CHAP. VI] THE LOWER HOUSES 479
the House of Assembly in and for the electoral district
within which he has resided for at least one year immediately
preceding the election : provided that absence from the
district or division of a district, within the year aforesaid,
shall not be held to disqualify an elector.
No person who shall have received relief, as a pauper,
from or out of the public moneys, at any time during the
year immediately preceding any election of a member to
serve in the House of Assembly, shall be competent to
vote at such election.
The judges of any Court now existing or hereafter created,
whose appointment rests with the Governor, shall be dis-
qualified and incompetent to vote at any election.
There are eighteen electoral districts returning thirty-six
members ; seven return three each, four two each, and the
rest one. The franchise has always been extremely demo-
cratic, and was slightly restricted under the Imperial Act of
1842, when the two Houses were for the time being merged,
but only by requiring two years’ residence as a qualification.
(6) Australia
The present state of the franchise in the Commonwealth
and the Australian States is as follows :—
Under the Commonwealth Act No. 8 of 1902 :
Subject to the disqualifications hereafter set out, all persons
not under twenty-one years of age whether male or female,
married or unmarried— "
(@) Who have lived in Australia for six months continu-
ously, and
6) Who are natural-born or naturalized subjects of the
King, and
(¢) Whose names are on the Electoral Roll for any
Electoral Division,
shall be entitled to vote at the election of Members of the
Senate and the House of Representatives.
No person who is of unsound mind and no person attainted
of treason, or who has been convicted and is under sentence
or subject to be sentenced for any offence punishable under
the law of any part of the King’s dominions by imprisonment
for one year or longer shall be entitled to vote at any election
of Members of the Senate or the House of Representatives.
No aboriginal native of Australia, Asia, Africa, or the
{slands of the Pacific, except New Zealand, shall be entitled
