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in force, stating at the time the name or names of the candidate or candidates for whom he tenders such vote, and the returning officer shall forthwith make a memorandum on the back of the poll list of every vote so tendered.

XIV. That upon petition to the Council complaining of an undue election or return of any member or members to serve in the said Council, any petitioner, or any person defending such election or return, shall be at liberty to impeach the correctness of the register of voters in force at the time of such election, by proving that the name of any person who voted at such election was improperly inserted or returned in such register, or the name of any person who tendered his vote at such election improperly omitted from such register; and the Council or any committee appointed to investigate into the allegations of any such petition shall alter the poll taken at such election according to the truth of the case; and the return shall be amended, or the election declared void, as the case may be; and the register corrected accordingly, or such other order shall be made as to the Council shall seem proper.

XV. That it shall be lawful for the President or Officer administering the Government of the colony for the time being, by and with the advice and consent of Her Majesty's Executive Council, whenever and as often as it shall appear expedient so to do, to divide any election district into two or more divisions for polling. Provided always, that whenever any district is so divided, public notice of such division shall be forthwith given in one or more of the public newspapers of the colony; and provided also that when any polling division has been created as aforesaid, it shall for ever thereafter remain as a polling division of the district to which it belongs.

XVI. That every election to be held for a member or members to serve in any future Council for any district divided under the provisions of this Ordinance, the officer to whom the writ of election is directed, shall appoint a fit and proper person as deputy for each division of his district other than the division for which such officer shall intend himself to hold the polls; and polls shall be opened at each division as aforesaid on the same day, and shall continue open during the time prescribed by law; and upon the closing of such polls the number shall be summed up, but no declaration made until the several poll lists shall have been delivered to the officer to whom the writ for holding the election is directed, when such officer shall, at a time and place to be appointed by him for that purpose, publicly proclaim the names of the different candidates and the total number of voters polled for each; and shall then annex the poll list and other proceedings of such election to the precept or writ whenever he shall make return of the candidate or candidates having the majority of votes.

No. 11. Ord. No. 1, 1858.

Correctness of Register may be impeached on

Petition to the
Council.

President and
Executive
Council to ap-

point Polling
places.

Deputies appointed to take

Polls for Elections.

Lists.

XVII. That for preparing the annual List of Voters the person Remuneration drawing up the same shall be entitled to receive from the public for making Treasury, a sum at and after the rate of Ninepence per folio of ninety words; and for recording the revised lists the party to whom the custody of such lists is committed, shall be entitled to receive at the rate of Sixpence per folio, and the same for copies furnished to the Provost Marshal under this Ordinance. Provided always, that every demand for remuneration for such services shall be accompanied by the certificate of the Provost Marshal that the

No. 11. Ord. No. 1, 1858.

Remuneration for holding Elections.

Laws repealed.

charge made against the public is correct; and all such sums of money shall be paid out of the public Treasury, by warrant in the usual manner.

XVIII. That the Provost Marshal or his lawful deputy, (to whom all writs of election for members of Council at Grand Turk shall be directed,) and every justice of the peace or deputy Provost Marshal, executing a writ of election at any other island, shall be entitled to have and receive out of the public Treasury, by warrant in the usual manner, for executing every such writ and making a due return thereto, the sum of Three pounds and no more; and the person taking the poll in any division, or subdivision, or district, shall be entitled to receive out of the public Treasury in like manner the sum of Two pounds for his trouble in taking such poll.

XIX. That the several Acts of the Bahama Legislature for regulating the registration of voters, known as the 8th Vic. ch. 29; and the 9th Vic. ch. 11, shall be and they are hereby repealed, save and except so far as they or either of them repeal any part of the laws formerly in force relating to elections.

SCHEDULE.

Turks and Caicos Islands.

LIST of Persons entitled to Vote at the Election of Members of Council for

during the Year 18

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No. 12. Ord. No. 3,

1858.

PREAMBLE.

No. 12.-ORDINANCE No. 3, 1858.

An Ordinance to re-apportion the Elective Members of the Legislative Council of these islands. (Passed 9th June, 1858. Confirmed 6th December, 1858.)

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HEREAS by an Order of Her Majesty in Council dated at Osborne House, in the Isle of Wight, the eleventh day of August one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, made in pursuance of authority in that respect granted to Her Majesty, by virtue of an Act of the Bahama Legislature, 11 Vic. ch. 1, known as the Turks Island Separation Act, of the four members to be elected, and to compose the one half of the Legislative Council of these islands, it was amongst other things ordered that two of the said members were to be elected by the taxpayers of the Turks Islands who were able to read and write, and two were to be elected by the taxpayers of the Caicos Islands who were able to read and write.

No. 12.

Ord. No. 3, 1858.

Turks Islands to return three

And whereas it is just and expedient that there should be a reapportionment of the said elective members more in accordance with the relative number of population and property to be represented in each of the districts aforesaid; May it, &c. I. That subject to the provisions of the said Order in Council Taxpayers of in all other respects, it shall and may be lawful for the taxpayers of the Turks Islands, who are able to read and write, to elect and members. send three members to represent them in the Legislative Council of these islands; and it shall and may be lawful for the taxpayers Taxpayers of of the Caicos Islands, who are able to read and write, to elect and the Caicos send one member to represent them in the said Legislative Council, anything contained in the aforesaid Order in Council to the con- ber. trary notwithstanding.

II. That the provisions of this Ordinance shall not come into operation until Her Majesty's assent and confirmation shall have been proclaimed within these islands.

Islands to re

turn one mem

No. 13.-ORDINANCE No. 1, 1859.

An Ordinance to preserve Order during the sittings of the Legislative
Council for the said islands. (Passed 30th August, 1859.
Confirmed 26th January, 1860.)

WHE

No. 13. Ord. No. 1,

1859.

HEREAS it is indispensably necessary that the President of PREAMBLE. the Legislative Council of these islands should be duly enabled and empowered to preserve order during the sittings of the said Council, and as at present the said President hath no legal authority or power by means of which such order can be enforced and maintained; May it, &c.

I. That during the sitting of the Legislative Council, any member, adjudged by the President of the Council to be out of order, may be called to order by the said President, and if any member of Council, after having been called to order as aforesaid, shall persist in being disorderly, he shall be liable for the first offence to a fine of Five pounds, and to a further fine of Ten pounds for every subsequent offence committed during the same meeting of Council.

Penalty for

disorderly con

duct in Council.

II. That every and all such fine and fines shall be forthwith Fines, how made and levied on the goods and chattels of the offender by the levied. Provost Marshal of these islands, for the time being, on receipt of a warrant or warrants under the hand and seal of the said President of the Council, and every and all such fine and fines when recovered shall be appropriated and applied to and for the use of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, towards the support of the Government of these islands.

III. That by the term "President" in this Ordinance shall be understood to mean the President or Officer administering the Government for the time being, and by the term "Provost Marshal " shall be understood to mean the Provost Marshal or other person acting as such.

No. 1. Act 10 G.4, c. 11.

Statute 10 Geo. 4, c. 7, declared

to be in force in

the Colony.

No. 2. Act 4 W. 4, c. 1.

Preamble, reciting 2 Geo. 4, c. 37.

4 Geo. 4, c. 2.

CLASS III.

LAWS REMOVING CIVIL DISABILITIES.

No. 1.-10 Geo. 4, ch. 11. An Act to declare in force, within these islands, a certain Statute of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, made and passed in the tenth year of the reign of His present Majesty, entitled "An Act for the relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects." (January 11th, 1830.)

No. 2.-4 Wm. 4, ch. 1. An Act to relieve His Majesty's Free,
Coloured, and Black Subjects of the Bahama Islands, from all-
Civil Disabilities. (September 27th, 1833.)

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́HEREAS, An Act made and passed in the second year of the reign of His late Majesty, George the Fourth, entitled, "An Act to extend certain privileges of persons of free condition within these islands," and An Act made and passed in the fourth year of the reign of His said late Majesty, entitled, "An Act for granting a further extension of privileges, to certain free persons of colour, in certain cases," and An Act made and passed in the tenth 10 Geo. 4, c. 10. year of the reign of His said late Majesty, entitled, “An Act to amend an Act, entitled, An Act for consolidating the several Acts for regulating elections, and the qualifications of Members of the General Assembly of these islands, and of electors; and for ascertaining and describing the limits and bounds of the several islands and districts within this Government, which send representatives to the General Assembly, and for other purposes therein mentioned," do not sufficiently remove the disabilities to which His Majesty's free, coloured, and black subjects, are subjected within these islands; And whereas, it is highly necessary and expedient that all such disabilities should be removed, Be it, &c., That from and after the passing of this Act, all coloured and black persons born, or to be hereafter born, in a state of freedom, being British born subjects, or foreigners duly naturalized, (natives of Africa, or of admitted to the any of the islands contiguous thereto, alone excepted,) shall and may be adjudged and taken, and are hereby declared to be entitled within these islands, to have and enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities whatsoever, to which they would have been entitled if born of, and descended from, white ancestors.

Free born,

coloured, or black persons

same privilege

as white per

sons.

Manumitted Negroes, after having been

two years free,

to be entitled to same right as free-born persons.

II. That all coloured and black persons born, or who shall hereafter be born in any island, colony, dominion, fort, settlement, factory or territory, belonging to, or in the possession of, His Majesty, and foreigners duly naturalized, (natives of Africa, or of the islands contiguous thereto, alone excepted,) and who were or shall be at the time of their birth in a state of slavery, but who now are, or hereafter shall be, lawfully manumitted by or on behalf of their owners, by deed, will, or otherwise, or by judgment of the General Court, or sentence, order, or decree, in the Court of Vice Admiralty of these islands, shall and may (after having actually and bona fide enjoyed a state of freedom for the space of two years)

c. 1.

be adjudged and taken to be free-born, and entitled within these No. 2. islands to all the rights, privileges, immunities, and advantages Act 4 W. 4, granted by this Act to free-born, coloured, and black persons: Provided always, that nothing in this clause contained shall be held to deprive manumitted persons who, at the time of the passing Proviso. of this Act, shall not have actually and bona fide enjoyed a state of freedom for two years, as aforesaid, of any rights or privileges which they at present enjoy, or to lessen the same in any degree whatsoever; but that every such manumitted person, as aforesaid, shall, from and after the passing of this Act, and every slave hereafter to be manumitted, as aforesaid, immediately upon his or her manumission, become, and be held and considered, competent to give evidence in any of the Courts of civil or criminal jurisdiction within these islands, and to enjoy all and every the rights and privileges used and enjoyed by manumitted persons, previous to the passing of this Act.

All free per-
sons entitled
to give evi-
dence in Courts
of Law.

to Natives of

Africa.

III. That nothing in this Act contained, shall be held to disqualify any free person whatsoever from giving testimony in any of the Courts of Civil or Criminal Jurisdiction within these islands, but that all such free persons shall, from and after the passing of this Act, be held and considered competent to give evidence in every such Court, as aforesaid, against any person or persons whomsoever: Provided also, nevertheless, that no native of Africa Proviso relative shall be considered or be held competent to give evidence in any of the Courts aforesaid, until he or she shall have been resident within these islands for the space of six years, unless he or she shall produce, before the Prothonotary of the General Court, a certificate from the clergyman of the parish, in which he or she may be resident, or, in the absence of such clergyman, from any Justice of the Peace, that he or she is fully qualified to give such testimony, and that he or she perfectly understands the nature and obligation of an oath; which certificate shall be recorded in a book to be kept, by the Prothonotary for the purpose.*

Geo. 4, c. 10, Acts repugnant to this

and all other

IV. That the said hereinbefore recited Act of the tenth of Repeals 10 George the Fourth, and every clause, matter, and thing therein contained, and also all other Acts and clauses of Acts in any way repugnant to this Act be, and the same is, and are hereby repealed and made null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever, anything in the said Acts or clauses of Acts contained, to the contrary notwithstanding.

Act.

No. 3.

. 4,

Act 5 W. c. 9.

No. 3.—5 Wm. 4, ch. 9. An Act to amend an Act of the General Assembly of these islands, entitled, "An Act to relieve His Majesty's Free, Coloured, and Black Subjects, of the Bahama Islands, from all Civil Disabilities." (October 6th, 1834.) HEREAS, in and by an Act of the General Assembly of Preamble, rethese islands, made and passed in the fourth year of your citing 4 W. 4, Majesty's reign, entitled, "An Act to relieve His Majesty's free, c. 1. coloured, and black subjects of the Bahama Islands from all civil disabilities," all the rights, privileges, and immunities to your

W

This proviso is virtually repealed by the 2nd sec. 5 Wm. 4, ch. 9, post, No. 3.

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