1. Any person who at the date of the annexation of the territories known as the Northern Districts of Natal, was enrolled upon the latest list of burghers of the late South African Republic, and entitled to vote for members of the First Volksraad thereof, and who continues to reside in any part of the Northern Districts, and who would otherwise be disqualified as an elector under the Charter of Natal on the sole ground of his not possessing the qualifications required by the 11th clause of the said Charter or by any Law or Act amending the same, shall be entitled to be registered as a voter in the electoral district of the Northern Territories in which he resides at the time when the Voters Roll for such District shall be prepared, nothwithstanding that such person may not possess the qualifications necessary to entitle him to be registered as a voter in terms of the law. If any such person shall hereafter become registered as a voter in virtue of the 11th clause of the said Charter, or of any amendments thereof, the special franchise conferred upon him by this Act shall cease. 2. This Act shall be construed together with the Royal Letters Patent of 15th July 1856, known as the Charter of Natal. Acts of the Parl. of the Colony of Natal (1906), p. 50. SECTION B. LOCAL GOVERNMENT. CREATION OF MUNICIPAL BOARDS. [30 March 1847.] No. 5, 1847. No. 132. Ordinance.-Enacted by His Excellency the Right Hon'ble the GOVERNOR OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, with the advice and consent of the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, for the creation of Municipal Boards in the Towns and Villages of the District of Natal.1 1-9. [Meetings of householders may be held to elect a Committee which shall draw up municipal regulations for any locality.] 10. [How to proceed in regard to regulations approved of by such meeting.] II. [How to proceed in case the Lieutenant-Governor of 1 This Ordinance may be compared with the Municipal Ordinance passed for the Cape Colony in 1836 (p. 78). Both instruments were enacted by the same body, hence their close similarity. Cf. No. 163. Natal shall disallow any regulations or in case householders shall not adopt regulations amended by such LieutenantGovernor.] 12. [Mode in which regulations may be amended.] 13. [Meeting to choose Commissioners of a municipality, how to be called.] 14. And be it enacted, that any person being the proprietor of landed property situated within the municipality, of the value of not less than £200, shall be eligible to be elected a commissioner for the purposes of this ordinance. 15. [Commissioners, how to be put in nomination.] 16. [They hold office for three years, but may be re-elected.] 17-19. [Subsequent elections.] 20. [Meetings of Commissioners, when to be held.] 21. [Special meetings.] 22-25. [Appointment of treasurer and other officers.] 26. [Commissioners to have no salary or reward.] 27. [Commissioners, how to sue and be sued.] 28. [Proceedings of Commissioners to be entered in a book.] 29. [Books of accounts to be kept.] 30. [Accounts to be made up till 31st December in every year and to be open for public inspection.] 31. [Commissioners to call meetings for assessing rates.] 32-34. [Rates, how to be collected.] 35. [Commissioners to appoint watchmen, etc.] 36. [Watchmen, etc. to be vested with all powers and privileges of constables.] 37-44. [Commissioners to provide fire-engines, lamp-posts, water-pipes; erect bridges; repair streets; establish markets; regulate pasture-lands; assize weights and measures; etc.] 45. [Penalty for wilfully injuring municipal property.] 46. [Commissioners to abate nuisances.] 47. [They may enter into contracts.] 48. [They may purchase and hire property.] 51. [Offences against this Ordinance to be prosecuted in a resident magistrate's court.] 52. And be it enacted, that every person who is the occupier of any house, warehouse, counting-house, shop, or office, either as proprietor or renter, of the yearly value or rent of not less than five pounds sterling, shall be, and be deemed and taken to be, a resident householder within the meaning of this ordinance, and that at the several meetings of such resident householders as aforesaid, herein before appointed and author ised to be holden, every such resident householder who shall be personally present, shall have and be entitled to one vote and no more; provided always, that no female shall be deemed to be a resident householder within the meaning of this Ordinance, or be competent to vote at any meeting, or to be elected to any office, and if any question shall arise at any meeting as to the qualification of any individual to be deemed such resident householder as aforesaid, the chairman of such meeting shall inquire into, and summarily determine the same, and his decision shall, for the purpose of such meeting, but no further, be final and conclusive. 53. [Joint occupiers entitled to be considered resident householders.] 54. [Chairman at a meeting of householders to be elected by them.] 55. [Ordinance not to impair private rights.] 56. [Expenses of this Ordinance to be paid out of money raised by Commissioners under its provisions.] 57. [Interpretation Clause.] 58. And be it enacted, that this Ordinance shall commence and take effect from and after such date as shall be appointed for the commencement thereof, by any Proclamation to be by the Lieutenant-Governor aforesaid for that purpose issued, and posted upon, or affixed to, some public place in Pietermaritzburg. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. P.R.O., C.O. 50/2. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. [21 April 1854.] No. 133. Ordinance. For establishing Municipal Corporations within the District of Natal. WHEREAS an Ordinance, No. 5, 1847, was passed by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, entituled "An Ordinance for the creation of Municipal Boards in the Towns and Villages of the District of Natal": And whereas great doubts have arisen as to the legal validity of the said Ordinance, and whereas it is necessary to remove such doubts, and at the same time to provide for the better regulation of the Towns and Villages of the District. Be It Therefore Enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows: I. REPEAL OF FORMER Laws. 1. The said Ordinance No. 5, 1847, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed, provided that all acts and deeds lawfully done under and by virtue of the said Ordinance shall be, and the same are hereby confirmed. II. CREATION AND CONSTITUTION OF MUNICIPAL 2. Every Township within the District, having a population of 1000 souls, shall be a Borough within the meaning of this Ordinance, and shall be governed by a Council to be elected in manner hereinafter mentioned. 3. In every Borough there shall be a body corporate, which shall take and bear the name of Mayor, Councillors, and Burgesses of such Borough, and by that name shall have perpetual succession, and shall have a common Seal, and shall by the Council thereof do all acts, and have and enjoy all the rights and privileges which bodies corporate as such may do and have, according to the law of the Kingdom of England. 4. The Council shall consist of a Mayor and seven Councillors. 5. Whenever the population of any township shall amount to 1000 souls as aforesaid, the Lieutenant-Governor shall by proclamation declare the same to be a Borough within the meaning of this Ordinance, and define the boundaries thereof, and shall, immediately after the first election of the Council of the said Borough, by grant under his hand and the Public Seal, grant and convey, to the body corporate thereof, such lands, situate within and near the town, as to him shall seem just and proper. III. DIVISION OF BOROUGHS INTO WARDS. 6. Every Borough shall be divided into four wards. 7. Before the first election of a Mayor or Councillors for any Borough, under this Ordinance, the Lieutenant-Governor shall, by Proclamation, divide the said Borough into wards, and declare the names and boundaries thereof. 8. After the first election as aforesaid, the Council shall from time to time, if they shall think fit, alter the names and boundaries of such wards. 9. Two Councillors shall be elected for each ward, in manner hereinafter mentioned. 10. Provided that the Lieutenant-Governor may, if the increase of population of any Borough shall render such arrangement necessary, by Proclamation declare that the number of wards of such Borough shall be six instead of four, and the Council shall consist of a Mayor and eleven Councillors, instead of a Mayor and seven Councillors, but so that two Councillors shall still be elected for each ward. IV. QUALIFICATION OF ELECTORS. II. Every male inhabitant of a Borough, except as hereinafter excepted, of the age of 21 years, being duly enrolled in manner hereinafter mentioned, who possesses any immoveable property of the value of £25, or who shall have rented for a continuous period of six months prior to the first day of June, in this and every year, any such property of the yearly value of £5 within any ward, shall be qualified to vote at the election of Councillors for such ward. 12. [Joint occupiers of property entitled to vote.] 13. The following persons shall not be qualified to vote at any such elections: I. Aliens who have not been naturalized by Act of the Imperial Parliament, or by deed of Burghership. 2. [Persons convicted of an infamous crime.] V. MODE OF ENROLMENT. 14. [Resident magistrate to make out a Burgess Roll of men entitled to vote in each ward of a Borough.] 15. [Burgess Roll to be made annually.] 16. [Publication of Burgess Roll and objections to the same.] 17. [Correction of the Roll by a resident magistrate.] 18. [Roll to be used for one year.] 19. [Copy of Roll procurable.] VI. QUALIFICATION OF COUNCILLORS. 20. No person shall be qualified to be elected a councillor for any Borough who is not enrolled, or entitled to be enrolled, as Burgess of the Borough under this Ordinance, and who is not possessed in his own right, or right of his wife, of immoveable property within the Borough, of the value of £100, over and above all mortgages affecting the same. 21. [Candidates to be invited by requisition of voters.] 22. [No voter to sign more than one requisition.] 23. Names of candidates and persons signing requisition to be published.] VII. MANNER OF POLLING.1 24-41. [Time and manner of voting, appointment of scrutineers, publication of election results, etc.] 1 Voting by ballot was arranged for by Act No. 13 of 1893. |