7928.
No. 138.
(LEEWARD ISLANDS.)
SIB,
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Royal Courts of Justice, April 14, 1897.
We were honoured with your commands, signified in Mr. Wingfield's letter of the 8th January last, stating that he was directed to lay before us a Despatch from the Acting Governor of the Leeward Islands, with its enclosures, raising the question whether Mr. Greaves, being a salaried officer of the Government of the Presidency of St. Christopher-Nevis, could sit and vote as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of that Presidency.
That it would be seen that the question was raised in 1889, when Mr. Greaves, being then an unofficial member of the Legislative Council, accepted the office of Clerk to the Nevis Waterworks Board, the salary of which was paid from the public revenue of the Presidency, and that the then Acting Attorney-General of the Colony had advised that Mr. Greaves's acceptance of that office did not vacate his seat in the Legislative Council, and that the present Acting Attorney-General held the same opinion as his predecessor.
That, should Mr. Greaves's seat have been vacated by his acceptance of that office, the question arose whether the Acts of the Legislative Council of St. Christopher-Nevis in which he had taken part by voting, including the election of members of the General Legislative Council of the Leeward Islands, four of whom were elected by the unofficial members of the Legislative Council of St. Christopher-Nevis, were valid, and the further question whether, if the election of members of the General Legislative Council, in which Mr. Greaves had voted since his acceptance of office, were invalid the acts of the General Legislative Council in which the members so elected had voted were valid.
That Mr. Wingfield was to refer us to two previous reports of the Law Officers of the Crown,* on somewhat similar questions arising in one case on the construction of the Leeward Islands Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 107.) and the Act of the Leeward Islands Legislature, No. 11 of 1878, and in the other case on the construction of Chapter 2 of the Consolidated Laws of British Honduras.
That in the latter case the appeal to the Judicial Committee was not prosecuted, as it was decided to accede to the wishes of the former unofficial members of the Legis- lative Council by increasing the number of unofficial members, and by replacing the persons holding public offices, who had been appointed as unofficial members, by persons not holding offices, whereupon an Ordinance was passed validating the laws which, according to the decision of the Supreme Court, were invalid.
That Mr. Wingfield was to request that we would take the papers into our consideration, and advise
you:-
1. Whether Mr. Greaves after he had accepted the Office of Clerk to the Nevis Water- works, continued lawfully to hold his seat and to vote as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of St. Christopher and Nevis.
2. Whether since that date the said Legislative Council had been duly constituted. 3. Whether since that date the proceedings of the said Legislative Council, or those in which Mr. Greaves had voted, or those in which he had voted among the majority, or those (if any) in which he had voted in the majority and which had been carried by a majority of one vote, were valid.
4. Whether the elections which had taken place since the above date of members of the General Legislative Council of the Leeward Islands by the official members of the Legislative Council of St. Christopher-Nevis, in which Mr. Greaves had voted, or those in which he had voted in the majority, or those in which he had voted in the majority and the members had been elected by a majority of one vote, were valid.
5. If such elections, or any of them, were invalid, whether the proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Leeward Islands in which members so invalidly elected took part were valid.
0 95386.-15. 25,--4/97.
* Nos. 285 in Vol. III, and 224 in Vol. IV.
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.885
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