[As to places, etc., see rules 14, 15, and alter notice accordingly.] 7. The poll will be open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. 8. [In the City] Every person entitled to vote for common councilmen is entitled to vote in this election. [In other divisions] Every ratepayer is entitled to vote in this election. 9. [In the City] The voting will be by official voting papers, blank forms of which may be obtained at [In the other divisions] The voting will be by ballot, and by official voting papers, which will be obtained at the pollingplace on the day of election. 10. Each voter in this division has votes, all or some of which he may distribute among the candidates as he thinks fit. 11. The division of is thus defined: [Copy definition from the order dated the 7th day of October, 1870. 12. Detailed information respecting the election is contained in the order regulating the same. Dated this day of Deputy Returning Officer [State address.] 1870. ELECTION OF SCHOOL BOARD FOR INSTRUCTIONS ISSUED TO DEPUTY RETURNING OFFICERS BY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AS TO THE PERSONS ENTITLED TO VOTE AS "RATEPAYERS" AT THE FIRST ELECTION OF THE SCHOOL BOARD. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, Nov. 14, 1870. SIR, Various questions having been addressed to this department as to the interpretation to be put upon the order of the 27th of October, regulating the first election of the school board for London, I am directed by the Lord President of the Council to transmit to you the following instructions, in order to secure uniformity in the decisions of the several officers who will preside at the polling places at the coming election. It should be understood that these instructions are intended, primarily, for the guidance of the deputy returning officers, and the persons presiding at the polls, and apply only to the election which is to take place on the 29th of November next. According to the order: -The persons entitled to vote for members of the school board (outside the City), are "the ratepayers," which term includes every person who, under the provisions of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869, is deemed to be duly rated.' And "the person for the time being presiding at the poll shall ascertain that the person claiming to vote is entitled so to do; and his decision shall be final." 1 See sec. 3, note 1, p. 43. In exercising this jurisdiction, the officer should adopt the following rules: I. There should be no inquiry in any case whether the claimant, male or female, has or has not paid rates.1 II. Where some person has been entered in the occupier's column of the rate-book as occupier of a particular tenement (a.) The officer must not allow the entries in the rate-book to be questioned before him; and the person whose name is entered as the occupier of the tenement must be treated by him as the only person entitled to vote as occupier in respect of such tenement. (b.) Where by order of the vestry, the owner of a tenement whereof the rateable value does not exceed £20 has been rated instead of the occupier, who is entitled to vote at the coming election, the claim of the owner to vote should also be allowed.2 (c.) Where an occupier has been entered in the rate-book as "having succeeded or come into occupation" of a tenement, and continues on the rate-book at the time of the election, such 1 It appears to be intended that any person who, under the provisions of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, "is deemed to be duly rated," may vote in the election, without regard to the fact whether or not the rates in respect of the tenement which he occupies may be unpaid. By the fourth section of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, the vestry of any parish in the metropolis may from time to time order that the owners of all rateable hereditaments which include dwelling-houses, of a rateable value not exceeding £20, shall, so long as the order continues in force, be rated to the poor rate in respect of such rateable hereditaments instead of the occupiers on all rates made after the date of such order; and the owners so rated are entitled to an abatement or deduction from the amount of the rate. The Education Department consider that the owners who are rated under this provision, as well as the occupiers of the tenements, are entitled to vote in the election. Sec. 3 of the same Act enables the owner of any rateable hereditament in the metropolis of a rateable value not exceeding £20, voluntarily to agree with the overseers or other authority that makes an assessment for the poor rate to become liable for the poor rates in respect of such hereditament, and to pay the poor rates whether the premises are occupied or not, and the overseers may agree with such owner to receive the rates from him and to allow him a commission on the amount thereof. The owners who voluntarily pay the rates on behalf of the occupiers, under this section, are not specially mentioned in the instructions of the Education Department, but as in these cases the occupiers of the tenements and not the owners are assessed, it would appear that the occupiers alone will be entitled to vote. occupier is the only person entitled to vote as occupier in respect of such tenement.1 III. Where no person has been entered in the occupier's column of the rate-book as occupier of a particular tenement— (a.) If a claim to vote is made by any person who admits that he was not in occupation at the time when the rate was last made 2 the claim should be disallowed. (b.) If a claim to vote is made by any person who alleges and can satisfy the officer that he was in occupation at the time when the rate was last made and ought to have had his name entered in the rate-book, the claim should be allowed. With reference to this last instruction I am to point out that the overseer, when making out the rate-book, is required, under a pecuniary penalty in case of negligence or wilful omission, to enter in the rate-book the name of every occupier of a rateable hereditament.3 The powers vested in overseers by the 1 Sec. 16 of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act provides that, "If the occupier assessed in a rate when made shall cease to occupy before the rate shall have been wholly discharged, or if the hereditament, being unoccupied at the time of the making of the rate, become occupied during the period for which the rate is made, the overseers shall enter in the rate-book the name of the person who succeeds or comes into the occupation, as the case may be, and the date when such occupation commences, so far as the same shall be known to them; and such occupier shall thenceforth be deemed to have been actually rated from the date so entered by the overseers, and shall be liable to pay so much of the rate as shall be proportionate to the time between the commencement of his occupation and the expiration of the period for which the rate was made, in like manner, and with the like remedy of appeal, as if he had been rated when the rate was made." 66 2 A poor rate is to be deemed to be made on the day when it is allowed by the justices, and if the justices sever in their allowance," or in other words, when the rate is not signed on the same day by all the justices by whom it is allowed, the date of the last allowance is to be deemed the day of making the rate (32 & 33 Vict. c. 41, s. 17). 3 Sec. 19 of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act pro⚫ vides as follows:-" The overseers in making out the poor rate shall, in every case, whether the rate is collected from the owner or occupier, or the owner is liable to the payment of the rate instead of the occupier, enter in the occupiers' column of the ratebook the name of the occupier of every rateable hereditament, ** and if any overseer negligently or wilfully and without reasonable cause omits the name of the occupier of any rateable hereditament from the rate, or negligently or wilfully misstates any name therein, such overseer shall, for every such omission or misstatement, be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding two pounds." Act of Parliament are amply sufficient to enable them to perform this duty; and the Poor Law Board has issued special instructions directing the attention of overseers to the provisions of the Act in question, and explaining the proper steps to be taken in order to comply with them. The rate-book, therefore, if properly made out, is a complete register of the persons entitled to vote in the coming election, and the officer should, in the first instance, treat the rate-book as such complete register, and should require an occupier who is not on the rate-book to show clearly that his name has been improperly omitted, before admitting him to vote. (c.) If a claim to vote is made by any person, who alleges himself to be a lodger, his claim shall be disallowed. (d.) If a claim to vote is made by a person who alleges himself to be an occupier, but who appears to occupy part of a dwelling-house which is "wholly let out in apartments or lodgings," not separately rated when the Representation of the People Act, 1867, passed, viz., 15th of August of that year, his claim should be disallowed. The officer at each polling-place will, of course, know from the rate-book the date at which the rate was last made, and the public should be reminded that each voter can vote only once in your division. It is hoped that these instructions will enable you to solve any questions which may occur in taking the poll. I am, etc., PATRICK CUMIN, Assistant-Secretary. 66 1 It will be observed that a person who, under the rules set forth in the circular letter, is to be deemed a ratepayer," as occupier of a tenement and also as owner of some other tenement in the same division, is not to vote more than once in that division. |