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22
Membeks.
2. The qualification of Members of District Boards has
hitherto been by rating (£40 or £25, as the case might be) and
occupation (M.M.A. 1855, s. 6, 1856, s. s. 6-8,
1862, s. 40). Most of these Sections are now repealed and the
others much altered. One third of the Members of District
Boards will still retire annually. The election of Members of
District Boards in the place of Members so retiring will still be
held by the Vestries specified in the Metropolis Management
Act, 1855 (Schedule B) as amended by later Acts, on the first
Wednesday in the month of June. Such Yestries will also
continue to fill up casual vacancies. But the qualification of
Members of District Boards will now be that mentioned in Sec.
31 of the Local Government Act, 1894. (See paragraph 3).
3. The only persons, therefore, whom the Yestries can now
elect as Members of District Boards are "parochial electors" of
some parish within the district, or residents who have, during
the whole twelve months preceding the election, resided in the
District. No person shall be disqualified by sex or marriage
from being elected. "Parochial Elector" practically means a
person whose name appears either in the "Local Government
Register" or "Parliamentary Register" of Electors relating to
the parishes within the districts (L.G.A., 1894, s. s. 31 (1) 75
(2), 23 (2), 2 (1), 44). Upon the first only of the elections (6th
June, 1894) under this new Act, the Vestries may (if the
"appointed day" s.s. 84-89, means 6th June, 1894) be perplexed
by the want of the proper register of electors. No doubt their
legal advisers will be consulted. The alternative qualification
(by residence for twelve months) would then prove useful; but
it, in turn, leads to legal questions as to what is a sufficient
"residence." This however is also primarily at least a question
only for the Vestries.