REGISTRATION OF ELECTORS ACT. No. 54.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 2, Issue 75, 26 February 1859, Page 3

REGISTRATION OF ELECTORS ACT. No. 54.

Be it Enacted by tlie General Assembly of New Zealand, in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : — „1. As soon as conveniently may be, after this Act shall come into operation, the Governor shall, by warrant under his hand, appoint a Registration Officer for each of the Electoral Districts within the Colony, for. the Election of Members of the House of Eepresentatives ; and may from time to time, by warrant as aforesaid, remove any Registration Officer, and fill up any vacancy that may at any time occur by death, removal, resignation, or otherwise, in the office of Registration Officer for any Electoral District. 2. It shall be the duty of the Registration Officer for every Electoral District annually to make up, in manner hereinafter prescribed, a list of all persons entitled or claiming to vote in the election of Members of the House of Representatives for such District ; which lists ai*e hereinafter referred to as the lists of voters, and shall be , revised in manner hereinafter provided. 3. Every duly qualified person desirous of having Ins name placed on any Electoral Roll, or of having any addition or alteration made to or in the statement of his qualification upon any such Roll, may make a claim for that purpose, in the form numbered 1 in the Schedule to this Act, or to the like effect. 4. Every such claim shall have thereunder printed or written, or thereon endorsed, a declaration according to the form numbered 2, in the said Schedule, which declaration shall be signed, and the truth thereof declared to by the claimant, before a Justice of the Peace, or the Registration Officer, who shall attest the same accordingly without fee ; and every person who knowingly and wilfully shall make a false declaration shall forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding £20, to be recovered in a summary way, before a Resident Magistrate, together with any one or more Justices of the Peace : Provided always, that when any person shall have more qualifications than one stated on the Roll, the several qualifications shall be numbered. 5. No such claim and declaration shall be received, unless it be given to the Registration Officer of the Electoral District in respect of which such claim shall be. made, in the month of March .in the year in which it is preferred. G. In the first week of the month of April in every year, the Registration Officer of each Electoral District, shall make an alphabetical list of the names of all those persons who shall, during the preceding month, Lave preferred claims as aforesaid, together with the particulars of their places of abode, and qualifications, as set forth in their respective claims ; and shall forthwith cause such list to be published, twice, in one or two newspapers, published within the Electoral District for which such list shall be made, and if there be no such newspaper, then in one or two newspapers published at the capital town of the Province, in which such Electoral District shall be situate, or at such other place as such Registration Officer shall deem best adapted to give lull publicity to the same. 7. In every District the Electoral Roll, for thetime being, together with the list of claimants (if any) to be made out and published as aforesaid, shall together constitute the list of voters for revision ; subject nevertheless to the special provision hereinafter contained respecting the formation of the first lists of voters for revision under this Act.! 8. It shall be lawful for any person whose name appears on any list of voters for revision, to object in any year to the right of any other person to have his name retained or placed on the Electoral Roll to be formed from such list by giving to the Registration Officer in the month of April in such year a written or printed notice in the form numbered 3 in the said Schedule, or to the like effect. 9. If any person whose name shall be on any such list of voters, shall be desirous of having his name removed therefrom, or any of his qualifications therein stated struck out, he shall in the month of April, give notice in writing (to be signed by him, in the presence of and attested by a Justice of the Peace), in the form or to the effect of the form numbered 4, in -the said Schedule, to the. Registration Officer of the District, and the said Registration Officer shall strike the name of such person out of the said list, or shall strike out such qualification as he shall desire to have omitted, accordingly. . 10. The Registration Officer shall within tlic first seven days of the month of May, make out an alphabetical list, in the form numbered 5 in the said Schedule, of all persons objected to as aforesaid, and if he shall have reasonable cause to believe that any person whose name shall be on the said list of voters is dead, or from any cause whatever is not entitled to be on tho Electoral Roll, in respect of any qualification 1 stated, in such list, and is not objected to, he shall insert the name of such person in the list of persons so objected to, and .shall affix his name as the objector thereto. .. : 11. The. Registration Officer shall forthwith cause such list to be posted in some public and coifapifluous situation within the District,* atfd to be published in like manner as is provided with respect to lists of claimants by "the sixth, section ;of this Act, and shall to such list add a. notice ' stating that such objections will be heard by the Revising Officer, appointed fox- that purpose,

12. The Registration Officer shall also publish at tlie same time, and in the same manner) an alphabetical list in the form numbered 6 in the aaid Schedule, of all persons ■whose names shall have been removed from the list of voters as pro* vided by the ninth section of this Act: 13. Every person who shall wilfully des* troy, remove,, deface, or otherwise injure, ofr in» terfere with any notice, list, or other document posted for the purpose of publication under the provisions of this Act, -during the period for which the same is hereinbefore required to remain so posted, shall for every such offence forfeit any sum not exceeding £20, nor less than 405., to any person who shall sue for the same, to be recovered in a summary way, before any two Justices of the Peace. 14. No list shall be invalidated, by reason that it shall not be published in such manner, in every place, and for the full time hereinbefore required for publication thereof, nor by reason of any error in the, copying or printing of the same, but the Eevising Officer shall proceed to revise and adjucate upon every such list which shall have been published in any manner and for any part of the time hereinbefore mentioned in that behalf: Provided that nothing herein contained be construed to exempt the Registration Officer, or other person charged with the duty of publishing any such list as aforesaid from the penalties, and other consequences of his neglect, or wilful default. 15. In case no list of voters shall have been made out for any Electoral District in any year, or in case such list shall not have been published as hereinbefore mentioned in that behalf, the Electoral 801 l for such District then in force shall be taken to be the list of voters, for the purposes of revision, for such District for the year then next ensuing, and the provisions herein contained respecting any such list of voters, shall be taken to apply to such Electoral Roll as aforesaid. 16. The Governor shall, in or about the month of April in every year, appoint so many competent persons as he may deem necessary who shall be called Revising Officers, to revise the lists of voters for that year in the several Electoral Districts of the Colony : Provided always, that no member of the House of Representatives, nor any Superintendent, nor any Member of any Provincial Council, shall be appointed a Revising Officer jand that no Revising Officer shall for two years after his appointment be eligible to be elected as a Member of the House of Representatives for any Electoral District for which he shall have been so appointed, nor as Superintendent of the Province in which any such Electoral District shall be situate, nor as a Member of any Provincial Council for any such District, or any District wholly or partially included therein. 17. Each of such Revising Officers shall forthwith after his appointment take the following Oath before a" Judge of the Supreme Court, or some person appointed by the Governor to administer the same, viz. : — "I (A.8.) do solemnly and sincerely promise "and swear, that I will, to the best of . "my ability, perform my duty as a Re"vising Officer appointed under the pro"visions of "The Registration of Electors "Act 1858," without fear, favor, or malice. "So help me God." 18. Every Revising Officer shall, as early as conveniently may be after his appointment, notify the same to the Registration Officers of the several Electoral Districts for which he shall have been appointed, and every such Registration Officer shall, on or about the 10th day of May, transmit to such Revising Officer the list of voters for revision, together with an authentic copy of the lists to be published in pursuance of the eleventh and twelfth sections respectively of this Act, and all the original claims and declarations and notices of objection which such Registration Officer shall have received. 19. The Revising Officer appointed to revise the list of voters for any Electoral District shall hold an open Court for t hat purpose at such times and places, either within or without such District, or. both, as he may think fit, between the first day of June and the first day of August in every year, and he shall give at least 15 days notice in one or more newspapers, as the Revising Officer shall deem best adapted to give full publicity to the same, of the time and place of holding any Court, and specifying as nearly as may be the business to be transacted thereat. 20. The Revising Officer shall insert in the list of voters for any Electoral District the name and particulars of abode and qualification of e\ery person omitted, who shall be proved to the satisfaction of such Revising Officer to have given due notice of his claim to be inserted in siich list/ariel to have been entitled on the last day of April then, next preceding to have his name inserted therein* in respect of the qualification described in . such notice of claim.- ■- — — .__ „_l_____ 21. It shall be lawful for any person whose name shall be on the list of Voters for any Electoral District, without any previous notice 'to oppose the claim of any person so omitted as aforesaid to have his name inserted ,on the Electoral Roll for such District. 22. The Revising Officer shall correct aay mistake which shall be, proved tohiin to have been, made in any list of Toters, and shall expunge, whether objected to or not, the name of every person whose qualification, as stated in such list, shall be insufficient in law to entitle such person to vote, and also any of several qualiflca turns of any one, person which as stated in such" list shall be insufficient as aforesaid, and also the name of every person proved to him to be dead,^ and also every name which shall be proved to. him; to be:fictitious ; and wherever the Christian name, or the place, of abode, or the nature of the qualification, or thelocal or other description of the property of any person who shall be included in any such list. of voters, shall be wholly omitted in.any case^-where', the same is by this Act directed "to bier specified;: : therein, or ■wherever .any person whoseinarQ§;i^ii^; .; eluded in any such listv or his, p^aeeof abocle^ or ,-\ thenature'or description of his 'shall C; in the judgment of the Revising Officer, be^|^:,'j ficiently described for the purpose; of " ; b"eing^idea-; f H| tified, such Revising .Officer shall expunge^B Dairuj^ of every such person from such' list of v6ters/tisv ; , : (For CQtiiimaMon see Sii^etwen^