make out two supplementary lists containing the names arranged as hereinbefore provided, of

1. All persons who should be struck off the register, specifying the reasons.

2. All new names to be inserted.

13. These lists shall be printed and published by being affixed on or before the 5th day of January, April, July, and October, in every year, to the door or notice board of all churches, chapels, and places of worship, town halls, local board offices, and other municipal and parochial offices, post offices, telegraph offices, assize and county courts, public baths, wash-houses, libraries, museums, police stations, and all other buildings in the parish occupied for public purposes.

14. Any person who has not been included in the register or list may, on or before the 10th day of January, April, July, and October in every year, claim to have his name inserted. In such claim the full name and address must be inserted, and in the case of claims in respect of successive residence, all the addresses must be given in full.

The local registration officer shall provide all forms of claim free of charge.

15. Any elector may on or before the 10th day of January, April, July, and October in any year, by notice to the local regis tration officer, object to any person upon the register for the constituency in which such parish is situate, and in which he is an elector, on the ground, that he

1. Is dead;

2. Has not complied with the terms of residence or occupation; 3. Is under the age of 21 years;

4. Is an alien;

5. Is a person scheduled for corrupt or illegal practices;

6. Is a person who has been declared by legal process to be of unsound mind; or

7. Is a person actually undergoing a sentence of imprisonment or penal servitude.

A copy of the notice of objection shall be forwarded by post by the person objecting to every person objected to.

16. The local registration officer in every parish shall, on or before the 15th day of January, April, July, and October, print and publish in the manner hereinbefore provided, the lists of claims and objections.

17. The local registration officer shall, in every quarter, obtain from the registrar or registrars of deaths in the district for which he is registration officer, a certified return showing the names in full of all adult persons who shall have died during the quarter, and the dates of their deaths; such return shall be made up to the 10th day of January, April, July, and October in every year, and shall be delivered free of charge to the local registration officer not later than the 15th day of January, April, July, and October in every year.

18. On or before the 15th day of January, April, July, and October in every year, the local registration officer in every parish shall forward to the county registration officer lists containing the names, arranged as hereinbefore provided, of

1. Persons who should be struck off the register, specifying the

reasons;

2. New electors to be inserted;

3. New claimants;

4. Persons objected to;

5. Persons claiming in respect of successive occupation or residence in the same constituency;

6. Persons scheduled for corrupt or illegal practices.

All forms of claim, notices of objection, and any correspondence relating to them, and the return of deaths, shall be attached to the lists.

19. On the receipt by the county registration officer of the lists forwarded to him in accordance with the preceding sections of this Act, he shall examine them, and shall give notice in writing by post to all persons, other than persons returned as dead by the registrar of deaths, whom he proposes to strike off the register, or who have been objected to, that, unless reason to the contrary be shown within seven days, their names will be struck off the register.

If no objection be raised to the new electors or claimants, the county registration officer shall insert the names on the register forthwith. In cases of claims in respect of successive occupation or residence, the county registration officer shall, if he think necessary, require a report from the local registration officer, verifying the claims or otherwise. Whenever it shall seem to the county registration officer necessary to hold a local enquiry in any parish, he shall give seven days' notice, by advertisement in one or more local newspapers, of the place, date, and time of such enquiry.

The register of voters for each parish shall be made up by the county registration officer, who shall classify it according to wards for all local elections, and according to the Parliamentary or other constituencies for other elections, and it shall come into force upon the 10th day of February, May, August, and November in every year.

The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office shall issue, free of charge, upon the application of any county registration officer, all necessary registration forms, and the county registration officer shall provide the local registration officers with all forms of claim and objection free of charge.

20. If any person making a claim or objection be dissatisfied with the decision of the county registration officer with regard to such claim or objection, he may within twenty-one days call upon. the county registration officer to state a case for submission to the judge of the county court for the parish in which the person claiming or objected to resides.

21. If any local registration officer be reported to the Local Government Board by the county registration officer for misconduct,

or for neglect in carrying out the provisions of this Act, the Local Government Board may order an official enquiry to be held, and if the charges of misconduct or neglect shall be substantiated to the satisfaction of the Local Government Board, the local registration officer may be dismissed, and the parish vestry shall, in such case, be forthwith convened for the appointment of a successor.

22. All expenses of the county registration officer in connection with the registration of voters shall be defrayed out of the county fund.

23. Any person whose name shall be on the register for more than one constituency, and who shall vote more than once at a general election of members of Parliament, or more than once in the same constituency at any other election, shall be liable onsummary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding £500, or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months.

The present arrangements for registering the crowded dwellers in populous cities are virtually those which sufficed when the Statute of Henry VI. for the first time restricted the county franchise to 40s. freeholders. The electoral registration of London's five million souls is left to no better organization than that of a rural hamlet of the last century.

At present only one in eight of London's population is on the register, as compared with one in six of the United Kingdom outside London, and one in five in many provincial boroughs. The term of occupation is absurdly long, and so arbitrarily dated, that every removal in London practically involves from eighteen months' to two years' disfranchis. nent.

This part supersedes the cumbrous ma s of legal technicalities contained in thirteen acts of parliament, and makes the work of registration as simple, economical, and nearly automatic as possible. The present interval of more than four months between the date of claim and the date on which the register comes into force, is reduced to one month. Adult suffrage is enacted with the minimum term of residence necessary for the purposes of registration. Under the existing Registration Acts, the work of registration, which is only done once a year, commences in April or May, and is not concluded till the 12th October, which is the last day for the holding of the Revision Court. Under such a scheme as that proposed, the Register would be made up four times a year, and the four registrations would only take a few weeks longer to prepare than the one list under existing regulations. The individual voter is relieved of trouble and expense in claiming and supporting his claim, and provision is made for the punishment of misconduct or wilful neglect on the part of the registration officers. The existing system of revision of the voters' lists is abolished, and a saving effected in the item of revising barristers' salaries in England of £25,000 a year. The work of preparing the register is left to parochial officials, subject to local control, but subject also to the general supervision of an officer appointed by the County Council. There will be only one register for all elections, local as well as parliamentary.

The term of qualification in other countries is almost everywhere excessive. In Natal, for English people, three years' residence is the qualifying term; for natives, twelve years. In New Zealand, one year's residence in the colony and six months' in the constituency are required before registration. In France and Queensland, six months; and in Japan, twelve months' resi dence in the constituency qualifies. In the Netherlands, eighteen months' residence at home, or in the colonies, is sufficient. In the United States the provisions vary from State to State; there is generally a minimum term of residence in the State required, which varies from six months to two years, and often, in addition, a residence of one month to six months in the particular constituency.

PART III.

Payment of Election Expenses.

24. The returning officer at an election shall be entitled to his reasonable charges not exceeding the sums mentioned in the schedule to this Act in respect of services and expenses of the several kinds mentioned in the said schedule, which have been properly rendered or incurred by him for the purposes of the election. The amount of such charges shall be paid out of the county fund. The returning officer shall not be entitled to payment for any other services or expenses or at any greater rates than as in the said schedule mentioned, any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding; nor to any charges which are not duly included in his account rendered to the county treasurer, together with all receipts and other vouchers proving the expenditure, within twenty-one days after the day on which the return is made of the person or persons elected at the election.

The schedule referred to is not printed in this Tract.

Reduction of Security from Candidates.

25. The returning officer shall require the sum of £10 to be deposited at the time of nomination by, or on behalf of, every candidate at a parliamentary election, and should any candidate poll fewer than one-tenth of the total votes polled or 500 votes, whichever shall be the smaller number, his deposit shall be forfeited and paid over to the county treasurer, and in any other case the deposit shall be refunded after the declaration of the poll; provided that no candidate shall be deemed to have been duly nominated until the deposit shall have been paid.

The necessity of retaining the obligation to give some security is obvious. Individuals are not wanted who thrust themselves upon the constituencies, without being the nominees of some organized body of electors, to whom the provision of the small amount of £10 would be easy. The penalty would operate as an obstacle to mere self-advertisement, but would not restrict the free choice of the electors.

The amount of security now required from candidates in this country varies from £100 to £700 in boroughs, and £150 to £1,000 in counties. In Greece, each candidate is required to give £7 security.

In Natal, a deposit of £25 is required, and it is refunded if the candidate receives one-fifth of the votes polled by the lowest successful candidate.

Official Notification of Polling Places.

26. The returning officer in every constituency shall, three days before the day of election, forward by post to every elector an official poll-card, showing the names of the candidates, the number of the elector on the register, and the place at which he is entitled to poll. The poll-cards shall be transmitted through the Post Office and delivered free of charge, subject only to the regulations of the Post Office relating to inland letters. If any poll-card or form of promise to vote be printed or issued by any candidate or his agent, his election shall be void.

27. The returning officer in every constituency shall, within three days of the date of nomination, cause to be printed and posted

in convenient places throughout the constituency an official placard showing the names of all the candidates, the date of the poll, and the polling places assigned to each district.

Free Provision of Polling Apparatus.

28. The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office shall provide an adequate number of ballot boxes, and a separate stamping instrument for each constituency, materials for voters to mark the ballot papers, and all forms, other than ballot papers, required for use at an election, and shall supply them, free of charge, within ten days of the receipt of the requisition of the returning officer for the constituency in which they are to be used. All fittings and compartments furnished for municipal or school board elections shall be used, so far as is practicable, for parliamentary elections; and all ballot boxes furnished for parliamentary elections shall be used, so far as is practicable, for municipal or school board elections.

29. The returning officer shall furnish, free of charge, all ballot papers and all forms of nomination of candidates at a parliamentary election, and he shall, free of charge, provide each polling station with copies of the register of voters, or such parts thereof as contain the names of the voters allotted to vote at such station, for use by the presiding officer and the personation agents of each candidate.

Free Postage of Election Addresses.

30. Every duly nominated candidate shall, on the day of nomination, furnish the returning officer with a copy of his election address, which shall not exceed in length one thousand words. The returning officer shall cause the addresses of all such candidates to be printed, and shall hand them to the Post Office, which shall transmit and deliver them, free of charge, to each registered elector in the constituency, subject only to the ordinary regulations of the Post Office relating to inland letters; provided that the address of each candidate shall be done up in a separate cover by the returning officer or his agents, and all the addresses shall be handed in for transmission on the same day.

Free Postage of Campaign Literature.

31. Every duly nominated candidate may once during an election period hand to the returning officer a packet of literature for each elector, folded and addressed ready for transmission through the post, the whole not to exceed two ounces in weight, which shall be transmitted through the Post Office and delivered free of charge to each registered elector, subject only to the ordinary regulations of the Post Office relating to inland letters.

These are novel provisions, intended to diminish the cost of elections, and to equalise, as far as possible, the chances of rich and poor candidates. The only exemptions from postage at the present time are petitions and addresses forwarded to the Queen, and petitions forwarded to members of parliament, or peers, for presentation in the House of Commons, or the House of Lords.

The official correspondence of Government departments is franked by having the signature of a duly authorized official stamped on each letter or packet. It is now sought to extend this practice to returning officers for election purposes.