135. VICTORIA: STATUTES (1884-1900)

(A) Representation of the People Act (1884)

An act to amend the law relating to the representation of the people of the 
united kingdom. Be it enacted ... as follows: — 

A uniform household franchise and a uniform lodger franchise at elections 
shall be established in all counties and boroughs throughout the united 
kingdom, and every man possessed of a household qualification or a lodger 
qualification shall, if the qualifying premises be situate in a county in 
England or Scotland, be entitled to be registered as a voter and when 
registered to vote at an election for such county; and if the qualifying 
premises be situate in a county or borough in Ireland, be entitled to be 
registered as a voter and when registered to vote at an election for such 
county or borough....

Every man occupying any land or tenement in a county or borough in the 
united kingdom of a clear yearly value of not less than £10 shall be 
entitled to be registered as a voter and when registered to vote at an 
election for such county or borough in respect of such occupation subject to 
the like conditions respectively as a man is, at the passing of this act, 
entitled to be registered as a voter and to vote at an election for such 
county in respect of the county occupation franchise, and at an election for 
such borough in respect of the borough occupation franchise.

In this act the expression "a household qualification" means, as respects 
England and Ireland, the qualification enacted by the third section of the 
Representation of the People Act, 1867....[1]

                Public General Statutes, XXI, 3 f.: 48 Victoria, c. 3.

(B) Redistribution of Seats Act (1885)

An act for the redistribution of seats at parliamentary elections and for 
other purposes. Be it enacted ... as follows: — 

... From and after the end of this present parliament, the parliamentary 
boroughs named in the first part of the first schedule to this act shall 
cease as boroughs to return any member. Each of the counties of cities and 
towns in the second part of the said schedule named shall, for the purpose 
of parliamentary elections, be included in the county at large named 
opposite thereto....[2]

From and after the end of this present parliament, the city of London shall 
return two members and no more, and each of the parliamentary boroughs named 
in the second schedule to this act shall return one member and no more.[3]

From and after the end of this present parliament each of the parliamentary 
boroughs named in the third schedule to this act shall return the number of 
members named opposite to such borough....[4]

From and after the end of this present parliament, each of the towns and 
places named in the fourth schedule to this act shall be a parliamentary 
borough and return the number of members specified....[5]

From and after the end of this present parliament, each of the parliamentary 
boroughs named in the fifth schedule to this act shall, for all purposes of 
and relating to parliamentary elections, include the places and be comprised 
within the boundaries which are respectively specified and described in the 
said schedule....[6]

From and after the end of this present parliament, each of the parliamentary 
boroughs mentioned in the sixth schedule to this act shall, for the purpose 
of returning members ... , be divided into divisions. The number of members 
for each division and the number, names, contents, and boundaries of such 
divisions respectively shall be those specified in the said schedule....[7]

From and after the end of this present parliament, each of the counties at 
large named in the seventh schedule to this act shall return the number of 
members in that behalf named in the said schedule; and for the purpose of 
returning such members, if more than one, shall be divided into the same 
number of divisions as the number of members....[8]

                         Ibid., XXI, 128 f.: 48-49 Victoria, c. 23.

(C) Allotments Act (1887)

An act to facilitate the provision of allotments for the labouring classes. 
Be it enacted ... as follows: — 

On a representation in writing to the sanitary authority of any urban or 
rural district by any six registered parliamentary electors or ratepayers 
... that the circumstances of the urban district or parish are such that it 
is the duty of the sanitary authority to take proceedings under this act 
therein, the sanitary authority shall take such representation into 
consideration. If the sanitary authority of any urban or rural district are 
of opinion, either after inquiry made in consequence of such representation 
or otherwise, that there is a demand for allotments for the labouring 
population in such urban district, or in any parish in such rural district, 
and that such allotments cannot be obtained at a reasonable rent and on 
reasonable conditions by voluntary arrangement between the owners of land 
suitable for such allotments and the applicants for the same, the sanitary 
authority, subject to the provisions of this act, shall by purchase or hire 
acquire any suitable land which may be available ... , and shall let such 
land in allotments to persons belonging to the labouring population resident 
in the said district or parish and desiring to take the same. A sanitary 
authority shall not under this act acquire land for allotments save at such 
price or rent that, in the opinion of the sanitary authority, all expenses 
... incurred by the sanitary authority in acquiring the land and otherwise 
in relation to the allotments may reasonably be expected to be recouped out 
of the rents obtained in respect thereof....

If a sanitary authority are unable by hiring or purchase by agreement to 
acquire suitable land sufficient for allotments under this act for any 
district or parish at a reasonable price or rent and subject to reasonable 
conditions, such authority may petition the county authority ... and the 
county authority may make a provisional order authorizing the sanitary 
authority to put in force, as respects the land mentioned in the order, the 
provisions of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845....[9]

Subject to the provisions of this act, the sanitary authority may from time 
to time make, revoke, and vary such regulations as appear to be necessary or 
proper for regulating the letting of allotments under this act, and for 
preventing any undue preference in the letting thereof, and generally for 
carrying the provisions of this act into effect.... Provided ... that all 
regulations made under this section shall not be of any force unless and 
until they have been confirmed by the local government board....

Where allotments have been provided under this act for a parish in any rural 
district, a petition to the sanitary authority may be presented by a number 
of the electors of allotment managers in such parish, not being less than 
one sixth of the whole number of such electors, praying for the election of 
allotment managers in such parish, and thereupon the sanitary authority 
shall order such election, and the allotment managers so elected shall be 
the allotment managers appointed by the sanitary authority, who, on an 
election under this act, shall cease to hold office....

The electors of allotment managers shall be the parliamentary electors in 
the parish....

                        Ibid., XXIV, 196 f.: 50-51 Victoria, c. 48.

(D) Local Government Act (1888)

An act to amend the laws relating to local government in England and Wales 
and for other purposes connected therewith. Be it enacted ... as follows: — 

A council shall be established in every administrative county as defined by 
this act and be entrusted with the management of the administrative and 
financial business of that county, and shall consist of the chairman, 
aldermen, and councillors. The council of a county and the members thereof 
shall be constituted and elected and conduct their proceedings in like 
manner and be in the like position in all respects as the council of a 
borough divided into wards, subject nevertheless to the provisions of this 
act and in particular to the following provisions....

As respects the aldermen or councillors: clerks in holy orders and other 
ministers of religion shall not be disqualified for being elected ...; a 
person shall be qualified ... who ... is a peer owning property in the 
county or is registered as a parliamentary voter in respect of the ownership 
of property of whatsoever tenure situate in the county ...; the county 
councillors shall be elected for a term of three years ...; the divisions of 
the county for the purpose of the election of county councillors shall be 
called electoral divisions ... and one county councillor only shall be 
elected for each electoral division.

As respects the number of the county councillors and the boundaries of the 
electoral divisions in every county: the number of the county councillors 
and their apportionment ... shall be such as the local government board may 
determine; and any borough returning one councillor only shall be an 
electoral division; and in the rest of the county the electoral divisions 
shall be such as, in the case of a borough returning more than one 
councillor, the council of the borough and, in the rest of the county, the 
quarter sessions for the county may determine....

As respects the electors of the county councillors: the persons entitled to 
vote at their election shall be, in a borough, the burgesses enrolled in 
pursuance of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, and the acts amending the 
same, and elsewhere the persons registered as county electors under the 
County Electors Act, 1888.[10]

As respects the chairman of the county council: he shall .... by virtue of 
his office, be a justice of the peace for the county....

There shall be transferred to the council of each county, on and after the 
appointed day, the administrative business of the justices of the county in 
quarter sessions assembled, that is to say, all business done by the quarter 
sessions or any committee appointed by the quarter sessions, in respect of 
the several matters following: namely, the making, assessing, and levying of 
county, police, hundred, and all rates and the application and expenditure 
thereof ... ; the borrowing of money; the passing of the accounts of ... the 
county treasurer; ... county buildings, works, and property ... ; the 
licensing under any general act of houses and other places for music or for 
dancing, and the granting of licences under the Racecourses Licensing Act, 
1879; the provision, enlargement, maintenance, management, and visitation of 
... asylums for pauper lunatics; the establishment and maintenance of and 
the contribution to reformatory and industrial schools; bridges and roads 
repairable with bridges and any powers vested by the Highways and 
Locomotives (Amendment) Act, 1878, in the county authority ... ; the 
appointment, removal, and determination of salaries of the county treasurer, 
the county surveyor, the public analysts ... , and any officers whose 
remuneration is paid out of the county rate, other than the clerk of the 
peace and the clerks of the justices ... ; the execution as local authority 
of the acts relating to contagious diseases of animals, to destructive 
insects, to fish-conservancy, to wild birds, to weights and measures, and to 
gas meters ... ; any other business transferred by this act. After the 
appointed day a coroner for a county shall not be elected by the freeholders 
of the county, and on any vacancy occurring in the office of a coroner for a 
county, who is elected to that office ... , the county council shall 
thereupon appoint a fit person, not being a county alderman or county 
councillor, to fill such office, and in the case of a county divided into 
coroner's districts shall assign him a district....

Nothing in this act shall transfer to a county council any business of the 
quarter sessions or justices in relation to appeals by any overseers or 
persons against the basis or standard for the county rate or against that or 
any other rate. All business of the quarter sessions or any committees 
thereof not transferred by or in pursuance of this act to the county council 
shall be reserved to and transacted by the quarter sessions or committee 
thereof in the same manner, as far as circumstances admit, as if this act 
had not passed. The powers, duties, and liabilities of quarter sessions and 
of justices out of session with respect to the county police shall, on and 
after the appointed day, vest in and attach to the quarter sessions and the 
county council jointly.... Nothing in this act shall affect the powers, 
duties, and liabilities of justices of the peace as conservators of the 
peace, or the obligation of the chief constable or other constables to obey 
their lawful orders given in that behalf....

Each of the boroughs named in the third schedule to this act, being a 
borough which, on the first day of June, 1888, either had a population of 
not less than 50,000 or was a county of itself, shall ... be for the 
purposes of this act an administrative county of itself....[11] The mayor, 
aldermen, and burgesses of each county borough, acting by the council, shall 
... have and be subject to all the powers, duties, and liabilities of a 
county council under this act....

                         Ibid., XXV, 231 f.: 51-52 Victoria, c. 41.

(E) Workmen's Compensation Act (1897)

An act to amend the law with respect to compensation to workmen for 
accidental injuries suffered in the course of their employment. Be it 
enacted ... as follows: — 

If in any employment to which this act applies personal injury by accident 
arising out of and in the course of the employment is caused to a workman, 
his employer shall, subject as hereinafter mentioned, be liable to pay 
compensation in accordance with the first schedule to this act. Provided 
that (a) the employer shall not be liable under this act in respect of any 
injury which does not disable the workman for a period of at least two weeks 
from earning full wages at the work at which he was employed; (b) when the 
injury was caused by the personal negligence or wilful act of the employer, 
or of some person for whose act or default the employer is responsible, 
nothing in this act shall affect any civil liability of the employer, but in 
that case the workman may, at his option, either claim compensation under 
this act, or take the same proceedings as were open to him before the 
commencement of this act ...; (c) if it is proved that the injury to a 
workman is attributable to the serious and wilful misconduct of that 
workman, any compensation claimed in respect of that injury shall be 
disallowed.

If any question arises in any proceedings under this act as to the liability 
to pay compensation under this act ... , or as to the amount or duration of 
compensation under this act, the question, if not settled by agreement, 
shall ... be settled by arbitration in accordance with the second schedule 
to this act....

If the registrar of friendly societies, after taking steps to ascertain the 
views of the employer and workmen, certifies that any scheme of 
compensation, benefit, or insurance for the workmen of an employer in any 
employment, whether or not such scheme includes other employers and their 
workmen, is on the whole not less favourable to the general body of workmen 
and their dependants than the provisions of this act, the employer may, 
until the certificate is revoked, contract with any of those workmen that 
the provisions of the scheme shall be substituted for the provisions of this 
act, and thereupon the employer shall be liable only in accordance with the 
scheme; but, save as aforesaid, this act shall apply notwithstanding any 
contract to the contrary made after the commencement of this act....

This act shall apply only to employment ... on or in or about a railway, 
factory, mine, quarry, or engineering work, and to employment ... on, in, or 
about any building which exceeds thirty feet in height and is either being 
constructed or repaired by means of a scaffolding, or being demolished, or 
on which machinery driven by steam, water, or other mechanical power is 
being used for the purpose of the construction, repair, or demolition 
thereof....

                        Ibid., XXXIV, 53 f.: 60-61 Victoria, c. 37.

(F) Commonwealth of Australia Act (1900)

An act to constitute the commonwealth of Australia. Whereas the people of 
New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly 
relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one 
indissoluble federal commonwealth under the crown of the united kingdom of 
Great Britain and Ireland and under the constitution hereby established; and 
whereas it is expedient to provide for the admission into the commonwealth 
of other Australasian colonies and possessions of the queen: be it therefore 
enacted ... as follows: — 

... It shall be lawful for the queen with the advice of the privy council, 
to declare by proclamation that, on and after a day therein appointed, not 
being later than one year after the passing of this act, the people of New 
South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, 
if her majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed 
thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a federal commonwealth 
under the name of the commonwealth of Australia. But the queen may, at any 
time after the proclamation, appoint a governor general for the 
commonwealth....

"The commonwealth" shall mean the commonwealth of Australia as established 
under this act. "The states" shall mean such of the colonies of New South 
Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and 
South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for 
the time being are parts of the commonwealth, and such colonies and 
territories as may be admitted into or established by the commonwealth as 
states.... "Original states" shall mean such states as are parts of the 
commonwealth at its establishment....

Chapter I: The Parliament. The legislative power of the commonwealth shall 
be vested in a federal parliament which shall consist of the queen, a 
senate, and a house of representatives, and which is hereinafter called "the 
parliament" or "the parliament of the commonwealth."

A governor general appointed by the queen shall be her majesty's 
representative in the commonwealth, and shall have and may exercise in the 
commonwealth during the queen's pleasure, but subject to this constitution, 
such powers and functions of the queen as her majesty may be pleased to 
assign to him.... The governor general may appoint such times for holding 
the sessions of the parliament as he thinks fit and may also from time to 
time ... prorogue the parliament and ... dissolve the house of 
representatives.... There shall be a session of the parliament once at least 
in every year; so that twelve months shall not intervene between the last 
sitting of the parliament in one session and its first sitting in the next 
session....

The senate shall be composed of senators for each state, directly chosen by 
the people of the state, voting, until the parliament otherwise provides, as 
one electorate.... Until the parliament otherwise provides, there shall be 
six senators for each original state. The parliament may make laws 
increasing or diminishing the number of senators for each state, but so that 
equal representation of the several original states shall be maintained and 
that no original state shall have less than six senators. The senators shall 
be chosen for a term of six years, and the names of the senators chosen for 
each state shall be certified by the governor to the governor general.... 
Until the parliament otherwise provides, but subject to this constitution, 
the laws in force in each state for the time being relating to elections for 
the more numerous house of the parliament of the state shall, as nearly as 
practicable, apply to elections of senators for the state.... The 
qualifications of a senator shall be the same as those of a member of the 
house of representatives....

The house of representatives shall be composed of members directly chosen by 
the people of the commonwealth, and the number of such members shall be, as 
nearly as practicable, twice the number of the senators. The number of 
members chosen in the several states shall be in proportion to the 
respective numbers of their people.... But ... five members at least shall 
be chosen in each original state.... Until the parliament otherwise 
provides, the qualification of electors of members of the house of 
representatives shall be in each state that which is prescribed by the law 
of the state as the qualification of electors of the more numerous house of 
parliament of the state....

Until the parliament otherwise provides, the qualifications of a member of 
the house of representatives shall be as follows: (1) He must be of the full 
age of twenty-one years, and must be an elector entitled to vote at the 
election of members of the house of representatives ... and must have been 
for three years at the least a resident within the limits of the 
commonwealth as existing at the time when he is chosen. (2) He must be a 
subject of the queen, either natural-born or for at least five years 
naturalized under a law of the united kingdom, or of a colony which has 
become or becomes a state, or of the commonwealth, or of a state....

The parliament shall, subject to this constitution, have power to make laws 
for the peace, order, and good government of the commonwealth with respect 
to (1) trade and commerce with other countries and among the states; (2) 
taxation, but so as not to discriminate between states or parts of states; 
(3) bounties on the production or export of goods, but so that such bounties 
shall be uniform throughout the commonwealth; (4) borrowing money on the 
public credit of the commonwealth; (5) postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and 
other like services; (6) the naval and military defence of the commonwealth 
and of the several states and the control of the forces to execute and 
maintain the laws of the commonwealth; (7) lighthouses, lightships, beacons, 
and buoys; (8) astronomical and meteorological observations; (9) quarantine; 
(10) fisheries in Australian waters beyond territorial limits; (11) census 
and statistics; (12) currency, coinage, and legal tender; (13) banking other 
than state banking, also state banking extending beyond the limits of the 
state concerned, the incorporation of banks, and the issue of paper money; 
(14) insurance other than state insurance, also state insurance extending 
beyond the limits of the state concerned; (15) weights and measures; (16) 
bills of exchange and promissory notes; (17) bankruptcy and insolvency; (18) 
copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and trade marks; (19) 
naturalization and aliens; (20) foreign corporations and trading or 
financial corporations formed within the limits of the commonwealth; (21) 
marriage; (22) divorce and matrimonial causes and, in relation thereto, 
parental rights and the custody and guardianship of infants; (23) invalid 
and old age pensions; (24) the service and execution throughout the 
commonwealth of the civil and criminal process and the judgments of the 
courts of the states; (25) the recognition throughout the commonwealth of 
the laws, the public acts and records, and the judicial proceedings of the 
states; (26) the people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any 
state, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws; (27) 
immigration and emigration; (28) the influx of criminals; (29) external 
affairs; (30) the relations of the commonwealth with the islands of the 
Pacific; (31) the acquisition of property on just terms from any state or 
person for any purpose in respect of which the parliament has power to make 
laws; (32) the control of railways with respect to transport for the naval 
and military purposes of the commonwealth; (33) the acquisition with the 
consent of a state of any railways of the state ...; (34) railway 
construction and extension in any state, with the consent of that state; 
(35) conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of 
industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one state.... 
Proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys, or imposing taxation, shall 
not originate in the senate.... The senate may not amend proposed laws 
imposing taxation or proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys for the 
ordinary annual services of the government. The senate may not amend any 
proposed law so as to increase any proposed charge or burden on the people. 
The senate may at any stage return to the house of representatives any 
proposed law which the senate may not amend, requesting by message the 
omission or amendment of any items or provisions therein.... Except as 
provided in this section, the senate shall have equal power with the house 
of representatives in respect of all proposed laws....

When a proposed law passed by both houses of the parliament is presented to 
the governor general for the queen's assent, he shall declare, according to 
his discretion but subject to this constitution, that he assents in the 
queen's name, or that he withholds assent, or that he reserves the law for 
the queen's pleasure. The governor general may return to the house in which 
it originated any proposed law so presented to him and may transmit 
therewith any amendments which he may recommend, and the houses may deal 
with the recommendation. The queen may disallow any law within one year from 
the governor general's assent, and such disallowance, on being made known by 
the governor general by speech or message to each of the houses of 
parliament or by proclamation, shall annul the law from the day when the 
disallowance is so made known. A proposed law reserved for the queen's 
pleasure shall not have any force unless and until, within two years from 
the day on which it was presented to the governor general for the queen's 
assent, the governor general makes known, by speech or message to each of 
the houses of the parliament or by proclamation, that it has received the 
queen's assent.

Chapter II: The Executive Government. The executive power of the 
commonwealth is vested in the queen and is exercisable by the governor 
general as the queen's representative, and extends to the execution and 
maintenance of this constitution and of the laws of the commonwealth. There 
shall be a federal executive council to advise the governor general in the 
government of the commonwealth, and the members of the council shall be 
chosen and summoned by the governor general and sworn as executive 
councillors and shall hold office during his pleasure.... The governor 
general may appoint officers to administer such departments of state of the 
commonwealth as the governor general in council may establish. Such officers 
shall hold office during the pleasure of the governor general. They shall be 
members of the federal executive council and shall be the queen's ministers 
of state for the commonwealth.... Until the parliament otherwise provides, 
the ministers of state shall not exceed seven in number and shall hold such 
offices as the parliament prescribes or, in the absence of provision, as the 
governor general directs.... The command-in-chief of the naval and military 
forces of the commonwealth is vested in the governor general as the queen's 
representative....

Chapter III: The Judicature. The judicial power of the commonwealth shall be 
vested in a federal supreme court, to be called the high court of Australia, 
and in such other federal courts as the parliament creates, and in such 
other courts as it invests with federal jurisdiction. The high court shall 
consist of a chief justice and so many other justices, not less than two, as 
the parliament prescribes.

The justices of the high court and of the other courts created by the 
parliament (1) shall be appointed by the governor general in council; (2) 
shall not be removed except by the governor general in council on an address 
from both houses of the parliament in the same session, praying for such 
removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity....

The high court shall have jurisdiction, with such exceptions and subject to 
such regulations as the parliament prescribes, to hear and determine appeals 
from all judgments, decrees, orders, and sentences of any justice or 
justices exercising the original jurisdiction of the high court; of any 
other federal court or court exercising federal jurisdiction, or of the 
supreme court of any state, or of any other court of any state from which, 
at the establishment of the commonwealth, an appeal lies to the queen in 
council.... No appeal shall be permitted to the queen in council from a 
decision of the high court upon any question, howsoever arising, as to the 
limits inter se of the constitutional powers of the commonwealth and those 
of any state or states, or as to the limits inter se of the constitutional 
powers of any two or more states, unless the high court shall certify that 
the question is one which ought to be determined by her majesty in council. 
The high court may so certify if satisfied that for any special reason the 
certificate should be granted, and thereupon an appeal shall lie to her 
majesty in council on the question without further leave.

Except as provided in this section, this constitution shall not impair any 
right which the queen may be pleased to exercise by virtue of her royal 
prerogative to grant special leave of appeal from the high court to her 
majesty in council. The parliament may make laws limiting the matters in 
which such leave may be asked, but proposed laws containing any such 
limitation shall be reserved by the governor general for her majesty's 
pleasure.

In all matters arising under any treaty, affecting consuls or other 
representatives of other countries, in which the commonwealth or a person 
suing or being sued on behalf of the commonwealth is a party, between states 
or between residents of different states or between a state and a resident 
of another state, in which a writ of mandamus or prohibition or an 
injunction is sought against an officer of the commonwealth, the high court 
shall have original jurisdiction. The parliament may make laws conferring 
original jurisdiction on the high court in any matter arising under this 
constitution or involving its interpretation; arising under any laws made by 
the parliament; of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; relating to the same 
subject matter claimed under the laws of different states....

Chapter IV: Finance and Trade. All revenues or moneys raised or received by 
the executive government of the commonwealth shall form one consolidated 
revenue fund, to be appropriated for the purposes of the commonwealth.... No 
money shall be drawn from the treasury of the commonwealth except under 
appropriation made by law....

Uniform duties of customs shall be imposed within two years after the 
establishment of the commonwealth.... On the imposition of uniform duties 
... trade, commerce, and intercourse among the states ... shall be 
absolutely free....

Chapter V: The States. The constitution of each state of the commonwealth 
shall, subject to this constitution, continue as at the establishment of the 
commonwealth, or as at the admission or establishment of the state, as the 
case may be, until altered in accordance with the constitution of the state. 
Every power of the parliament of a colony which has become or becomes a 
state shall, unless it is by this constitution exclusively vested in the 
parliament of the commonwealth or withdrawn from the parliament of the 
state, continue as at the establishment of the commonwealth, or as at the 
admission or establishment of the state, as the case may be.... When a law 
of a state is inconsistent with a law of the commonwealth, the latter shall 
prevail and the former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be 
invalid....

Chapter VI: New States. The parliament may admit to the commonwealth or 
establish new states, and may upon such admission or establishment make or 
impose such terms and conditions, including the extent of representation in 
either house of the parliament, as it thinks fit....

Chapter VIII: Alteration of the Constitution. This constitution shall not be 
altered except in the following manner. The proposed law for the alteration 
thereof must be passed by an absolute majority of each house of the 
parliament, and not less than two nor more than six months after its passage 
through both houses the proposed law shall be submitted in each state to the 
electors qualified to vote for the election of members of the house of 
representatives. But if either house passes any such proposed law by an 
absolute majority, and the other house rejects or fails to pass it or passes 
it with any amendment to which the first-mentioned house will not agree, and 
if after an interval of three months the first-mentioned house in the same 
or the next session again passes the proposed law by an absolute majority 
with or without any amendment which has been made or agreed to by the other 
house, and such other house rejects or fails to pass it or passes it with 
any amendment to which the first-mentioned house will not agree, the 
governor general may submit the proposed law as last proposed by the first-
mentioned house, and either with or without any amendments subsequently 
agreed to by both houses, to the electors in each state qualified to vote 
for the election of the house of representatives.

When a proposed law is submitted to the electors, the vote shall be taken in 
such manner as the parliament prescribes.... And if in a majority of the 
states a majority of the electors voting approve the proposed law, and if a 
majority of all the electors voting also approve the proposed law, it shall 
be presented to the governor general for the queen's assent. No alteration 
diminishing the proportionate representation of any state in either house of 
the parliament, or the minimum number of representatives of a state in the 
house of representatives, or increasing, diminishing, or otherwise altering 
the limits of the state, or in any manner affecting the provisions of the 
constitution in relation thereto, shall become law unless the majority of 
the electors voting in that state approve the proposed law.

                      Ibid., XXXVIII, 24 f.: 63-64 Victoria, c. 12.



[1] No. 131H.

[2] The first part lists 103 boroughs; the second part lists five counties.

[3] Thirty-nine boroughs are named.

[4] Nineteen boroughs are named with from two to nine members each.

[5] Thirty-three towns and places are named, with from one to four members 
each. Some of these new boroughs were really extensions of old parliamentary 
boroughs.

[6] Forty-six old boroughs are given new boundaries.

[7] Here is given a list of single member districts for the large boroughs.

[8] Here is given a list of the counties with their divisions.

[9] That is to say, the sanitary authority might take the necessary land, 
leaving the price to be determined by arbitration.

[10] These acts had extended the parliamentary franchises of 1867 and 1884 
to elections in boroughs and counties.

[11] Sixty-one boroughs are named.