ELECTORS. electors COUNTY Corporations Act, 1882 (p), shall extend to every part of a county not within the limits of a borough, and a person to county possessing in any part of a county outside the limits of outside a borough such burgess qualification, shall be entitled municipal boroughs. to be registered under this Act as a county elector in 45 & 46 V. the parish in which the qualifying property is situate. c. 50. County council "(2.) Sects. 9, 31, 33, and 63 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, and any enactments of that or any other Act affecting the same, shall extend to so much of every county as is not comprised within the limits of a municipal borough in like manner as if they were herein re-enacted, with the substitution of 'county' for 'borough,' and of county elector' for 'burgess,' and with the other necessary modifications." Sect. 3, post, p. 179, provided that the parliamentary 107. occupation franchise should give also the right to be a county elector, and to be enrolled as a burgess. It will thus be seen that a qualification which in a municipal borough would entitle a person to be a burgess, will, if held in a county, entitle him to be a county elector. These county electors, together with the burgesses, of electorate. every borough, within the administrative county, form the electorate for the county council. See Cy. El. Act, 1888, s. 7 (1). Every county borough forms an administrative county by itself. Vide ante, p. 67. The above sections of the Mun. Cor. Act, 1882, and the cases decided thereon will be found post, pp. 176 et seq., sub tit. "Municipal Franchise," where the subject is dealt with at large. In the case of the administrative county of London, the residence required for a county elector need only be within fifteen miles of that county. Local Gov. Act, (p) This is called the "old burgess qualification," in contradistinction to the new 107. occupation burgess qualification, given by the Cy. El. Act, 1888, s. 3. See Reg. Order, 1895, Sched. 2, Precept, Part I., §§ 11, 12, and Sched. 3, Precept, Part I., §§ 10, 11. ELECTORS. 1888, s. 77. Hence in this case there is no non-resident COUNTY list. Vide post, p. 257, n. (e). PAROCHIAL ELECTORS. Parochial government has been established in all rural parishes by the Local Government Act, 1894, 56 & 57 V. " C. 63. 73. By the Interpretation Act, 1889, "the expression 52 & 53 V. 'parish' shall, unless the contrary intention appears, Parish. mean in every Act passed after 1866 "a place for which a separate poor rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be appointed." c. 73. and parish By the Local Government Act, 1894, s. 1 (1), "There 56 & 57 V. shall be a parish meeting for every rural parish, and Parish there shall be a parish council for every rural parish meeting which has a population of three hundred or upwards. council. Provided that an order of the County Council in pursuance of Part III. of this Act" may be made on certain conditions (a) establishing a parish council in the case of smaller rural parishes, or (b) grouping parishes together under a common parish council. (2) "For the "Rural parish." purposes of this Act every parish in a rural sanitary district shall be a rural parish." (3) "Where a parish Division of is at the passing of this Act situate partly within and partly without a rural sanitary district, the part of the parish which is within the district, and the part which is without, shall . . ., but subject to any alteration of area made by or in pursuance of this or any other Act, be separate parishes, in like manner as if they had been constituted separate parishes under the Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act, 1876, and the Acts amending the same." parishes. c. 73. By sect. 2 (1), "The parish meeting for a rural parish Franchise. shall consist of the following persons, in this Act re- 56 & 57 V. ferred to as parochial electors, and no others, namely, Parochial the persons registered in such portion either of the local electors. government register of electors or of the parliamentary register of electors as relates to the parish." PAROCHIAL ELECTORS. Married women. Register of parochial electors. Women. Sect. 43. "For the purposes of this Act a woman shall not be disqualified by marriage for being on any local government register of electors (q), or for being an elector of any local authority, provided that a husband and wife shall not both be qualified in respect of the same property." Sect. 44. (1) The local government register of electors (9) and the parliamentary register of electors, so far as they relate to a parish shall, together, form the register of the parochial electors of the parish; and any person whose name is not in that register shall not be entitled to attend a meeting or vote as a parochial elector, and any person whose name is in that register shall be entitled to attend a meeting and vote as a parochial elector unless prohibited from voting by this or any other Act of Parliament (r). "(2) Where the parish is in a parliamentary borough, such portion of the parliamentary register of electors for the county as contains the names of persons registered in respect of the ownership of any property in the parish shall be deemed to form part of the parliamentary register of electors for the parish within the meaning of this section." Sect. 75.-(2) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, "the expression 'parochial elector,' when used with reference to a parish in an urban district, or in the county of London or any county borough, means any person who would be a parochial elector of the parish if it were a rural parish." Sect. 43 enables a woman occupier to be on the register of parochial electors, although she is disqualified by coverture for being on the county register or burgess (2) By the Interpretation Act, 1889, 52 & 53 V. c. 63, the phrase "local government register of electors" means- "As respects an administrative county in England or Wales other than a county borough, the county register," post, p. 245, "and as respects a county borough or other municipal borough, the burgess roll," post, p. 254. (r) As to the construction of these words in italics, vide post, p. 190. ELECTORS. Only if occupiers. roll, and a married woman is entered on the separate PAROCHIAL list of parochial electors, in respect of occupation. The section, however, removes the disqualification of coverture only, and not that of sex, so that a woman cannot become a parochial elector by reason of the ownership of land, for she is not thereby entitled to be registered as a parliamentary voter. Drax v. Ffooks, (1896) 1 Q. B. 1, 238, C. A.; Sm. 40; 65 L. J., Q. B. 70. As therefore a woman cannot be on the ownership part of the parochial electors' list, vide post, p. 247, n. (t), and the overseers do not make the occupation part thereof, vide post, p. 257, n. (d), she must, if married, claim every year under sect. 44 (9), post, p. 266, to be placed on the list as an occupier. By sect. 20 (3), post, p. 612, guardians are to be Guardians. elected by the parochial electors of the parish, or where it is divided into wards, by the parochial electors registered in respect of qualifications within the ward for which the candidate is standing; by sect. 30, guardians are elected in the same way in the administrative county of London, vide post, pp. 585, 595; and by sects. 23 (3), 31 (1), there are analogous provisions Urban as to election of urban district councillors not in a councilborough, of vestrymen and auditors in the metropolis, lors. and of members of the local board of Woolwich. district |