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16
During the present Session no time has been found for
reintroduction of the Bill.
Of the chief Bills affecting the Vestry introduced into
Parliament since the last Report the following is a brief
summary:—
The principal measure of the year—The Representation
of the People Act, 1884.—was passed in an autumn
session of that year. Its chief object is the extension of
household suffrage to the Counties, but it also makes several
other though smaller provisions. One of these is to remove
the disqualification a householder formerly laboured under,
if his house was held as part of his service to his employer.
Another, and perhaps the most important to the authorities
of parishes in Boroughs, is that the Overseers are charged
with the duty of ascertaining the names of persons qualified
under the "dwelling house" franchise of the 5th Section
of the Registration Act, 1878, by reason of their inhabiting
part of a house separately occupied as a dwelling.
Redistribution of Seats Act.—This Act provides for
the constitution of single member constituencies, and for
the future this Parish will have its own parliamentary
representative under the designation of Central Finsbury.
Metropolitan Management Elections (Ballot) Bill.—
This Bill, proposed to make official ballot papers compulsory
at Vestry Elections, to provide that at least four days shall
elapse between the nomination and the day of Election, and
that the Poll shall, as far as circumstances admit, be conducted
as the Poll at a contested Parliamentary Election is,
by the Ballot Act of 1872, directed to be conducted.
The Vestry were of opinion that the provisions of the
Bill are such as would improve the present method of conducting
Elections, and they therefore presented a Petition
to Parliament in favor of same, but the Bill was dropped
alter being read a second time.