The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Registration of Electors Act, 1875.”

In the interpretation of this Act the following terms and expressions shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them, that is to say,—

On the thirty-first day in the month of March in every year, or if that day fall on a Sunday then on the thirtieth day of the said month, the Clerk of every governing body shall compile an alphabetical list of all those persons, being males of twenty-one years or upwards, who shall have been assessed to and shall have made payment of any rate struck by such governing body in respect of rateable property situate in an electoral district within the year ending on the thirtieth day of March then instant.

Every such list when so prepared shall be signed by the Clerk and shall be countersigned by the Mayor, and shall be forwarded to the Registration Officer for the electoral district within which the municipality highway or road district or other division of the colony under the control of such governing body shall be situate, on or before the seventh day of the month of April in each year.

Provided always, that when any municipality road district highway district or other division of the colony as aforesaid is in part comprised within two or more electoral districts, then the Clerk to the governing body of such municipality road district highway district or other division as aforesaid shall, in preparing the list of ratepayers required to be prepared under this Act, make a separate list for each of such portions of the municipality road district highway district or other division as aforesaid, and shall forward the same to the Registration Officer of the electoral district within which such portion of the municipality road district highway district or other division as aforesaid is contained.

The Registration Officer of every electoral district shall on the receipt of such lists accept and deal with the same as claims to be inserted on the list of voters for the electoral district as effectually as if the same had been made in the form prescribed by “The Registration of Electors Act, 1866,” and all the provisions of such last-mentioned Act shall, subject to this Act, be applicable to the registration by this Act provided for.

It is hereby expressly declared that no person possessing more than one qualification in the same electoral district shall possess or exercise any greater or other number of votes within such electoral district than he would if he had possessed only one qualification.

Every person being possessed of the qualification aforesaid, and being duly registered as by this Act provided for, shall be entitled to vote in the election of a member or members of the House of Representatives for the electoral district in respect of which such person is qualified as aforesaid.

The provisions contained in the fourth, sixth, eighth, and forty-second sections of the Constitution Act, and all other enactments relating to qualification of electors and candidates, and to the election of members of the House of Representatives, Superintendents of provinces, and members of Provincial Councils, shall be construed and read as if the enactments contained in the third section hereof were contained in the seventh section of the Constitution Act, and shall apply as nearly as circumstances admit to any person hereby authorized to vote and to the qualification hereby created.

When the rate struck by any governing body shall have been quashed or set aside by any Court of competent jurisdiction, the lists required to be prepared under section three of this Act shall, notwithstanding the quashing of such rate, be proceeded with under this Act in the same manner as if such rate had not been so quashed or set aside.

If the Clerk of any governing body shall wilfully or negligently fail to comply with the provisions of this Act, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds, to be recovered summarily under “The Justices of the Peace Act, 1866.”

Any person who shall wilfully and knowingly falsify in any particular any list of ratepayers prepared under this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, at the discretion of the Court, for any term not exceeding twelve calendar months.