The Laura to Booleroo Centre Railway Act.-1907. entitled to vote, and assessed for property in the ward in which such polling-place is situated, and shall, under his hand, certify such copy to be a true copy: v Each ratepayer entitled to vote may vote on a scale according to the amount of value at which he is assessed, as follows:-Twenty-five Pounds or under, one vote; over Twenty-five Pounds to Thirty-five Pounds, two votes; over Thirty-five Pounds to Forty-five Pounds, three votes; over Forty-five Pounds to Fifty-five Pounds, four votes; over Fifty-five Pounds to Sixty-five Pounds, five votes; over Sixty-five Pounds upwards, six votes. No person shall have more than six votes. Both the owner and the occupier may vote in respect of any ratable property: VI. In case of joint tenancy, or tenancy in common, one person only shall vote, unless the assessed value of the property shall exceed Seventy-five Pounds, and then one other joint tenant, or tenant in common, may vote for each additional Seventy-five Pounds, or for any fractional part of Seventyfive Pounds, of assessed value, on the same scale as is allowed for the first Seventy-five Pounds, or the fractional part thereof, and joint tenants, or tenants in common entitled, may vote in the order in which they shall tender their votes, until votes shall have been taken for the whole assessed value, or all the joint tenants, or tenants in common, shall have voted: VII. Except as by this Act otherwise provided, no person shall have more than one vote: . Every person entitled to vote shall present himself to the Returning Officer or his Deputy at the polling-place for the District, or for the ward in respect of which such person claims to vote, and state his Christian and surname, abode, profession, or occupation, the nature of his qualification, and the place where the property or qualification is situate. The Returning Officer or Deputy shall thereupon place a mark against the voter's name on the copy of the assessment-book or the portion thereof in use at the polling-place, and hand such voter a voting-paper for every vote to which he shall be entitled, which votingpaper shall bear the initials of the Returning Officer or Deputy and the following sentences: "I approve of the Laura to Booleroo Centre railway being constructed in pursuance of The Laura to Booleroo Centre Railway Act, 1907'": "I object to the Laura to Booleroo Centre railway being constructed in pursuance of The Laura to Booleroo Centre Railway Act, 1907 '": And shall have a square printed opposite each such sentence, and nothing else shall be inserted in, or placed on, such voting-paper: IX. There The Laura to Booleroo Centre Railway Act.-1907. IX. There shall be provided one or more separate apartments or places forming part of the polling-booth, into which the voter shall, on receiving his voting-paper or papers, immediately retire, and there alone and in private, without interruption, indicate his vote or votes by making a cross within one of the squares on his voting-paper, or on each of his voting-papers, as the case may be, opposite the sentence which expresses his wish, and shall then fold the paper or papers and immediately deliver it or them so folded to the Returning Officer or his Deputy, who shall forthwith publicly, and without opening the same, deposit it or them in a box to be provided for that purpose; and no voting-paper so deposited in any box shall on any account be taken therefrom unless in the presence of the scrutineers after the close of the poll. No voting-paper shall be received unless it be so folded as to render it impossible for the Returning Officer, his Deputy, or any other person to see which way the vote is given: x. Any voter wilfully infringing any of the provisions of this section, or obstructing the voting by any unnecessary delay in performing any act within the said polling-booth or room, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor: x'. Any voter may signify to the Returning Officer or his Deputy that, by reason of blindness or defective eyesight, he is unable to vote without assistance, and thereupon such Officer or Deputy, if satisfied of such inability, shall permit any agent named by such voter to accompany him into the apartment or place for voting to mark the voting-paper on such voter's behalf, and shall receive such paper from such agent and deposit it in the ballot-box: XII. The only persons who shall be allowed to remain in the poll ing booth or room shall be the persons about to vote, the Returning Officer, the Deputy Returning Officer, and the scrutineers: XIII. No inquiry shall be permitted at any poll as to the right of any person to vote, except as follows, that is to say:-The Returning Officer or his Deputy may, or if required by any scrutineer shall, put to any person applying for a voting-paper at the time of his so applying, but not afterwards, the following questions, or any of them, and no other : (1) Are you the person whose name appears as and as the owner (or occupier) of the property set opposite your name in the assessmentbook now in force for this District? (2) Have you already voted at the present poll? (3) Ave Certificate of result of poll. The Laura to Booleroo Centre Railway Act.-1907. (3) Are you the owner within the meaning of "The District Councils Act, 1887," or other Act in force relating to District Councils (or the occu pier) of the property for which you now claim. to vote? And no person shall be entitled to vote unless his answer to the first and third questions, or such of them as shall be put to him, shall be in the affirmative, and to the second, if put, in the negative; and any person who shall wilfully make a false answer to either of such questions shall be guilty of a misdemeanor: XIV. Every person who shall vote a second time, or offer to vote a second time at any poll, or who shall personate any other person for the purpose of voting at any such poll, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months: xv. Immediately before taking the votes the Returning Officer or Deputy Returning Officer shall exhibit the ballot-box empty; and shall, immediately upon the close of the vot ing, publicly close and seal the box containing the voting papers which shall have been taken at the voting-place at which he presided, and each Deputy Returning Officer shall, with as little delay as possible, deliver, or cause his box to be delivered, to the Returning Officer; and any Returning Officer or Deputy Returning Officer who shall unlawfully tamper with any ballot-box or voting-paper shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months: XVI. At the close of the poll the Returning Officer shall fix a time, as soon as conveniently may be, for examining the votes and declaring the result of the poll, and shall, in the presence of one at least of the scrutineers, and of as many more as choose to be present, open all the boxes containing voting-papers delivered in at the taking of the poll, and shall examine such voting-papers, and shall reject all such as shall contain crosses against both of the above-mentioned sentences, or shall contain anything other than such matters as are herein before prescribed for such voting-papers: And shall openly declare the general state of the votes at the close of the poll, as the same shall be made up by him from the voting-papers taken at the several voting-places: And shall declare the result of the poll: XVII. All voting-papers shall be preserved by the Returning Officer until three months after the declaration of the result of the poll. 12. The result of the poll shall be embodied in a certificate under the hand of the Returning Officer in the form of the Second Schedule to this Act, or in a form to the like effect. The certificate shall The Laura to Booleroo Centre Railway Act.-1907. shall be published in the Government Gazette, which shall, after the expiration of three months from the declaration of the result of the the poll, be conclusive evidence of such result, and of the validity of the poll, and the performance of all conditions precedent thereto. 13. If the result of such poll be that two-thirds or more of the votes of all the ratepayers voting approve of the railway being constructed in pursuance of this Act, the Governor may make an order that the railway shall be constructed in pursuance of this Act, and the order shall be published in the Government Gazette. The railway shall not be constructed unless and until such order shall be published. Order for construction 14. In assessing the purchase-money or compensation to be paid Betterment provision. in respect of land purchased, taken, or acquired for the purposes of the undertaking hereby authorised, allowance shall be made in favor of the Commissioner for any increased value given by such undertaking to any other land of the same owner, but no such allowance shall in any case be more than the purchase-money and compensation which would, but for this section, have been payable to the owner in respect of the land so purchased, taken, or acquired. 15. A statement of the cost of the railway shall, within a reasonable time after the completion thereof, be published by the Commissioner in the Gazette, which shall be conclusive evidence of such cost. Statement of cost of published in Gazette. railway to be 16. All moneys received in respect of goods carried on the Constitution of fund. railway shall be carried by the Commissioner to a fund to be constituted for the Railway District, and to be called "The Laura and Booleroo Centre Railway District Fund." 17. There shall also be carried to the said fund one-half of the Net profits from moneys received for the carriage of such goods on other lines. 18. Full and separate accounts shall be kept by the Commissioner of the receipts and working expenses in respect of the railway for each year, and an abstract of such accounts shall be published by the Commissioner in the Gazette within three months after the end of the year. 19. The working expenses of the railway, which shall be a first charge upon such fund, and interest at the rate of four per centum per annum on the cost of the railway, shall be paid out of the said fund. carriage of goods through other lines to be carried to fund. Separate accounts of railway. Working expenses paid out of fund. and interest to be 20. If in any year the amount standing to the credit of the Deficiency (if any) fund shall not be sufficient to pay the working expenses in respect of how made good. such railway and interest at the rate of four per centum per annum on the cost of the railway, the deficiency in respect of the working expenses (if any) shall be made good by the Commissioner, and in respect of interest shall be made good by the District Council of Port Germein. 21. When Commissioner to make requisitions. Council to declare rate Railway rate, how to be declared. Use or transcription of existing assessment-book. Railway rate to be book. The Laura to Booleroo Centre Railway Act.-1907. 21. When any sum shall be required from the said Council to make good a deficiency under section 20 1. The said Council shall, on the request of the Commissioner, furnish to him a certificate under the hand of the chairman of the Council showing the assessed value of the ratable property in such District and situated within the Railway District: II. The Commissioner shall forward to the clerk of the said Council a requisition under the hand of the Commissioner for the required sum chargeable to such Council. 11. Every such requisition shall be published in the Government Gazette, which shall be conclusive evidence of the validity of the requisition, and of the due performance of all conditions precedent thereto, and to the declaring of a rate under the provisions hereinafter contained. 22. Upon any such requisition being so forwarded, the Council shall forthwith declare a rate sufficient to produce the sum mentioned in the requisition. 23. Such rate shall be called a railway rate, and shall be declared on the assessment then in force, and on the ratable property situated in the District and comprised within the Railway District. 24. For the purposes of such rate the Council may either use the assessment-book already existing or may transcribe the necessary portions thereof into a separate assessment-book, and may make such apportionment, or separate and fresh assessment, as shall appear just in any case where only part of the property comprised in one assessment shall be situated within the Railway District. 25. The railway rate when declared shall be entered in Part II. entered in assessment of the assessment-book, and so that particulars, similar to those required in the case of other rates made by the Council, shall be entered in a proper column opposite the names of the ratepayers liable to pay the railway rate, and the assessment-book shall at all times show a complete record of the moneys due for such rate in respect of every assessed property. Additions to or alterations of assessmentbook. Notice of railway rate. 26. The Council may make such additions to or alterations in the form of Part II. of the assessment-book used for the railway rate as shall be expedient for carrying out the purposes of this Act. 27. Within fourteen days after declaring any railway rate the Council shall cause notice to be given in the Government Gazette, and in a newspaper (if any) generally circulating in its District, of the nature and amount of the rate, in the form in the Third Schedule hereto, or in a form to the like effect. |