CIRCULAR OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD. EXECUTION OF PUBLIC WORKS (OTHER THAN HOUSING). Local Government Board, Whitehall, S.W.1, 29th May, 1919. Sir, I am directed by the President of the Local Government Board to state that he is anxious to receive periodical information as to any considerable works put in hand by the larger local authorities in order that he may be able to estimate to what extent the operations of local authorities are aiding in the re-establishment of industry. It is desirable that the required information should be furnished in a form which can readily be summarised, and Dr. Addison has caused the enclosed forms of returns to be prepared with that object. He will be greatly obliged if the Council would be good enough to have one or more of the forms completed and returned to him at the beginning of each month during the present financial year. He regrets to have to add to the labours of the staff of the Council, but he feels sure they will realise the importance of placing the Government in possession of the information which the return will convey. Dr. Addison feels confident that all local authorities recognise the importance in the public interest at the present time of putting useful works in hand which will tend directly and indirectly to give or stimulate employment, and he will gladly do anything which he properly can to assist them in doing so. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, H. C. MONRO, Secretary. The Clerk to the Council. [It is not considered necessary to reprint the form of return, which can be obtained from the Ministry of Health.] CIRCULAR OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD. REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE ACT, 1918. Whitehall, S.W.1, Sir, I am directed by the President of the Local Government Board to forward to the Registration Officer the accompanying copies of an Order in Council which has been made under the Representation of the People Act, 1918. Registration Dates for Third Register. Rule 4 of the Order prescribes the qualifying period and the registration dates for the purpose of the Third Register of electors under the Act. The Register will come into force on the 15th October, 1919, and remain in force until the 15th April, 1920, unless otherwise ordered. Rule 5 of the Order prescribes the dates until which documents relating to the preparation of the register are to be kept published. Provisions as to Absent Voters. The effect of the new rule 6A which, by rule 1 of the Order, is to be inserted after rule 6 of the Representation of the People Order, is to continue the operation of the provisions of rule 40 of that Order, which related only to the First Register, with respect to: (a) The recording of the qualifying premises as the address of an absent voter in cases where no sufficient address has been furnished; (b) The re-addressing of envelopes containing ballot papers sent to absent voters and returned undelivered; (c) The placing of discharged disabled men on the absent voters list after the register has been published; and (d) The removal of names from the absent voters list. Postponement of the Counting of Votes. Under section 23 (3) of the Act of 1918, as amended by the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 1918, the counting of the votes at any parliamentary election occurring during the war and a period of twelve months thereafter may be directed by Order in Council to take place at such time not exceeding eleven days after the close of the poll as may be specified in the Order. Rule 42 of the Representation of the People Order, which fixed the time at which the counting of the votes should commence at elections occurring during the continuance of the war, is amended by rule 3 of the new Order, so as to extend its operation to all parliamentary elections held during the war and a period of twelve months thereafter. Absent Voters List for Third Register. As intimated on page 2 of the circular of 14th May, R.P. 85, the absent voters list for the third register will be made out in accordance with rule 5 (1) of the Representation of the People Order, and the names of the absent voters in this list will therefore not bear the same numbers as in the previous lists. The Army Council consider that it would be of great assistance to the Record Offices if, in the case of each absent voter on the third list whose name was also on the second list, his number on the second list in shown in the new list. The Board think this might conveniently be done by omitting from the absent voters list the additional 5th column (in which the numbers in column 1 are duplicated) and inserting instead a column for the number which the voters bore on the second list. The column should be headed, “Number of voter on previous absent voters list." If the name of the voter was not on the second absent voters list, no number will, of course, be inserted in the column. Sending of R.P. 79 to Demobilised Men. The postcard, R.P. 79, sent to men demobilised from the Forces with a view to ascertaining whether they desire not to be placed on the absent voters list, is being reprinted with slight alteration. The card should be sent to each man notified by the Record Offices as demobilised if his name is on the second absent voters list. Where the voter returns the card making application for his name not to be placed on the absent voters list, his name should, if he was demobilised before 15th June, be removed, under paragraph (d) of the new rule 6A, from the second absent voters list, but if the demobilisation occurs on or after 15th June, so that the man will be entered in the third register as a naval or military voter, the name will be removed from the second absent voters list and will not be placed on the third absent voters list. Pre-payment of postage on documents sent to Record Offices. The Board are informed by the Army Council that copies of the absent voters list for a number of constituencies have been forwarded to Record Offices by post without the postage having been prepaid. The Board desire to call the attention of Registration Officers to their memorandum of the 15th October, 1918, in which it was intimated that postage should be prepaid on all communications to the Record Offices. To the Registration Officer. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, ORDER IN COUNCIL. At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 8th day of May, 1919. PRESENT, The King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. WHEREAS by the Representation of the People Act, 1918 (hereinafter referred to as the Act"), as amended by the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 1918, power is conferred on His Majesty to make provision for various matters by Order in Council : And whereas by the Representation of the People Order His Majesty was pleased by Order in Council to make provision for various matters under the Act: And whereas by section 40 (2) of the Act any Order in Council made thereunder may be revoked or varied as occasion requires by any subsequent Order in Council : NOW, THEREFORE, His Majesty, in pursuance of the powers conferred on him by the Act, and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, is pleased, by and with the advice of His Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows: The Representation of the People Order shall be amended as follows: 1. The following rule shall be inserted after rule 6:— Special Provisions as to Absent Voters. 6A.--(a) Where no sufficient address in respect of an absent voter has been furnished to the registration officer for the purpose of the record of addresses required to be kept by him under rule 19 of the First Schedule to the Act the registration officer may record the qualifying premises in respect of which the absent voter is registered as the address of that voter for the purposes of the said rule, unless it appears to the registration officer that a ballot paper if sent to that address would reasonably be expected not to reach the voter; and (b) Where an envelope containing a ballot paper and the other documents referred to in rule 15 of this Order is returned to the returning officer as not having been delivered to an absent voter, the returning officer may re-address the envelope to any address to which he could send a ballot paper for that voter if he were then sending it for the first time; and (c) Rule 8 (2) of this Order shall apply to persons who have ceased to be members of the naval, military or air forces of the Crown and are in hospitals or institutions or are otherwise away from their homes for the purpose of training or treatment, as it applies to members of the naval, military or air forces of the Crown; and (d) Where the registration officer receives from a person whose name is on the absent voters list a duly authenticated application for his name to be removed from that list, that person shall, notwithstanding that the register has been pub lished, be treated as though his name were not on the absent voters list, and the names of such persons shall be erased from each copy of the absent voters list to be used by the returning officer at an election, without, however, altering the number of any other name on the list. The registration officer shall cause any mark placed in the copies of the register to be used by the returning officer at the election against the name of any such person indicating that he will vote as an absent voter to be erased: Provided that where any such application is received less than one clear day before the day of nomination of candidates for an election, the application may be disregarded for the purposes of that election." 2. Rule 40 shall be omitted. 3. In rule 42, after the words "the present war," there shall be inserted the words "and a period of twelve months thereafter." 4. The following rule shall be added after rule 43 :— Registration Dates, etc., for Third Register. 43A. As respects constituencies in Great Britain the third register to be prepared under the Act shall come into force on the 15th day of October, nineteen hundred and nineteen, and shall remain in force, unless otherwise ordered, until the 15th day of April, nineteen hundred and twenty, and in connection with the third register to be so prepared the registration dates shall be the dates specified as respects England and Wales in the third column and as respects Scotland in the fourth column of Part I. of Schedule XI. to this Order. As respects constituencies in Ireland the second register to be prepared under the Act shall come into force on the 15th day of October, nineteen hundred and nineteen, and shall remain in force, unless otherwise ordered, until the 15th day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty, and in connection with the second register for Ireland to be so prepared the registration dates shall be the dates specified in Part I. of Schedule XII. of this Order." 5. The following rule shall be added after rule 45 Publication of Documents in connection with Third Register. 45A. The documents mentioned in Part II. of Schedule XI. to this Order shall, for the purposes of the third register, be kept published until the dates specified, as respects England and Wales in the second column, and as respects Scotland in the third column, of that Schedule; and the documents mentioned in Part II. of Schedule XII. to this Order shall for the purpose of the second register for Ireland be kept published until the dates specified in that Schedule." 6. By this section a form is substituted for the first form set out in Schedule III. : 7. In form No. VIII. of Schedule III. " five clear days" shall be substituted for " seven clear days." |