Electorates Redistribution Act 1904 (NSW)

ANNO TERTIO

ED WARDI VI I REGIS.

Act No. 1, 1904.

An Act to provide for the reduct ion of the number of Members of t he Legislative Assembly and of the number of electorates to n i n e t y ; for the dis t r ibut ion of elec­ tora tes ; to apply the Royal Commissioners Ev idence Act, 1901, to Electoral Distr icts Commissioners , and to authorise such com­ missioners to take evidence ; to provide that exis t ing electors ' r igh t s shall cont inue to have effect in respect of the new electorates ; to amend in these and other respects the Par l iamentary Elec tora tes and Elect ions Act,

1902; and for purposes consequent on or

Act, 1904," and shall be construed with the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act, 1902, hereinafter referred to as the " Principal Act." Numbers

incidental to the carrying out of the said

objects. [2Sth January, 1904.]

Assembly of New South Wales in Parliament assembled, and by the	EE it enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative
authority of the same, as follows :—•

Preliminary.

1. This Act may be cited as the " Electorates Redistribution

Numbers of Members and of electorates.

2. I n the next and every subsequent Parliament the number of

Members of the Assembly shall be ninety, each Member representing an electoral district.

3. New South Wales shall from time to time be distributed into ninety electoral districts.

4. I n making any such distribution, the divisor shall, for the

purpose of ascertaining the quota of electors, be ninety, with a margin of allowance not exceeding one thousand two hundred ; and no reasons for the addition to or deduction from the quota of any such margin of allowance need be given or appended to any report by any commissioners making such distribution.

5. The provisions of the Royal Commissioners Evidence Act, 1901, shall apply to Electoral Districts Commissioners making any such distribution, and such commissioners may accordingly take evidence as to the matters entrusted to them.

Distribution of electorates.

6. The Governor shall, as soon as practicable after the com­ mencement of this Act, by letters patent under the Great Seal, appoint three persons to be Electoral Districts Commissioners, who shall be appointed in accordance with the Principal Act. Sections live to ten of the said Act shall apply to the said commissioners.

The said commissioners shall distribute New South Wales into ninety electoral districts.

7. In making such distribution, the said commissioners—

(a) shall give due consideration to existing boundaries of electoral districts and divisions, and so far as possible shall not divide such divisions by the boundaries of the new districts : and

(b) shall give due consideration to community or diversity of 8. Before finally making such distribution the said commis­ sioners shall, in each proposed new district, notify in the prescribed manner the p ropsed boundaries of such district. interests, lines of communication, and physical features.

Objections to such distribution may be made in writing to the commissioners within fourteen days after such notification.

9. (1) At the expiration of such fourteen days the said com­ missioners, after considering all objections made as aforesaid, shall finally make the distribution and give names to the new electoral districts, and shall notify the same in the Gazette.

(2) The distribution shall have effect by virtue of such

notification, but shall not operate so as to affect the representation of

the

the present electoral districts in the present Assembly, and shall not affect any by-election which may be held before the dissolution or the expiration by effluxion of time of the present Assembly.

(3) Such notification shall have the same effect as a procla­ mation under Part I I of the Principal Act of the names and boundaries of electoral districts made after a distribution approved by the Assembly.

10. No distribution of New South Wales under subsections one

and two of section eleven of the Principal Act shall be made on the results of the census taken in the year one thousand nine hundred and one being ascertained and reported by the Government Statistician in pursuance of that section.

11. The distribution made in pursuance of this Act shall not

affect the validity of any electors' rights issued and in force under the Principal Act or any Act thereby repealed, and any such right shall have effect as if it were issued for the new electoral district for which the holder of the right is enrolled.