatsoBona fide ever, except such person shall be in the actual and boná tion, when fide occupation of such lands or tenements, or except the оссира necessary. (a) This is the present title of the Reform Act, 1832, vide post, p. 363, n. (1). |