miles of the county or borough, as the case may be, as such persons may be qualified to be County or Town Councillors, though not to vote. This List is called the "Special Nonresident List." In order that the Overseers may have the requisite information for making their lists, the Registrars of births and deaths furnish them with returns of all deaths of persons of full age occurring within their parish.' The Overseers also obtain from the Relieving Officer of their parish information as to all persons who have, within the qualifying period, been in receipt of relief.2 The Overseers have also access to tax assessments, and the Assessors or Collectors of assessed taxes send them a list of all persons who, on the 20th July, have not paid the taxes that accrued on or before the 5th January.3 In order that ratepayers may have due warning that their rates, and that, where the qualification is the £10 occupation qualification, also the assessed taxes, must be paid to entitle them to be registered, the Overseers, on or before the 20th June, publish a notice to that effect, and if the rates that accrued in any case before the 5th January remain unpaid after the 1st June, they, on or before the 20th June, send, unless a previous demand note has been duly sent, a personal notice to each ratepayer so in arrear.* If the rates remain unpaid after the 20th July, the ratepayer ceases to be qualified to be registered as an elector. On or before the 22nd July, the Overseers make out a list of persons so disqualified and retain the same for public inspection." Overseers obtain information as to rates and taxes. Publication of The Overseers have written or printed a number of copies lists.5 of the occupiers list and the non-resident list, which lists, together with the corrupt practices list, they, on or before 1st August, publish, by fixing them in certain public places. They also retain copies of all these lists for public inspection, and furnish copies of them, if required, for sale. Any person whose name has been improperly omitted from the list of electors or the non-resident list thus prepared for a parish, may, on or before the 20th August, send notice to the Overseers claiming to have his name inserted. And if a person's name has been improperly inserted in the corrupt and illegal practices list, he may claim to have it omitted from that list. 1 The Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, sec. 11. 2 Ib., sec. 12. 3 Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, sec. 12. + Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, sec. II. Representation of the People Act, 1867, secs. 28, 29. The Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, sec. 10. 5 Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, secs. 13, 23-26. Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, sec. 9. Municipal Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Practices) Act, 1884, sec. 24. Registration Act, 1885, sec. 1; County Electors Act, 1888, sec. 4. Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, sec. 15. Registration Act, 1885, sec. 3. For forms, see post, p. 375. Claim to be registered. Correction of Objections. Lists of Claimants and to.5 Also any person entered upon such a list, concerning whom there is any mistake in such list, may, whether or not he has received notice of objection, make a declaration before a Justice of the Peace or a Commissioner to administer oaths correcting such mistake. This declaration must be sent to the Town Clerk or Clerk of the County Council, as the case may be, on or before the 5th September, and must be indorsed by him. The declaration so indorsed is evidence before the Revising Barrister. Any person on any list of burgesses, or of county electors in a county, may object to the name of any other person on a list of county electors or burgesses for any parish in that county.2 Where an objection is made, notice of such objection must be sent to the Overseers of the parish of the person objected to. At the same time notice of objection must be sent to the person objected to, specifying the ground of objection.3 Objections may be withdrawn either partially or wholly on notice being sent not less than seven days before the day appointed for the holding of the final court of revision of the list to which the objection relates. Objections in the case of the death of an objector may be revived on notice by any person qualified to have made the objection in the first instance. Notices of withdrawal and revival are sent, in municipal or parliamentary boroughs, to the Town Clerk, elsewhere to the Overseers. Notices are also sent to the person objected to.1 The Overseers on or before the 25th of August make out lists persons objected of claimants and of persons objected to. These lists they publish (on or before the 25th of August) and keep copies of, for public inspection and for sale in the same way as the occupiers lists. The following provisions have been made with regard to the inspection of documents in the hands of the Overseers. Inspection of documents in hands of Overseers. Any person may inspect copies of all lists required to be published, all original notices of claims and objections, any lists that the Assessors or Collectors of taxes may have 1 Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, secs. 24, 25. 3 Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, sec. 17. Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, sec. 26. *Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, sec, 27. County Electors Act, 1888, sec. 4. 5 Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, secs. 15, 18. sent to the Overseers of those persons who are in arrears with Any registered elector for the county or borough in which the parish is situated may inspect the rate books and returns made by the Registrar of births and deaths.2 Copies of two Lists to be sent to Clerk of County Council. On or before the 25th August the Overseers of a parish in The Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, secs. 28, 29. The Revising Barristers Act, 1873(36&37 Vict.c.70), secs. 1 & 3. The lists for every parish in a parliamentary borough, or in a municipal borough which is as to any part co-extensive with a parliamentary borough, are revised by the Revising Barrister of the parliamentary borough. The lists for other parishes are revised by the Revising Barrister for the county, or part of a county, in which they are situated. The Revising Barristers hold open courts between the 8th September and the 12th October at convenient times and places, of which due notice is given beforehand. 1 Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, secs. 12, 13, 18. Representation of the People Act, 1867, sec. 29.--The instructions to Overseers contained in the schedules to the Registration Act, 1885, direct that original notices of claims are to be open to public inspection; but there appears to be no provision to this effect in the body of any statute. 2 Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, secs. 11, 13. 3 County Electors Act, 1888, sec. 4. Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, secs. 30-33 The County Electors Act, 1888, secs. 4, 6. Barrister. Proceedings before Revising Barrister.2 Town Clerks, Clerks of County Councils, and Overseers attend at these Courts and produce the parish lists of county electors, burgesses, claimants, persons objected to, &c., together with rate books, original notices of claims and objections, &c.1 In proceedings before the Revising Barrister his decision is final as to facts and as to the admissibility of evidence. In the course of proceedings before the Revising Barrister :- Ist. The Barrister must correct any mistake that is proved to him to have been made in any list; that is, any slight mistake which is not calculated to mislead.3 2nd. The Barrister may, at his discretion, correct any mistake that is proved to him to have been made in any claim or notice of objection, and if he exercises his discretion the High Court will not interfere.1 3rd. He must expunge the name of every person, whether objected to or not, whose qualification as stated in any list is insufficient in law to qualify him. But so long as the qualification is good on the face of it, he must retain the name if not objected to, even if he know, as a fact, that there can be no such qualification.5 4th. He must expunge the name of every person who, whether objected to or not, is proved to him to be dead. 5th. He must expunge the name of every person whose name, residence, or the nature of whose qualifying property is omitted or insufficiently described for the purpose of identification. But if the matter omitted or insufficiently described is supplied to his satisfaction before he has completed his revision of the list in question, he must reinstate the name. 6th. He must expunge the name of every person, whether objected to or not, where it is proved to him that such person was on the 31st July, incapacitated by law or statute from voting for the borough or county to which the list relates. This provision applies to persons expressly disqualified by convicton for election offences, &c., and not to cases in which a person is disqualified merely through not having the requisite qualification." Where it appears to the Revising Barrister, that a person not named in the corrupt and illegal practices list, is subject to have his name inserted in that list, he must (whether an objection to the omission of his name from the list has been made or not), after giving such person an opportunity of making a statement, insert his name in that list, besides expunging his name from the lists of county electors, &c.7 7th. Before expunging the name of any person not objected to, the Barrister, if Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, secs. 34, 35. Parliamentary Electors Registration 2 Parliamentary and Municipal Regis- As to conduct of proceedings, &c., see 3 See Wood v. Willesden, 2 C.B. 15, at Adams v. Bostock, 8 Q.B.D. 259. 5 Smith 7. James, L. R., 1 C.P. 138. 6 See Hayward v. Scott, 5 C.P.D. 2 31. Doulton v. Halse, 18Q.B.D. 421. 7 Municipal Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Practices) Act, 1884, sec. 24. he thinks proper, may cause notice to be given to such person, or left at his usual or last known residence. 8th. Subject to the above provisions, the Barrister retains the name of every person not objected to, and also the name of every person objected to, unless the objector appears in person or by some person on his behalf to support his objection. 9th. If the objector appears, he must, unless he is an Overseer, prove that he gave the proper notices; and that there is a primâ facie ground for his objection. If he succeeds in proving so much, or if the objector be an Overseer, the name of the person objected to is expunged, unless he appears personally or by some one else on his behalf and proves his qualification. 10th. No proof can be given before the Revising Barrister of any other qualification than that which is on the list or claim. Where a person is entered more than once as a burgess on the lists for a municipal borough, the Revising Barrister will retain one of such entries for voting, and place against the other or others a note to the effect that the person is not entitled to vote in respect of the qualification therein mentioned, as he is on the list for voting in respect of another qualification. The elector may, by notice in writing delivered to the Revising Barrister at the opening of his first revision court, select the entry to be retained, and in making a selection may select one entry for voting as a burgess and another for voting at a parliamentary election. If the elector do not so select the entry to be retained, the Revising Barrister may, it seems, select the entry to be retained at his discretion. These provisions with regard to double entry do not extend to county electors, who may be entered in respect of as many qualifications as they have, though whether they may vote more than once at a county election for the same county seems doubtful." The Revising Barrister revises the lists of claimants separately in the same manner as the other lists; but the Revising Barrister will require primâ facie proof of the validity of each claim, and any person who would be entitled to make an objection in an ordinary case may, on giving written notice to the Revising Barrister, object there and then to the retention of any person's name without having given any previous notice.3 An appeal lies from the decision of a Revising Barrister to a Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division on a point of law. The aggrieved person intending to appeal, or some one on his behalf, must give a notice in writing to the Barrister before the rising of the Court, whereupon the Barrister, if he thinks it a proper case, must within ten days after the conclusion of the revision state the material facts and his decision thereon, in the form of a special case. 1 Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, sec. 28. Registration Act, 1885, secs. 4, 5. 2 County Electors Act, 1888, sec. 7. 3 Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, sec. 39. Registration Act, 1885, sec. 4. Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, secs. 42, 43. Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, secs 35, 38. County Electors Act, 1888, sec. 6. As to the method of conducting appeals, and as to the consolidation of appeals where they depend on the same point, see the Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, secs. 44, 45, 66-70, the County Electors Act, secs. 6, &c. |