Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/35

 Legal Notes and Queries. 25 seems to me to carry with it that both these classes are " voters " under the Public Libraries Act, and that, therefore, women may be voters if qualified. Is this so ? The penalty for collecting voting papers without an authorisation in writing is very severe under Sec. 9 of Schedule i, but there seems to be no special form for such authorisation. A. B. Answer. Only the voters whose names appear in Division I and Division 3 of the Lists of Voters can vote upon any question under the Public Libraries Act. The names in Division 2 are those of Parliamentary Electors who are not County Electors or Burgesses. The names of any women electors will appear in Division 3, and they are entitled to vote. No special form is provided for the appointment of a collector, but the appointment is to be by the District Authority, z>., in a parish, the over- seers. I think the following would be sufficient : Parish of We, the undersigned, being the Overseers of the Parish of and the District Authority within the meaning of the Public Libraries Act, 1892, and the regulations made thereby for ascertaining the opinion of the voters in the Parish, do hereby appoint Mr. of to (deliver and) collect the voting papers for ascertaining the opinion of the voters in the said Parish pursuant to the provisions of the said Act and Regulations. Dated this day of 189. The form would require amendment according as the district is a borough, urban district or parish. Question. THE PENNY LIMIT (Section 2, Public Libraries Act, 1892). I read the Act (Section 2) as allowing successive pennies to be imposed in successive years, thus utterly altering the fundamental principle of the old Acts. I can see no other interpretation. May an addition of a penny be made to the rate each year till the rate reaches a sum undefined by the Act ? Or, in other words, is it not the case that there is no restriction left on the total amount of the rate except that in the first year it cannot exceed a penny, and that no annual increase may exceed a penny ? Answer. Section 2(1) distinctly provides that the rate for one financial year shall not exceed one penny in the pound. The words " or addition to a rate" are, as stated in Public Library Legislation, new. They are both unnecessary and confusing, but they simply mean that where a limit of, say, a halfpenny or three-farthings has been fixed by the ratepayers in the first instance, any addition which may be made under Section 2 (2) to that limit must not make the rate at any time more than one penny in the pound. I appreciate your reading of Section 2 (i), which would be that an addition to a rate shall not be levied for any one financial year to an amount exceeding one penny in the pound, but it must be borne in mind that the Act of 1892 is mainly a Consolidating Act, and that the words are really inserted for the purpose of strengthening the limit of one penny imposed by the old Act.