The Constitution for the Cape of Good Hope.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume VIII, Issue 515, 4 June 1852, Page 4

The Constitution for the Cape of Good Hope.

The subjoined abstract of the Constitutional Ordinance comprises all the more important provisions of the new Cape Constitution :—: — „ " The Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope shall consist of the Governor, the Legislative Council, and a House of Assembly. "The Legislative Council shall consist of the Chief Justice, as President, aud fifteen Members, eight of whom shall be chosen in the western districts and seven in the eastern. Of the first Council, the eight Members (four from the western and four from the eastern districts) who were elected by the fewest votes shall retire at the expiration of five years, and the remaining seven at the expiration of ten years ; and the Members afterwards elected shall hold their seats for ten years, unless the Council shall be sooner dissolved by the Governor. A Member of the Legislative Council must be thirty years, of age, and must own landed property, unmortgaged, worth £1,000, or else landed property of that amount, which, though mortgaged, will, with his nioveable property, constitute him the owner of not less than £2,000, over and above his just debts. Every candidate for the Legislative Council must be nominated by a requisition signed by 25 electors, and must have accepted the nomination before he can be voted for. The list of candidates thus legally nominated shall be published in the " Government Gazette" at least 14 days before the day of election. No elector can sign such a requisition for more than one candidate. "The House of Assembly shall consist of 46 Members, to be elected for the term of five years. Seven Members, exclusive of the Member presiding, shall form a quorum. Every person qualified to vote shall be qualified to be elected a Member of the Legislative Assembly. The electoral divisions shall be the Cape Division (exclusive of Cape Town) Malmesbury, Stellenbosh, the Paarl, Clanwilliam, Swellendam, Caledon, George, Uitenhage, Port Elizabeth, Albany (exclusive of Graham's Town), Fort Beaufort, Victoria, Albert, Somerset, Graaf-Reinet, Cradock, Colesberg, Beaufort, and Worcester, Cape Town (to be divided into two electoral divisions, one of them including Point Green), and Graham's Town. The House of Assembly shall elect oneof its Members as Speaker. Every male person who shall have occupied, for his own use and benefit, within any electoral division, for the space of 12 months next before the day of registration, any tenement of the value of £25, shall be entitled to be registered as a voter for Members of both Houses. B^uio servant, or other person, shall be deemecHo have so occupied any premises, of which, in i&w, the

possession would be deemed to be in some other person. Joint occupiers of tenements of sufficient value to qualify them severally shall be entitled to vote. No person shall be an elector unless he is of the full age of 21 years, and either a natural-born British subject, or a British subject who was, before the 18th of January, 1806, a subject of the Batavian Government in this Colony, or else, if of alien birth, naturalized by some Act of the Imperial or Colonial Legislature. No person shall be entitled to vote who shall hold any office of profit under her Majesty within the Colony. Uncertificated insolvents, insane persons, and convicted felons (not being pardoned,) are also excluded from the franchise. "The Members of the Legislative Council shall be elected before those of the House of Assembly Polling places (at least one in every field-cornetcy) and returning officers shall be appointed by the Governor. In the election of the Members of the Legislative Council each voter shall be entitled to give as many votes as there are members to be elected from his section of the Colony (western or eastern), and he may give one vote to each candidate, or may distribute the votes among candidates in such proportion as he shall think fit, or may give them all to one candidate. The voter shall write against the name of each candidate in the printed list whom he may desire to have chosen, the number of votes which he shall give to such candidates, and subscribe such list with his name at length, and every such signature shall be attested by the officer taking the poll. These votes shall be summed up by the Committee of Scrutineers, nominated by the candidates in each province, and the names of the members elected shall be announced by proclamation in the "Government Gazette." , The day of election of members of the Legislative Assembly shall then be pronounced by proclamation, and the election shall take place after an interval of not less than 31 days from the date of such proclamation. The members shall be duly nominated by two resident electors, at a public court, held in each electoral division ; and, if the number of persone proposed shall not exceed the number of persons to be elected, such persons shall be deemed to be elected ; otherwise a show of hands shall be taken, and, if any candidate shall demand a poll, the returning officer shall fix and announce the day or days on which the poll will be tal?£n at the several polling places, which shall be after an interval of not less than three day from thes day of nomination. Security must bo given by each candidate for the payment of an equal share of the expense of the poll, not, however, exceeding the sum of £50. The returning officer ef the division shall cast up the votes given for the several candidates, and shall at ano ther public court declare the state of the "poll, and proclaim the member jor members i..,,,^^j „ - *_ " The Governor shall summon the two Houses to meet at such time and place within the Colony as he shall think fit within twelve months next after the promulgation of this ordinance. A S ession of the Parliament shall be held at least once in every year. The Governor may prorogue the two houses whenever he shall see fit to do so ; and he may dissolve one or both houses at his pleasure. In case of the occurrence of a vacancy in either house, from death or any other cause, the Governor shall, by proclamation, order a new election to be held ; the member so elected shall hold his seat for the unexpired term for which the member occasioning such vacancy was elected. " The Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General, the Treasurer, and the Auditor, i shall have the right of sitting and speaking, but not of voting, in either house. " All bills granting supplies or imposing taxes shall originate in the house of Assembly. No bill appropriating any sum of money from the public revenue shall be enacted, unless the Governor shall have recommended the House of Assembly to make provision for the specified public service for which such money is to be appropriated. The Governor may assent to any bill, or may refuse his assent to it, or may reserve it for the signification of the royal pleasure upon it ; or-he may return it with amendments to either house at his pleasure. But a bill assented to by the Governor may be disallowed within two years by orders of Her Majesty in Council. All debates shall be conducted in English, and all records of proceedings of the Parliament be kept in the same language. " Every member of either house who resides at a greater distance than ten miles from the place at which Parliament meets, shall receive £1 per day for every day spent in travelling to and from, or in attending at, any session of Parliament. " Until the Parliament shall otherwise direct, there shall be reserved out of the revenue of the colony the sum of £ , for defraying the expenses of the several services enumerated in the subjoined schedules A, B, C, & D -.—Schedule A,—Governor, Chief Justice, two Puisne Judges, salaries of the Attorney and Solicitor General, Crown Solicitor, and contingent and miscellaneous expenses of the administration of justice throughout the colony : Colonial Secretary and his department ; Colonial Treasurer and his department,; Auditor- General and his department ; sa lary of cierk and miscellaneous expenses of Executive Council. Schedule B—Pensions. Schedule C — Public Worship. Sche* dule D — Border Department.'**