No. 12. Assembly together with its opinion on the other matters relating to 19 VICTORIA, the said petition; and the opposite party who shall be named by the committee shall in that case be entitled to recover from the party on whose behalf any such objection was made who shall also be named by the committee the full costs and expenses incurred by reason of such frivolous or vexatious objections; and if any person shall make before the said committee any specific allegation with regard to the conduct of either party or his agents and either bring no evidence in support thereof or such evidence that the committee is of opinion that such allegation was made without any reason or probable ground, the committee may make such orders as to it shall seem fit for the payment by the person making such unfounded allegation to the other party of all the costs and expenses incurred by reason of such unfounded allegation. penses how 76. The costs and expenses which may become payable under Costs and exthe provisions of this Act by any party prosecuting or opposing or ascertained. preparing to oppose the petition under the provisions of this Act or to any witnesses summoned to attend before the committee under the provisions hereof shall be ascertained by the said committee, who shall upon application made to them deliver to the party entitled to such costs and expenses a certificate thereof signed by the chairman of the said committee expressing the amount of the costs and expenses allowed with the name of the party liable to pay the same and the name of the party entitled to receive the same; and such certificate shall be conclusive evidence for all purposes whatever as well of the amount of the demand as of the title of the party to recover the amount from the party therein stated to be liable to the payment thereof. penses how 77. The President or Speaker of the Council or Assembly as Costs and exthe case may require shall by order under his hand direct the pay- recovered. ment of the said sum of one hundred pounds deposited according to the provisions hereinbefore contained or a sufficient portion thereof to any party or parties who by such certificate shall appear to be entitled to recover costs and expenses against the person or any of the persons by whom such deposit was made; and the party entitled to any such costs and expenses under such certificate may recover the same or so much thereof as shall not be paid out of any such deposit from the party liable to pay the same; and if the party liable to pay such costs and expenses shall not upon demand being made within seven days thereafter pay the same, the said President or Speaker shall by warrant under his hand directed to the sheriff of Victoria command the said sheriff to levy for the amount named in such warrant upon the lands and tenements goods and chattels of the party liable to pay the same; and thereupon the said sheriff shall forthwith in the same manner as in executing a levy under a writ of fieri facias levy for the said amount, and when it shall be recovered pay over the same to the party entitled thereto; and any person from whom the amount of such costs and expenses shall have been received or who shall have paid the same on demand thereof shall be entitled to recover in any court of competent jurisdiction from the other persons if such there be who are liable to the payment of the same a proportionate share thereof according to the number of persons so liable and according to the extent of the 19 VICTORIA, liability of each person; and every such warrant shall be returned to the said President or Speaker as the case may be. No. 12. 78. [This and the remaining sections are repealed by 29 Vict. No. 279 8. 2, "Parliament (Electoral)," post, p. 1882.] Section 62. SCHEDULE E REFERRED TO IN THIS ACT. Form of oath to be taken by each member of Election Committee. I A.B. do swear well and truly to try and determine the matters of any petition and other questions referred to this committee and a true judgment to give according to the evidence and truly and faithfully to perform the duties appertaining to a member of the said committee to the best of my judgment and ability without fear or favor. So help me God. Preamble. 18 & 19 Vict. c. 55. SECT. Printed copies of Journals of House of 1Style of Legislature ... ... ... SECT. 23 An Act for defining the Privileges Immunities and Powers of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Victoria respectively. [25th February 1857.] HEREAS by an Act intituled "An Act to enable Her Majesty to assent to a Bill as amended of the Legislative Council of Victoria" it was amongst other things enacted that there should be established in Victoria instead of the Legislative Council then subsisting one Legislative Council and one Legislative Assembly to be severally constituted as therein provided; and further that it should be lawful for the Legislature of Victoria by any Act or Acts to define the privileges immunities and powers to be held enjoyed and exercised by the Council or Assembly and by the members thereof respectively, provided that no such privileges immunities or powers should exceed those then held enjoyed and exercised by the Commons House of Parliament or the members thereof: And whereas it is expedient to exercise the power given by the said recited Act as hereinafter mentioned: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Victoria in this present Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same as 20 VICTORIA, follows: No. 1. &c. of Council 1. The Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Victoria Privileges powers respectively and the committees and members thereof respectively and Assembly. shall hold enjoy and exercise such and the like privileges immunities and powers as, and the privileges immunities and powers of the said Council and Assembly respectively and of the committees and members thereof respectively are hereby defined to be the same as, at the time of the passing of the said recited Act were held enjoyed and exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland and by the committees and members thereof, so far as the same are not inconsistent with the said recited Act, whether such privileges immunities or powers were so held possessed or enjoyed by custom statute or otherwise.(a) House of Com evidence. 2. Any copy of the journals of the House of Commons printed Printed copies or purporting to be printed by the order or printer of the House of of Journals of Commons shall be received as prima facie evidence without proof mons to be of its being such copy, upon any inquiry touching the privileges immunities and powers of the said Council or Assembly or of any committee or member thereof respectively. 3. The Legislature of Victoria shall be and is hereby designated style of Legis"The Parliament of Victoria." lature. (a) This section is a due exercise of the power to define given by "The Constitution Act," section 35.-Dill v. Murphy, 1 W. & W. (L.), 342; and, on appeal, 1 Moo., P.C. (N.S.), 487. Publication outside the Parliament House of a newspaper article adjudged by the Assembly to be a libel on the Assembly, on a select committee thereof, and on a member of such, in his capacity of such member, is a contempt for which the Assembly has authority to commit. In a warrant issued by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, to arrest a person for breach of privilege, by publication of a libel, it is not necessary to allege that the privilege is one which was held, enjoyed, and exercised by the House of Commons at the time of the passing of the "Constitution Act."-In re Dill, 1 W. & W. (L.), 171. The Legislative Assembly has the same powers and privileges of committing for contempt as the House of Commons had at the time of the passing of the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 55. Incident to those powers and privileges, there is vested in the Assembly the right of judging for itself what constitutes a contempt, and of ordering the commitment to prison of persons adjudged by the House to have been guilty of a contempt and breach of privilege, by a general warrant, without setting forth the specific grounds of such commitment; the Supreme Court has no power to discharge such persons out of custody.-The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly v. Glass, L.R, 3 P.C., 560. The Legislative Assembly does not possess the privilege to authorise, by resolutions imposing customs duties, the officers of customs to collect such duties until the end of the session of Parliament in which such resolutions have been passed.-Stevenson v. The Queen, 2 W. W. & a'B. (L.), 143. 21 VICTORIA, An Act to abolish the Property Qualification required by members of the Legislative Assembly. No. 12. Preamble. Schedule I. of 18 & 19 Vict. c. 55. 18 & 19 Vict. c. 55. Section 11. Section 26. Section 31. Schedule B. [27th August 1857.] WHEREAS the number of persons capable of being elected as members of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria is at present unduly restricted, and it is expedient to enlarge the same: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Victoria in Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same : 1. That so much of an Act intituled "An Act to establish a Constitution in and for the colony of Victoria," being Schedule I. of a certain Act of the Imperial Parliament passed in the 18th and 19th years of the reign of Her present Majesty intituled "An Act to enable Her Majesty to assent to a Bill as amended of the Legislature of Victoria to establish a Constitution in and for the colony of Victoria," as enacts "That no person shall be capable of being elected a member of the Assembly who shall not be legally or equitably seised of or entitled to an estate of freehold in possession for his own use and benefit in lands and tenements in Victoria of the value of two thousand pounds sterling money or of the annual value of two hundred pounds sterling money above all charges and encumbrances affecting the same:" And as further enacts "That if any person by this Act disabled or declared to be incapable to sit or vote in the Legislative Council or Legislative Assembly be elected and returned as a member to serve in the said Council or Assembly such election and return may be declared by the said Council or Assembly as the case may be to be void and thereupon the same shall become void to all intents and purposes and if any person so elected and returned contrary to the provisions of this Act shall sit or vote as member of the said Council or Assembly he shall be liable to pay two hundred pounds to be recovered by any person who shall sue for the same in any court of the said colony having competent jurisdiction" in so far as such disability or incapacity would but for this Act have arisen from want of such property qualification in a person so elected or returned as a member of the Legislative Assembly but not further or otherwise And as further enacts "That every member of the Legislative Assembly shall after the election of the speaker before he shall sit and vote in such Assembly make and subscribe a declaration under his hand and deliver the same to the clerk of the Assembly at the place where and while the House is sitting with the speaker in the chair which declaration shall be in the form set forth in the Schedule hereunto annexed marked B and that the said declaration shall be filed and kept by the clerk with the other records of the office and that any member who shall sit or vote in the Assembly after the election of a speaker before making such declaration as aforesaid shall be liable for every day on which he shall so offend to a penalty of two hundred pounds" shall be and is hereby repealed as from the first day of March 1857, save only as to any election which may or shall have taken place before that day. No. 12. Assembly. 2. That after such last-mentioned date, any natural born sub- 21 VICTORIA, ject of the Queen, or any alien naturalized by law for the space of five years and resident in the colony of Victoria for the space of Qualification of two years, who shall be of the full age of twenty-one years shall members of be qualified to be elected a member of the Legislative Assembly of the said colony, provided he be not subject to any of the disabilities created by the said first recited Act and not removed by the present Act. An Act to alter the Electoral Districts of Victoria and to increase the number of Members of the Legislative Assembly thereof. WH [17th December 1858.] HEREAS it is expedient that the several electoral districts Preamble. of Victoria should be altered so as to provide for a more equal distribution of the elective franchise, and that the number of members of the Legislative Assembly be increased: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly in this present Parliament assembled as follows (that is to say) : 10" Constitution 1. The tenth section of "The Constitution Act" together with Repeal of section the Schedule thereunto annexed marked F shall be and the same is Act." hereby repealed. 2. The colony shall be and the same is hereby divided into the several electoral districts specified in the Schedule to this Act annexed; and the boundaries of the said electoral districts respectively and the names thereof shall be those set forth in the said Schedule. 3. From and after the commencement of this Act the several electoral districts shall return the number of members assigned to them in the said Schedule, and the Legislative Assembly shall consist of the total number of members so returned. Division of toral districts. Schedule. colony into elec See 29 Vict. No. 279 s. 15, "Parliament (Electoral)," post, P. 1884. Number of members to be elected. |