 |
[Sidenote: Exceptions from powers of Irish Legislature.]
3. The Irish Legislature shall not have power to make laws in respect of the following matters or any of them:—
(1.) The Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency; or the Lord Lieutenant as representative of the Crown; or
(2.) The making of peace or war or matters arising from a state of war; or the regulation of the conduct of any portion of Her Majesty's subjects during the existence of hostilities between foreign states with which Her Majesty is at peace, in respect of such hostilities; or
(3.) Navy, army, militia, volunteers, and any other military forces, or the defence of the realm, or forts, permanent military camps, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings, or any places purchased for the erection thereof; or
(4.) Authorising either the carrying or using of arms for military purposes, or the formation of associations for drill or practice in the use of arms for military purposes; or
(5.) Treaties or any relations with foreign States, or the relations between different parts of Her Majesty's dominions, or offences connected with such treaties or relations, or procedure connected with the extradition of criminals under any treaty; or
(6.) Dignities or titles of honour; or
(7.) Treason, treason-felony, alienage, aliens as such, or naturalization; or
(8.) Trade with any place out of Ireland; or quarantine, or navigation, including merchant shipping (except as respects inland waters and local health or harbour regulations); or
(9.) Lighthouses, buoys, or beacons within the meaning of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and the Acts amending the same (except so far as they can consistently with any general Act of Parliament be constructed or maintained by a local harbour authority); or
(10.) Coinage; legal tender; or any change in the standard of weights and measures; or
(11.) Trade marks, designs, merchandise marks, copyright, or patent rights.
Provided always, that nothing in this section shall prevent the passing of any Irish Act to provide for any charges imposed by Act of Parliament, or to prescribe conditions regulating importation from any place outside Ireland for the sole purpose of preventing the introduction of any contagious disease.
It is hereby declared that the exceptions from the powers of the Irish Legislature contained in this section are set forth and enumerated for greater certainty, and not so as to restrict the generality of the limitation imposed in the previous section on the powers of the Irish Legislature.
Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.
4. The powers of the Irish Legislature shall not extend to the making of any law—
(1.) Respecting the establishment or endowment of religion, whether directly or indirectly, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
(2.) Imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, advantage, or benefit, on account of religious belief, or raising or appropriating directly or indirectly, save as heretofore, any public revenue for any religious purpose, or for the benefit of the holder of any religious office as such; or
(3.) Diverting the property or without its consent altering the constitution of any religious body; or
(4.) Abrogating or prejudicially affecting the right to establish or maintain any place of denominational education or any denominational institution or charity; or
(5.) Whereby there may be established and endowed out of public funds any theological professorship or any university or college in which the conditions set out in the University of Dublin Tests Act, 1873, are not observed; or
(6.) Prejudicially affecting the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money, without attending the religious instruction at that school; or
(7.) Directly or indirectly imposing any disability, or conferring any privilege, benefit, or advantage upon any subject of the Crown on account of his parentage or place of birth, or of the place where any part of his business is carried on, or upon any corporation or institution constituted or existing by virtue of the law of some part of the Queen's dominions, and carrying on operations in Ireland, on account of the persons by whom or in whose favour or the place in which any of its operations are carried on; or
(8.) Whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law in accordance with settled principles and precedents, or may be denied the equal protection of the laws, or whereby private property may be taken without just compensation; or
(9.) Whereby any existing corporation incorporated by Royal Charter or by any local or general Act of Parliament may, unless it consents, or the leave of Her Majesty is first obtained on address from the two Houses of the Irish Legislature, be deprived of its rights, privileges, or property without due process of law in accordance with settled principles and precedents, and so far as respects property without just compensation. Provided nothing in this subsection shall prevent the Irish Legislature from dealing with any public department, municipal corporation, or local authority, or with any corporation administering for public purposes taxes, rates, cess, dues, or tolls, so far as concerns the same.
Any law made in contravention of this section shall be void.
Executive Authority.
5.—(1.) The executive power in Ireland shall continue vested in Her Majesty the Queen, and the Lord Lieutenant, or other chief executive officer or officers for the time being appointed in his place, on behalf of Her Majesty, shall exercise any prerogatives or other executive power of the Queen the exercise of which may be delegated to him by Her Majesty, and shall, in Her Majesty's name, summon, at least once in every year, prorogue, and dissolve the Irish Legislature; and every instrument conveying any such delegation of any prerogative or other executive power shall be presented to the two Houses of Parliament as soon as conveniently may be. Provided always that the lieutenants of counties shall be appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland as representing Her Majesty.
(2.) There shall be an Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Ireland to aid and advise in the government of Ireland, being of such numbers, and comprising persons holding such offices under the Crown as Her Majesty or, if so authorised, the Lord Lieutenant may think fit, save as may be otherwise directed by Irish Act.
(3.) The Lord Lieutenant shall, on the advice of the said Executive Committee, give or withhold the assent of Her Majesty to Bills passed by the two Houses of the Irish Legislature, subject nevertheless to any instructions given by Her Majesty in respect of any such Bill.
6. All the powers and jurisdiction to be exercised in accordance with the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, and the Fugitive Offenders Act, 1881, by the Lord Lieutenant or Lord Justices, or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, or the Chief Secretary of the Lord Lieutenant, shall be exercised by the Lord Lieutenant in pursuance of instructions given by Her Majesty.
Constitution of Legislature.
7.—(1.) The Irish Legislative Council shall consist of forty-eight councillors.
(2.) Each of the constituencies mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act shall return the number of councillors named opposite thereto in that schedule.
(3.) Every man shall be entitled to be registered as an elector, and when registered to vote at an election, of a councillor for a constituency, who owns or occupies any land or tenement in the constituency of a rateable value of more than twenty pounds, subject to the like conditions as a man is entitled at the passing of this Act to be registered and vote as a parliamentary elector in respect of an ownership qualification or of the qualification specified in section five of the Representation of the People Act, 1884, as the case may be: Provided that a man shall not be entitled to be registered, nor if registered to vote, at an election of a councillor in more than one constituency in the same year.
(4.) The term of office of every councillor shall be eight years, and shall not be affected by a dissolution; and one half of the councillors shall retire in every fourth year, and their seats shall be filled by a new election.
8.—(1.) The Irish Legislative Assembly shall consist of one hundred and three members, returned by the existing parliamentary constituencies in Ireland, or the existing divisions thereof, and elected by the parliamentary electors for the time being in those constituencies or divisions.
(2.) The Irish Legislative Assembly when summoned may, unless sooner dissolved, have continuance for five years from the day on which the summons directs it to meet and no longer.
(3.) After six years from the passing of this Act, the Irish Legislature may alter the qualification of the electors, and the constituencies, and the distribution of the members among the constituencies, provided that in such distribution due regard is had to the population of the constituencies.
9. If a Bill or any provision of a Bill adopted by the Legislative Assembly is lost by the disagreement of the Legislative Council, and after a dissolution, or the period of two years from such disagreement, such Bill, or a Bill for enacting the said provision, is again adopted by the Legislative Assembly and fails within three months afterwards to be adopted by the Legislative Council, the same shall forthwith be submitted to the members of the two Houses deliberating and voting together thereon, and shall be adopted or rejected according to the decision of the majority of those members present and voting on the question.
Irish Representation in House of Commons.
10. Unless and until Parliament otherwise determines, the following provisions shall have effect—
(1.) After the appointed day each of the constituencies named in the Second Schedule to this Act shall return to serve in Parliament the number of members named opposite thereto in that schedule, and no more, and Dublin University shall cease to return any member.
(2.) The existing divisions of the constituencies shall, save as provided in that schedule, be abolished.
(3.) The election laws and the laws relating to the qualification of parliamentary electors shall not, so far as they relate to parliamentary elections, be altered by the Irish Legislature, but this enactment shall not prevent the Irish Legislature from dealing with any officers concerned with the issue of writs of election, and if any officers are so dealt with, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty by Order in Council to arrange for the issue of such writs, and the writs issued in pursuance of such Order shall be of the same effect as if issued in manner heretofore accustomed.
Clauses 11-20 are the finance clauses, which are dealt with at the end of this Appendix.
Clauses 21 and 22 substitute the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as Court of Appeal for Ireland in place of House of Lords.
Clause 23 abolishes religious test for the Lord Lieutenant.
Clauses 25-28 safeguard interests of Judges, Civil Servants.
29.—(1.) The forces of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police shall, when and as local police forces are from time to time established in Ireland in accordance with the Fifth Schedule to this Act, be gradually reduced and ultimately cease to exist as mentioned in that Schedule; and thereupon the Acts relating to such forces shall be repealed, and no forces organised and armed in like manner, or otherwise than according to the accustomed manner of a civil police, shall be created under any Irish Act; and after the passing of this Act, no officer or man shall be appointed to either of those forces;
Provided that until the expiration of six years from the appointed day, nothing in this Act shall require the Lord Lieutenant to cause either of the said forces to cease to exist, if as representing Her Majesty the Queen he considers it inexpedient.
Sections (2) to (5) safeguard interests of existing police.
Clauses 30-33. Miscellaneous.
34.—(1.) During three years from the passing of this Act, and if Parliament is then sitting until the end of that session of Parliament, the Irish Legislature shall not pass an Act respecting the relations of landlord and tenant, or the sale, purchase, or letting of land generally: Provided that nothing in this section shall prevent the passing of any Irish Act with a view to the purchase of land for railways, harbours, waterworks, town improvements, or other local undertakings.
(2.) During six years from the passing of this Act, the appointment of a judge of the Supreme Court or other superior court in Ireland (other than one of the Exchequer judges) shall be made in pursuance of a warrant from Her Majesty countersigned as heretofore.
Clause 35. Transitory.
Clause 39. Definitions, etc.
Summary of Finance Provisions.
(Clauses 11-20.)
The General Revenue of Ireland to be kept apart as specified. One-third to be allocated to Imperial expenditure. Two-thirds to form the special revenue of Ireland and to be spent in purely Irish expenditure.
War taxes to be imposed on Ireland simultaneously and identically with Great Britain and to be paid into the British exchequer.
After six years all taxation except customs and excise to be transferred to Ireland and all these arrangements to be revised.
APPENDIX E
THE IRISH BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
This Board was set up in 1899 by the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act.
The constructive clauses of this Act are the following:—
Clause 1 establishes a Department of Agriculture, its powers to be exercised either by the President or Vice-President.
Clauses 2, 3, 4 and 5 define its powers.
Part II. creates the advisory machinery to which reference is made in the text, and they run as follows:—
Consultative Council, Agricultural Board and Board of Technical Instruction, and Financial Provisions.
7. For the purpose of assisting the Department in carrying out the objects of this Act there shall be established—
(a) a Council of Agriculture;
(b) an Agricultural Board; and
(c) a Board of Technical Instruction.
8.—(1.) The Council of Agriculture shall consist of the following members:—
(a) Two persons to be appointed by the county council of each county (other than a county borough) in each province; and
(b) A number of persons resident in each province equal to the number of counties (exclusive of county boroughs) in the province, to be appointed by the Department with due regard to the representation on the council of any agricultural or industrial organisations in the province.
(2.) For the purposes of this section the county of Cork shall be regarded as two counties, and four persons shall be appointed by the council of that county.
(3.) The members representing each province shall constitute separate committees on the Council and shall be styled the provincial committees of the respective provinces.
9. The Agricultural Board shall consist of the following members:—
(a.) Two persons to be appointed by the provincial committee of each province; and
(b.) Four persons to be appointed by the Department.
10. The Board of Technical Instruction shall consist of the following members:—
(a.) Three persons to be appointed by the county council of each of the county boroughs of Dublin and Belfast;
(b.) One person to be appointed by a joint committee of the councils of the several urban county districts in the county of Dublin; such committee to consist of one member chosen out of their body by the council of each such district;
(c.) One person to be appointed by the council of each county borough not above mentioned;
(d.) One person to be appointed by the provincial committee of each province;
(e.) One person to be appointed by the Commissioners of National Education;
(f.) One person to be appointed by the Intermediate Education Board; and
(g.) Four persons to be appointed by the Department.
11. The Council of Agriculture shall meet at least once a year for the purpose of discussing matters of public interest in connexion with any of the purposes of this Act.
12. The Agricultural Board shall advise the Department with respect to all matters and questions submitted to them by the Department in connexion with the purposes of agriculture and other rural industries.
13. The Board of Technical Instruction shall advise the Department with respect to all matters and questions submitted to them by the Department in connexion with technical instruction.
APPENDIX F
THE REDUCTION IN IRISH PAUPERISM OWING TO OLD AGE PENSIONS
The Report of the Irish Local Government Board for 1911 shows a reduction in Irish pauperism between March, 1910, and March 26th, 1911, amounting to over 18,000:—
March 26th, 1910 99,607 March 25th, 1911 80,942 ——— 18,665
An analysis of the figures shows that the reduction is almost entirely due to the Old-age Pensions Act. There is little or no reduction in children, lunatics, or mothers, while there are the following reductions in aged and infirm paupers:—
- - - 1910. 1911. Reduction. - - - Aged and infirm in work-houses 13,478 11,291 2,187 Aged and infirm on out-door relief 51,304 35,681 15,623 - - -+ Total 17,810 +
leaving only 855 of the reduction unaccounted for.
APPENDIX G
THE LAND LAW (IRELAND) ACT, 1881
The provisions which have revolutionised the land system of Ireland are contained in Clause 8 of the Land Act of 1881, which runs as follows:—
8.—(1.) The tenant of any present tenancy to which this Act applies, or such tenant and the landlord jointly, or the landlord, after having demanded from such tenant an increase of rent which the tenant has declined to accept, or after the parties have otherwise failed to come to an agreement, may from time to time during the continuance of such tenancy apply to the court to fix the fair rent to be paid by such tenant to the landlord for the holding, and thereupon the court, after hearing the parties, and having regard to the interest of the landlord and tenant respectively, and considering all the circumstances of the case, holding, and district, may determine what is such fair rent.
(2.) The rent fixed by the court (in this Act referred to as the judicial rent) shall be deemed to be the rent payable by the tenant as from the period commencing at the rent day next succeeding the decision of the court.
(3.) Where the judicial rent of any present tenancy has been fixed by the court, then, until the expiration of a term of fifteen years from the rent day next succeeding the day on which the determination of the court has been given (in this Act referred to as a statutory term), such present tenancy shall (if it so long continue to subsist) be deemed to be a tenancy subject to statutory conditions, and having the same incidents as a tenancy subject to statutory conditions consequent on an increase of rent by a landlord.
APPENDIX H
THE IRISH CONGESTED DISTRICTS BOARD
The present Congested Districts Board, so often referred to in the text, is constituted under the following clauses of the Irish Land Act of 1909:—
45.—(1.) From and after the appointed day, the Congested Districts Board shall consist of the following members:—
(a.) The Chief Secretary, the Under Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, and the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, who shall be ex officio members:
(b.) Nine members appointed by His Majesty (in this Act referred to as appointed members):
(c.) Two paid members appointed by His Majesty (in this Act referred to as permanent members).
(2.) An appointed member shall hold office for five years, and shall be eligible for re-appointment. On a casual vacancy occurring by reason of the death, resignation, or incapacity of an appointed member or otherwise, the person appointed by His Majesty to fill the vacancy shall continue in office until the member in whose place he was appointed would have retired, and shall then retire.
46.—(1.) For the purposes of the Congested Districts Board (Ireland) Acts, as amended by this Act, each of the following administrative counties, that is to say, the counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, and Kerry, shall be a congested districts county, the six rural districts of Ballyvaghan, Ennistymon, Kilrush, Scariff, Tulla, and Killadysert, in the county of Clare, shall together form one congested districts county, and the four rural districts of Bantry, Castletown, Schull, and Skibbereen, in the county of Cork, shall together form one congested districts county.
(2.) No electoral division shall, after the passing of this Act, be or form part of a congested districts county, unless it is included in a congested districts county constituted under this section.
The Act follows closely on the lines of the Report of the 1908 Commission, and places a third of Ireland under the Board.
APPENDIX J
(1.) RECOMMENDATION IN REGARD TO IRELAND OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON CANALS AND INLAND NAVIGATION
(1.) That such waterways in Ireland as, on a review of all the facts, your Majesty's Government may deem of importance to the cause of cheap inland transport, should come under State control; and
(2.) That a Controlling Authority should be constituted for the purpose of taking over those inland waterways which are already under the control of the State, of Local Authorities, or of a public trust, and of acquiring such other waterways as are determined to be of importance either to the drainage of the country, or to the cause of cheap inland transport.
(2.) IN REGARD TO IRISH RAILWAYS
The principal recommendation of the Majority Report of the Viceregal Commission on Irish Railways (1910) runs as follows:—
(1.) That an Irish Authority be instituted to acquire the Irish Railways and work them as a single system.
(2.) That this Authority be a Railway Board of twenty Directors, four nominated and sixteen elected.
(3.) That the general terms of purchase be those prescribed by the Regulation of Railways Act of 1844 (7 and 8 Vic. cap. 85. sec. 2), with supplementary provisions as to redemption of guarantees, and purchase of non-dividend paying or non-profit earning lines.
(4.) That the financial medium be a Railway Stock; and that such stock be charged upon (1) the Consolidated Fund; (2) the net revenues of the unified Railway system; (3) an annual grant from the Imperial Exchequer; and (4) a general rate, to be struck by the Irish Railway Authority if and when required.
APPENDIX K
(1.) HOME RULE PARLIAMENTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Canada 10 Australia 7 South Africa 5 Newfoundland 1 New Zealand 1 — Total 24 —
Besides these Autonomous Parliaments—
(1.) India has also now seven "Legislative Councils," partly elective.
(2.) The Isle of Man has "House of Keys," with almost complete legislative power.
(3.) The Channel Islands have their own semi-independent governing Assemblies.
(4.) The Crown Colonies have Assemblies possessing a considerable local representative element.
WYMAN & SONS, LTD., Printers, Fetter Lane, London, E.C.; and Reading.
* * * * *
- Typographical errors corrected in text: Page 146: etablished replaced with established Page 176: intituled replaced with intitled -
* * * * *
THE END |
|
