Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/141

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Representation.
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merce of the South, but the port of call for the mail steamers, for which there is a coal dépôt there. It is also a station for the whale fishery. These, therefore, represent the commercial divisions of the Colony.

Representation.—The Ordinance (No. 13) to provide for the establishment of a Legislative Council, issued 1st June, 1870, divided the Colony into ten electoral districts, viz., Perth, Fremantle, Geraldton, York, Toodyay, Swan, Greenough, Wellington, Vasse, Albany, to which were added subsequently Williams River and the North, each of which return one member, excepting Perth and Fremantle, which return two each.

The qualification for members of the Legislative Council, under 5 and 6 Vict., c. 76, s. 8, was to be a natural born or naturalized subject of the Crown, and seised in lands and tenements in Western Australia of the yearly value of £100, or of the value of £2000; but this was reduced by the Amendment Act of 1871 to an estate of the value of £1000 or of £50 annually.

The qualification for electors (13 and 14 Vict., c. 59, B. 4,):—To be a natural born or naturalized subject of the Crown or legally made denizen of Western Australia having a freehold estate of £100 value, or to be a householder occupying a dwelling house of the annual value of £10, or to hold a license to depasture lands within the district for which his vote is to be given, or a leasehold estate value £10 per annum, provided that there has been six months occupancy, and that all rates and taxes have been duly paid.

The Municipal Institutions' Act of 1871 was amended by that passed in 1876, by which all persons seised or in occupation of land, house, or tenement, within the limits of any municipality, have the right of voting for