AND affected by that Act: see section 34 (3). The qualifica- MUNICIPAL tions and disqualifications for election to offices in county COUNTY boroughs are the same as in municipal boroughs. COUNCILS. tions for. The offices to which the qualifications and disqualifi- Qualificacations here enumerated are applicable are those of mayor, alderman, councillor, and elective auditor (b), in a municipal borough, and of chairman, county alderman, and county councillor in an administrative county. The mayor is to be a fit person elected by the council from the aldermen or councillors, or persons qualified to be such: 45 & 46 Vict. c. 50, s. 15. The aldermen are to be fit persons elected by the council, and must be councillors, or qualified to be such: Ibid., s. 14. The elective auditors are to be elected by the burgesses, and must be qualified to be councillors, but must not be councillors or hold the office of town clerk or treasurer: Ibid., s. 25. This section does not apply to county councils, whose accounts are audited by the district auditors appointed by the Local Government Board: see sections 71 (3), and 75 (16), (b), of 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41. To ascertain, therefore, who may be elected to the office of mayor, alderman, or elective auditor, it is necessary to consider who are qualified to be councillors. The councillors are to be fit persons elected by the burgesses: 45 & 46 Vict. c. 50, s. 11 (1). The same section further provides that a person shall not be qualified to be elected or to be a councillor unless he (a) Is enrolled and entitled to be enrolled as a burgess; or, (6) Being entitled to be so enrolled in all respects except that of residence, is resident beyond seven (c) miles but within fifteen miles of the (b) Ward assessors were abolished by the Ballot Act, 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. 33); revising assessors are no longer to be elected: 41 & 42 Vict. c. 26, and 51 Vict. c. 10, s. 4; and the mayor's auditor is appointed by the mayor: 45 & 46 Vict. c. 50, s. 25. (c) As to measurement, see section 231, post, p. 443. MUNICIPAL borough, and is entered in the separate nonresident list (d); and (c) Is possessed of real or personal property or both, to the value, in a borough having four or more wards, of 1,0007., and in any other borough, of 5007., or is rated to the poor in the former case, on the annual value of 30l., and in the latter case of 157. "Provided, that every person shall be qualified to be elected and to be a councillor, who is, at the time of election, qualified to elect to the office of councillor; which last-mentioned qualification for being elected shall be alternative for and shall not repeal or take away any other qualification:" Ibid., (2) and (3) (e). But a person ceases to be qualified under this proviso and his office becomes vacant if he ceases for six months to reside in the borough, unless he was at the time of his election and continues to be qualified in some other manner: Ibid., (4). The above section confers three qualifications. It is to be noticed that the third of these, viz., the one given by the proviso, does not involve the property requirements of the other two. It has been held that a person "entitled to vote" under section 51, by reason of being enrolled, is not "qualified to elect," and therefore to be elected, under the proviso, unless he is entitled to be enrolled Flintham v. Roxburgh, 17 Q. B. D. 44; 55 L. J., Q. B. 472. It follows from this decision, and from the express words of sub-section 2, that an essential of all three qualifications is the being entitled to be enrolled, although, as to persons on the non-resident list, it is sufficient if they are entitled to be enrolled in all (d) As regards county council elections, see, as to separate nonresident 1 st, sections 75 (12), and 76 (6 of the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), and section 12 of the County Electors Act, 1888 (51 Vict. c. 10). (e) This sub-section is reproduced from 43 Vict. c. 17, which was intended to remove the disability then occasioned by the nonpossession of property. See Flintham v. Roxburgh, 17 Q. B. D. at AND COUNTY COUNCILS. respects other than residence. The question as to who MUNICIPAL are entitled to be enrolled is treated of exhaustively in Part I., commencing at page 155; see also Unwin v. McMullen, (1891) 1 Q. B. 644; 60 L. J., Q. B. 400; 39 W. R. 712, and Ward v. Mackonochie, 7 Times L. R. 536. It is sufficient here to refer to sections 9, 31, 32, and 33 of this Act, and to section 3 of 51 & 52 Vict. c. 10, which are set out in the Appendix, and to state generally that the ingredients of the municipal franchise are: 1. Occupation in the borough of a building of any value, or of land of the clear yearly value of 107. 2. Residence in or within seven miles of the borough. 3. Being rated and paying rates (ƒ). As regards county councillors and county aldermen, section 2 (2) of the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41, gives, in addition to the above, the two following qualifications:— 1. Being a peer owning property (g) in the county. The following cases, decided upon former statutes, roll. The burgess roll, though conclusive as to the right to Burgess vote, is not conclusive as to the qualification of a candidate: Middleton v. Simpson, 5 C. P. D. 183; 49 L. J., C. P. 312. In Reg. v. Dixon, 12 Q. B. 33; 19 L. J., Q. B. 363, it was held, on a quo warranto information against D. for exercising the office of mayor, that it was no objection to his title that he was not shown to be on the burgess roll when he was elected mayor, he having been de facto councillor at that time, and having been a burgess at the time of being elected a councillor. (f) In the City of London any freeman not subject to a legal incapacity occupying premises rated at not less than 10. a year and who is on the parliament ry register, is capable of being elected a common councilman for the ward in which they are situate: 12 & 13 Vict. c. xciv., s. 5, post, p. 3×8. (g) " Property here probably means real property, notwith standing the definition in section 100 of the act. MUNICIPAL COUNTY The adverse decision of the mayor and assessors at a revision previous to the Parliamentary and Municipal COUNCILS. Registration Act, 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 26), was held not to be conclusive in Whalley v. Bramwell, 15 Q. B. 775; 20 L. J., Q. B. 53. But where H. was de facto on the list, the Court refused a rule for a quo warranto, there having been no objection at the time: Ex parte Hindmarch, L. R., 3 Q. B. 12; 37 L. J., Q. B. 58; see also Ex parte Birkbeck, L. R., 9 Q. B. 256. Infants and aliens. Clergy and dissenting DISQUALIFICATIONS (h). Infants, aliens, and others not entitled to be enrolled under 45 & 46 Vict. c. 50, s. 9, are practically disqualified, because only persons who are entitled to be enrolled are qualified to be elected, see ante, p. 3. As to who are aliens, see post, p. 22. Persons in holy orders, or who are the regular minisministers. ters of dissenting congregations, are disqualified: Ibid., section 12 (1) (b). Officers on the active list. It seems that a definite appointment as minister is necessary, and that preaching occasionally at the request of a congregation is not sufficient to constitute anyone a regular minister under this section: see Reg. v. Oldham, L. R., 4 Q. B. 290; 38 L. J., Q. B. 125. Ministers of the Church of England may, after certain formalities have been performed, cease to be disqualified: Ibid., Schedule 9, Part II., and 33 & 34 Vict. c. 91. But persons in holy orders and other ministers of religion are not disqualified for being elected, or for being county aldermen or county councillors: 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41, s. 2 (2) (a). An officer of the regular forces on the active list is not capable of being nominated or elected mayor or alderman of, or of holding any office in, any municipal corporation (44 & 45 Vict. c. 58, s. 146; and 52 Vict. (h) As to disqualifications for being elected in the City of London, see 12 & 13 Vict. c. xciv, s. 9, post, p. 389. AND COUNTY c. 3, s. 6); but this provision does not apply to officers MUNICIPAL in the auxiliary forces (i. e., militia, yeomanry, or volunteers), even though the battalion or corps to which they COUNCILS. belong be assembled for annual training at the time of nomination or election, or during the time of their tenure of office section 181 (5) of the former Act. Nor does it apply to county councils: 54 Vict. c. 5, s. 8. Women also are incapable of being elected: Beresford- Women. Hope v. Lady Sandhurst, 23 Q. B. D. 79, C. A.; 58 L. J., Q. B. 316. In Scotland women are expressly disqualified: The Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 50), s. 9 (1). A recorder is disqualified for the borough of which Recorders. he is the recorder: 45 & 46 Vict. c. 50, s. 163 (6). place of profit. A person who is an elective auditor (i), or holds any Office or office or place of profit other than that of mayor or sheriff in the gift or disposal of the council, is disqualified: Ibid., s. 12 (1) (a). If an office is one of profit, the holder is disqualified, although he allows another to receive the profits, and therefore makes no profit himself out of the office: see Delane v. Hillcoat, 9 B. & C. 310, decided upon 3 Geo. 4, c. 126, s. 65. In Nell v. Longbottom, (1894) 1 Q. B. 767; 63 L. J., Q. B. 490; 70 L. T., N. S. 499, it was, inter alia, objected that a person who had been appointed chemist to a town council, and had not resigned the appointment upon his election to the council, was disqualified under this sub-section. He was held to be disqualified, but it is not clear whether upon this ground as well as under sub-section (c): see post, p. 9. A person is not disqualified under this section for being a member of a county council by reason only of his being appointed returning officer by that council, except where he has, directly or indirectly, by himself (i) The accounts of county councils are not audited by elective auditors, but by district auditors appointed by the Local Government Board: 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41, s. 71 (3). |