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No. 9. Act 7 Vic. c. 9.

Prisons, Licensed Pilots, Harbour Master, Lighthouse Keeper,
Quarter and Muster Master of Militia, Police Magistrate, Stipen-
diary Justice, Public Secretary, Receiver General and Treasurer,
Provost Marshal, Clerks in Police Offices, Clerk in the Office of
Clerk to the Council, Keeper of the Powder Magazine, Searcher,
Warehouse Keeper, Preventive officer, Adjutant of Militia, Post
Master.

No. 10. Act 8 Vic. c. 11.

PREAMBLE.

Recites requisite qualification of members under 47 Geo. 3, ch. 1.

That it is essential that members

should continue to possess during their

continuance as members the same qualifi

cation in right of which they took their

seats.

Enacts that members at the commencement of every Session shall

deliver to the Clerk a statement of their respective qualifications.

W

No. 10.-8 Vic. ch. 11. An Act to explain and amend the Act of Assembly, 47 Geo. 3, ch. 1. (28th February, 1845.) HEREAS, in and by an Act of the General Assembly of these Islands, entitled "An Act for consolidating the several Acts for regulating elections, and the qualifications of members of the Legislative Council of these Islands, and for ascertaining and describing the limits and bounds of the several islands and districts within this Government which send representatives to the Council, and for other purposes therein mentioned," it is enacted that no person who shall be elected a member of the Council of the said islands, for any island, district, or place within the same, shall sit or vote as a member of the said Council who shall not have an estate real and personal, or personal property only, for his own life, or for some greater estate either in law or equity, to and for his own use and benefit, over and above what will satisfy and clear all judgments and mortgages that may effect the same, of the value of one thousand pounds, of the then currency of the said islands, or who shall not be proprietor of fifty acres of land under cultivation within these islands free from all legal incumbrances: And whereas, the said qualifications, or either of them, may be possessed by a member of the said Council at the period of his election, and at the time of taking and subscribing the oath of qualification as required by the said Act, and the same may be subsequently lost, and yet such member might continue to sit and vote therein, notwithstanding such loss of qualification: And whereas, it is essential to the proper observance and fulfilment of the said enactments, and the due preservation and maintenance, purity, credit, and lawful authority, and the constitutional rights and privileges of the said Council, that the persons elected to be members thereof should possess one of the prescribed qualifications as well during the whole period that they shall retain their seats therein as at the first assumption of the same, May it, &c., That every member of the said Council, at the commencement of every session of this, or any future Council before any other business shall be entered upon, or in case of members who may not be present at the opening or commencement of any such session, or who may be elected members thereof during the continuance of such session, on the first day of every such member's attendance, before such member shall take his seat, shall deliver to the Chief Clerk of the said Council, a statement in writing, setting forth the nature of the qualification under which he is entitled to sit and vote in the said Council, and if such qualification consist in the whole or in part of real estate, a description of such estate and where situate, together with a decla

ration thereto subjoined, and subscribed by the member making the same, in the presence of the said clerk, that the ready money value of such real or personal estate, or of both combined, as the case may be, is, or are to the date of such declaration, sufficient to qualify such member to sit and vote in the said Council, according to the tenor and true meaning of the law in this respect, over and above the amounts of all judgments and mortgages affecting the same, and the said statements and declarations shall be filed by the said clerk, and be open to the inspection of the members of the said Council during the sittings thereof.

II. That if the qualification of any member shall be at any time questioned by any other member, or by any three or more electors of the island, district, or place represented by such member by petition to the said Council, he may be required to show by the proofs hereinafter mentioned, to a select committee of five members of the said Council appointed for that purpose at the commencement of every session, the sufficiency of such qualification, and if such members shall fail to establish the same to the satisfaction of the said Council, or if in case of personal estate forming any part of such qualification, it shall be found that there is standing against such member in any Court of Record within these islands, one or more unsatisfied judgment or judgments, and the same shall not be liquidated and cancelled within ten days after notice shall have been given to this effect to such member, he shall be deemed disqualified, and his seat shall be declared vacated. Provided, however, that no member shall be liable to have his qualification questioned, or be required to prove the sufficiency thereof more than once in the same session, except in case of the bankruptcy or insolvency of such member, when upon proof of the fact of such bankruptcy or insolvency, of which the adjudication of the proper Court shall be deemed sufficient evidence, the seat of such member shall be declared vacated.

III. That the value of real estate of any kind shall be the present market value of such estate in money, certified by the signature of two local magistrates, or of one magistrate and three freeholders of the island, settlement, or district in which, or nearest to which, the same may be situated, corroborated by the certificate of the Surveyor-General of lands-and shall afford the requisite qualification, after deducting from such certified value all and singular the judgments, mortgages, or other legal incumbrances, if any, affecting the said estate-and that the value of personal estate may be proved by the production of any lawful securities for money held in the name of, or payable to, or for the use of, the person producing the same, or by the renewal of the oath of qualification in the Council, and that the qualification of fifty acres of land under cultivation shall be understood to mean that the entire quantity is cultivated in the production of some marketable agricultural produce or edible provisions, which fact shall be certified as hereinbefore required in reference to the value of real estate.

No. 10.

Act 8 Vic.

c. 11.

Mode of proceeding when qualification is questioned.

Mode of ascertaining va

lue of estate and property of members of Council.

acres of land

IV. That upon, and from and after, the dissolution or termi- The qualifination of the present General Assembly, so much of the eleventh cation for 50 section of the hereinbefore recited Act as relates to the qualifica- under 47 Geo. tion for a member of the Council of "Fifty Acres of land under cultivation within these islands, free from all legal incumbrances," pealed, shall be and remain repealed.

3, ch. 1, is re

No. 11. Ord. No. 1, 1858.

PREAMBLF.

In October in

of Voters to be made out.

No. 11.-ORDINANCE No. 1, 1858.

An Ordinance for regulating the Registration of Persons entitled to
vote at the Election of Members to serve in the Council of the
Turks and Caicos Islands; and for otherwise amending the
Election Laws of the Colony. (Passed March 18th, 1858.
Confirmed August 10th, 1858.)

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HEREAS it is expedient to form a register of all persons entitled to vote in the election of a member or members to any future Council of these islands; May it, &c.

serve in

I. That in the month of October in each and every year, alphaevery year lists betical lists according to the form in the Schedule to this Ordinance annexed, shall be made out in each election district of the colony, of persons entitled to vote in every such district at the election of a member or members to serve in the Council of these islands; and every such list when so completed, shall be signed by the person making the same, who shall cause three copies to be made and to be fixed up in some public and conspicuous situation within the district, or portion of the district, for which any such list is made, for fourteen days next after the last day of October; during which said fourteen days it shall be lawful for any person qualified to vote at any such election to object to any person whose name shall appear in such list; and upon notice of such objection being given within the time aforesaid to the party by whom such list was made, he shall forthwith write against the name of the person objected to the words "Objected to by A. B." And it shall be also the duty of the person by whom any such list is made out as aforesaid, if he shall have reasonable cause to believe that any person whose name is inserted in such list is not entitled to vote at the election of a member for the district for which the list is made out, to write the words "Objected to" against the name of every such person. And if any person shall wilfully deface, obliterate, destroy, or remove any list put up under the authority of this Ordinance, he or they shall, upon conviction before any two of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace, be committed to any lawful prison within these islands, there to be kept to hard labour for a term not exceeding seven days.

Lists to be completed as soon

as may be after 14th November.

Custody of
Lists.

Lists to be revised.

II. That it shall be the duty of the persons by whom such lists are made out as aforesaid, to return and deliver the same as soon as may be after the fourteenth day of November in each and every year, to the persons hereinafter respectively authorized to have the custody of the same.

III. That the Provost Marshal of the Colony shall have the custody of the lists for Grand Cay. And it shall be lawful for the President or other Officer administering the Government, to appoint at each of the other election districts of the colony, some person being a resident Justice of the Peace of the district, to have custody of the lists of the election districts in which he is so resident; and if no Justice of the Peace be so resident, to appoint some other fit person for the purpose.

IV. That the lists so made out as aforesaid, shall be revised at Grand Turk by the Police Magistrate, and two other Justices of

the Peace, and at the several other election districts of the colony, by two Justices of the Peace to be annually nominated for that purpose by the President or other Officer administering the Government of the Colony; and such Justices shall hold their meetings for such revisions as soon as practicable after the fifteenth day of November in each year, and shall have power to adjourn their sittings from time to time from any one place to any other place within the same election district; which sittings shall remain open for at least three successive days, for the purpose not only of deciding on objections but for receiving and deciding on claims; and it shall be the duty of such revising Officers to add to such list the name of every person on whose behalf a claim shall be made to be inserted therein, and whose right as a voter shall be established to their satisfaction. Provided always that every such revision shall be concluded before the thirty-first day of December in each year.

No. 11.

Ord. No. 1, 1858.

Voters.

V. And whereas the only persons legally qualified to vote at an Qualification of election of members of Council are taxpayers of the age of twentyone years who can read and write; and it is expedient that the words "read" and "write" should be defined and their meaning rendered certain; Be it therefore ordained, that no person shall be considered to be able to read and write so as to be qualified to vote as aforesaid, unless he be able to read readily a sentence taken casually from this or some other Ordinance of this colony, and to reduce the same into writing in a legible manner.

VI. And whereas doubts have arisen as to the length of resi- Same. dence in any district of the Colony required to give any taxpayer a vote for such district; Be it ordained, that it shall be necessary for every person claiming to vote at any election within these islands, to have been resident within the district for which he so claims to vote, for at least six months immediately preceding such election. Provided that nothing hereinbefore contained shall be construed to prevent any such person from voting on account of a temporary absence from the usual place of abode of such voter.

VII. That no person except native British Subjects or Foreigners Same. duly naturalized, shall be qualified to vote at any election within these islands. Provided however, that this restriction shall not be held to apply to persons of African birth who have resided seven years within the Colony.

VIII. That whenever such lists shall be revised as aforesaid, To whom rethey shall be returned to the custody of the person authorized as aforesaid to retain the revised copy thereof.

vised lists to be returned.

Copies to be

IX. That on receipt of every revised list or lists as aforesaid, or when any such list or lists shall not require revision, on receipt of made. the original list or lists, the officer in whose custody the same is deposited as aforesaid, shall forthwith cause the same to be fairly and truly copied into a book to be provided for that purpose at the public expense; and every such book shall be deemed the register of the electors to vote at the choice of a member or members to serve in the Council for the district to which such register shall relate at any election which may take place during the year next succeeding the year in which such lists shall have been made out and revised or made out without revision, as the case may be. X. That the persons having respectively the custody of such Any inhabitant registers shall permit any person being an inhabitant of these inspect

may

lists.

No. 11. Ord. No. 1, 1858.

Lists to be

lodged with

Provost Mar

shal. By whom original lists to

be made out for present year.

By whom lists

to be made out in succeeding years.

None but the

votes of registered voters allowed.

No scrutiny allowed.

Proviso.

islands to inspect such registers, as also the original lists from which such registers are formed, at all convenient hours and without fee, and also furnish copies thereof to any person requiring the same upon being paid therefor at the rate of sixpence per folio for every folio of ninety words. And it shall be the duty of each of the persons to whom the custody of such lists shall be committed, to transmit a certified copy of every revised registration list of voters which in virtue of this Ordinance shall in future be lodged with him, to the Provost Marshal of the colony within one month from the receipt thereof by such person after the same shall have been revised.

XI. That the said lists shall for the present year be made out as soon as possible after this Ordinance shall come into operation by persons to be appointed for that purpose by the President or Officer administering the Government of the Colony. And it shall be the duty of every such person to place upon the list for the district for which he is acting, the name of every person whom he has reasonable cause to believe, after diligent inquiry for that purpose made, is entitled to vote at the election of a member or members to serve for such district in the Council of these islands. And such lists when made up shall be made public in manner herein before directed for the period of fourteen days, and shall then be delivered to the person appointed to have the custody of such lists. And it shall be the duty of the persons herein before appointed to revise the lists of voters, to revise the lists for this present year without delay, giving public notice of the time and place of such revision, and three days shall be allowed during which any objections made to any person whose name shall appear on any such list shall be heard and determined, after which the revised lists shall be returned to the party appointed to keep the same, and each revised list shall be copied into a book to be provided for that purpose, and shall be deemed to be a register of persons qualified to vote at any election for members of Council of these islands which may be held during the present year.

XII. That the lists for each year succeeding the present year, shall be made out by the Chief Constable of the district or other fit and proper person to be appointed by the President or Officer administering the Government for the time being: And it shall be the duty of every such constable or other person to place upon such list the names of all persons whose names appear on the register then in force, and who are then living, and also the names of all other persons who shall make claim to have their names inserted in any such list.

XIII. That it shall not be lawful for the returning officer at any election of a member or members to serve in any future Council, to receive the vote of any person or persons whose name shall not be on the register in force at the time of such election for the district for which such election is held; nor shall any scrutiny be held after any such election: Provided always, that every person whose name shall have been omitted from any register of voters in consequence of the decision of the Justices revising the list or lists from which such register shall have been formed, or who having claimed to have his name placed on such list, such name shall have been omitted by the person making out such list, may tender his vote at any election at which such register shall be

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