Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

District.

Westmoreland and Hanover.
St. James and Trelawny.

The general election for members of Council (after the proclamation of the Order in Council of the 19th May, 1884) resulted in the return of the gentlemen whose names are given in the subjoined list :

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

St. Elizabeth.

St. Thomas and Portland.
Clarendon.

St. Catherine.

Kingston and St. Andrew.
Manchester.

St. Mary and St. Ann.

The ex officio and nominated members were the following:

EX OFFICIO MEMBERS.

Hon. Colonel Somerset Molyneux Wiseman-Clarke, Senior Military Officer in Command of Her Majesty's Regular Troops.

[ocr errors]

Edward Noel Walker, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary.

"Henry Hicks Hocking, Attorney-General.

"Major-General James Robert Mann, R. E., C.M.G., Director of Public Works.

NOMINATED MEMBERS.

Hon. Surgeon General Charles Benjamin Mosse, C.B., M.R.C.S., Superintending Medical Officer.

[ocr errors]

Thomas Capper, B.A., Inspector of Schools.

The following changes occurred in the personnel of the first Legislative Council during the period of its official existence :

EX OFFICIO MEMBERS

Hon. Colonel W. Clive Justice, C.M.G., in place of Colonel (now General) WisemanClarke.

[ocr errors]

Neale Porter, C.M.G., in place of the Hon. E. N. Walker, C.M.G., promoted to Ceylon.

66 Valentine Græme Bell, C.E., in place of General Mann, resigned.

ELECTED MEMBERS.

"Wellesley Bourke elected on 1st September, 1885, vice Hon. E. G. Barrett, resigned.

"C William Bancroft Espeut elected on 27th August, 1886, vice Hon. George Henderson, resigned.

66 Thomas Lloyd Harvey elected on 11th October, 1886, vice Hon. Emanuel George Levy, deceased.

66 John Powell Clark elected on 18th June, 1888, vice J. T. Palache, resigned. The Legislative Council was dissolved on the 31st December, 1888, and the elections for a new Council took place in the month of March, 1889. The nominated members were re-appointed and the previously elected members were all returned except the Hon. William Malabre who retired on account of ill-health. The Hon. Charles James Ward was elected in place of the Hon. William Malabre. The personnel of the second Legislative Council under the New Constitution is therefore as follows::

EX OFFICIO MEMBERS.

His Excellency Sir Henry A. Blake, K.C.M.G., President.

Hon. Major Genl. Wilsone Black, C.B., Senior Military Officer in Command of Her Majesty's Regular Troops in Jamaica.

66 Neale Porter, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary.

66 Henry Hicks Hocking, Attorney-General.

Valentine Græme Bell, C.E., Director of Public Works.

NOMINATED MEMBERS.

Hon. Surgeon General Charles Benjamin Mosse, C. B., Superintending Medical

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

John Powell Clark for Manchester.

Charles Salmon Farquharson for Westmoreland and Hanover.
Robert Craig for Clarendon.

66 William Bancroft Espeut for St. Thomas and Portland.
James Miller Farquharson for St. Elizabeth.

"Wellesley Bourke for St. James and Trelawny.

66

Thomas Lloyd Harvey for St. Catherine.

66 Michael Solomon, C.M.G., for St. Ann and St. Mary.

66

Charles James Ward for Kingston and St. Andrew.

Since the last General Election the following changes have occurred :

Mr. Jos. Hy. Levy has been elected Member for St. Mary and St. Ann, in the room of Mr. Michael Solomon deceased.

The Seat of Mr. Espeut became vacant owing to his absence without leave from an entire Session of the Council, and Mr. Wm. Andrews was elected to succeed him, and Mr. G. Solomon was elected to represent Clarendon in the room of Mr. Craig, resigned.

There is also a Privy Council consisting of the Senior Military Officer in the island, not being below the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General, and such other persons, not to exceed eight in number, as may be named by the Queen, or provisionally appointed by the Governor, subject to the approval of Her Majesty. The tenure of office of members so named or appointed is limited to five years. The Governor is to consult in all cases with the Privy Councillors, excepting only when the matter to be decided would in his judgment sustain material prejudice by consultation, or be too unimportant to require their advice. The Governor is authorized to act in opposition to the advise and decision of the Privy Council, if in any case it shall appear right to do so, and to report to the Secretary of State for the Colonies the grounds and reasons of his opposition, and any member may record on the minutes the nature of the advice or opinion offered and rejected.

APPENDIX A.

The following is the Despatch from the Secretary of State forwarding the Order in Council of 19th May, 1884,* and explaining its provisions :

(Despatch from the Right Honorable the Secretary of State for the Colonies.) Jamaica-No. 161. Downing Street, 28th May, 1884. SIR, I have the honor to transmit to you, herewith, an Order of Her Majesty in Council reconstituting the Legislative Council of Jamaica in the manner indicated by my Despatch No. 285 of the 1st December last.†

2. The new Council will consist of the Governor and four other ex officio members, viz., the three officers who are ex officio members of the existing Council and the Director of Public Works; not more than five members to be nominated by the Crown or provisionally by the Governor, and nine elected members.

3. Following a suggestion made by you, and in furtherance of the policy enunciated in my Despatch of the 1st of December, Her Majesty's Government have thought it advisable that the number of nominated members should not be fixed by the Order in Council; the Legislative Council can therefore be in the first instance so constituted as not to place the elected members in a minority, while the power is reserved to Her Majesty or Her Representative of securing in case of necessity a control over its decisions by raising the number of nominated members to the prescribed maximum. 4. It is proposed that, in the first instance, only two nominated members should be appointed, and I have to request that you will furnish me with the names of two gentlemen whom you would recommend for that purpose. You will, however, clearly under*For the Order in Council see Handbook of 1884-85, page 485. † For Despatch see Handbook of 1884-85, page 71.

stand that in the case, which I trust is not likely to happen, of your considering it really necessary to add to the number within the prescribed limits by provisional appointments under the fifth clause of the Order you have full authority for doing so.

5. The seats of the nominated members will be vacated by a dissolution but they may be re-appointed.

6. Public officers hereafter appointed will hold their offices on condition of serving as nominated members of the Council if so required.

7. Provision is made for the suspension by the Governor (subject to disallowance by the Queen, of nominated members, and for provisionally supplying the places of nominated members suspended or incapacitated or absent from the colony.

8. In prescribing the property qualifications for a seat in the Council as an elected member Her Majesty's Government, with your concurrence, have adopted those which were required for a seat in the former Legislative Assembly, and the holders of offices of emolument under the Crown or the Colonial Government are declared ineligible.

9. In my Despatch of the 1st of December it was suggested that each of the three counties of Jamaica should return three members of the Council. The Commissioners, however, whom you appointed to report on the Franchise, expressed the opinion that the adoption of the counties as electoral districts would give undue predominance in the representation to the inhabitants of the larger towns. After receiving a further report on the subject from five of the Commissioners, and separate reports from another of them, and from the gentleman who was Secretary to the Commission, all of which you have transmitted to me, and after deliberating on the question with the Privy Council, you decided to recommend the division of the island into nine electoral districts, each returning one member and consisting of one or two parishes.

10. On full consideration of the matter I have arrived at the conclusion that the scheme of electoral districts which you have proposed is calculated to secure the fairest representation of all interests, and it has been adopted in the Order in Council.

11. Upon the important question of the Franchise I have had no hesitation in adopting the property qualifications and the grounds of disqualifications unanimously recommended by the Royal Commissioners and by you. The majority of the Conimissioners further recommend that ability to read and write should be made a necessary condition for the exercise of the Franchise. Of the minority of three who dissented from that recommendation two proposed that the requirements of an educational qualification should be deferred for a stated period, while the third, Mr. Stiebel, in a separate report stated with much force and ability his objections to an educational test which would exclude a considerable number of negro and coloured inhabitants, who are in other respects well fitted to be entrusted with votes, but who from no fault of their own have not received any education.

12. I learn from your Despatch No. 75 of the 23rd of February that in your opinion, and in that of the great majority of persons whose views you have been able to ascertain, the imposition of an educational test is desirable, but that it would be unjust and inexpedient to apply that test to the persons referred to in Mr. Stiebel's report, and you therefore recommend that on the first registration of voters the condition of being able to read and write should be dispensed with, but that it should be imposed in future years on all persons seeking to be registered for the first time. This proposal appears to me to afford the best solution of the question, and the Order in Council accordingly provides that after the present year no one shall be registered as a voter for the first time without signing his name to the claim and adding the date of signature in the presence of the Registering Officer or of a Magistrate.

13. The Order provides that the voting at election of members of the Council shall be by ballot and that a Judge of the Supreme Court shall be the tribunal for determining questions of disputed elections, and it contains provisions adopted from the English Statute Law for the prevention of bribery, treating, undue influence, personation, interference with the secrecy of voting and other election offences. It leaves the necessary regulations in matters of detail relating to registration and election, for the framing of which local knowledge and experience are essential to be supplied by the Governor's Proclamation in the first instance, and afterwards by colonial legislation.

14. The 43rd and 44th clauses of the Order give effect to the views of Her Majesty's Government expressed in the 5th and 6th paragraphs of my despatch of the 1st of December last, by securing that with a reservation for protecting vested interests votes of two-thirds of the elected members shall govern the decision of the Council on financial questions, and that the unanimous opinion of the elected members on other questions shall not be overruled, unless in either case the Governor declares that in his opinion a contrary decision is of paramount importance to the public interest. Whenever the Governor makes such a declaration he is required to report it with his reason to the Secretary of State. I trust it will be rarely or never necessary for the Governor to exercise the power of over-riding the votes of the elected members, but it must be clearly understood that it is his duty to do so if in his opinion the public interest absolutely requires it. Six members are to be a quorum, and neither the existence of vacancies among the ex officio or elected members, nor the non-attendance of elected members, will affect the proceedings of the Council, if the Governor thinks it necessary to proceed with the despatch of business with the prescribed quorum. The duration of the Council is limited to five years, but the Governor is empowered to dissolve it at any time.

15. A moderate civil list* comprising the salaries of the Governor and his Private Secretary and some of the principal officers in the civil service of the colony is reserved by the Order.

16. The Governor is required to reserve for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure bills which repeal, alter or amend, or are inconsistent with any provision of the Order, and power is reserved to Her Majesty, by Order in Council, to revoke, alter, or amend the Order.

17. Having now noticed the principal provisions of the Order in Council it only remains for me to request you to issue the necessary Proclamations under the 25th and 53rd clauses so as to enable the first election of members to be held at the earliest practicable date. I have, &c.,

Governor Sir Henry Norman, K.C.B., C.I.E., &c., &c., &c.

(Signed)

DERBY.

[blocks in formation]

PART V.

GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA.

SIR HENRY ARTHUR BLAKE, K.C.M.G. (1888), C.M.G. (1887), F.R.G.S.Cadet, Royal Irish Constabulary, February, 1859; Sub-Inspector, March, 1859; appointed Resident Magistrate, February, 1876; in January, 1882, was one of the five Special Resident Magistrates selected by the Government to concert and carry out measures for the pacification of a large portion of Ireland; appointed Governor of the Bahamas, January, 1884; Newfoundland, 1887; Queensland, November, 1888, but did not take up appointment; Governor, Jamaica, December, 1888.

The Governor's Private Secretary.

LORD GEORGE FITZGERALD, B.A. Oxon., 1884. Private Secretary to Sir Henry Blake as Governor of the Bahamas, 1885; as Governor of Newfoundland, 1887, and as Governor of Jamaica, 1889.

The Governor's Aide-de-Camp.

CAPTAIN H. T. HALL, Connaught Rangers.

SENIOR MEMBER OF PRIVY COUNCIL.

MAJOR-GENERAL WILSONE BLACK, C.B., entered the 42nd Regiment in 1837 and was promoted Colonel in 1882. Has held the following Military appointments: Brigade Major, Nova Scotia; Assistant Adjutant Quarter Master General, Canada; Assistant Adjutant General North British District, and Assistant Adjutant General, Gibraltar. Served in the Crimean Campaign at the Seige and Fall of Sebastopol, medal and clasp; Turkish medal. In the South African War, Kaffir Campaign. Attack on the Intalaka Udoda Bush, Zulu Campaign. Commanded the party which recovered lost Colours of the 24th Foot,-Despatches, London Gazette, 1st June, 1878, 1st March, and 4th April, 1879. Medal with clasp, C.B.

[blocks in formation]

The Assistant Colonial Secretary for the time being (without salary).

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinua »