An Act to incorporate the Town of Dartmouth, 1873 c17

(Passed the 30th day of April, A. D., 1873.)

SECTION.
1. Boundary of the municipality of the Town of Dartmouth.
2. Division of the town into wards.
3. Council.
4. Qualification of candidates for office of Warden or Councillor.
5. Persons qualified to vote.
6. Election of Warden and Councillor.
7. Senior Councillor to retire each year. Persons elected refusing to serve forefeit $40. Proviso.
8. Appointment of Election Officers.
9. Electors must produce receipts for Poor and County rates.
10. Nomination of Candidates.
11. Opening and closing of polls.
12. Vote by ballot.
13. Ballot boxes.
14. Illegal ballots.
15. No officer to interfere with voter. Penalty.
16. Manner of proceeding when too many ballots in any box.
17. Poll list. Declaration of number of votes.
18. Vote of Presiding Officer.
19. Notice of closing poll.
20. Penalty for illegally voting.
21. Penalty for offering forged receipt or
22. Presiding Officer to make a return of votes.
23. Declaration. Equality of votes.
24. Result of election to be published in Royal Gazette.
25. Swearing in. Form of oath of office.
26. Duties of Warden.
27. Duties of the Council.
28. Further duties, powers, and authority, of Council.
29. Meetings of Council.
30. Presiding officer at meetings.
31. Council to appoint Town Officers
32. Duties of Town Clerk
33. Duties of Officers to be set out in bye-laws.
34. Council to make rules, regulations and bye-laws.
35. Certain property vested in town.
36. The Town to be a separate school section.
37. Certain districts to be part of town for school purposes.
38. Auditors.
39. Council to pass accounts after report of Auditor.
40. Statement of Auditors to be printed.
41. Council to have regulations of all moneys in Treasury.
42. Annual meeting of rate-payers. Warden to report on state and condition of Town.
43. Issuing of debentures.
44. Payment of interest. Debentures when redeemable.
45. Such debentures free from taxation
46. Sinking fund.
47. Polling District No. 31.
48. Council authorized to carry out existing contracts.

Be it enacted by the Governor, Council, and Assembly, as follows:

Boundary of the municipality of the Town of Dartmouth:
1. A municipality shall be erected within the County of Halifax, to be bounded as follows, that is to say: Beginning on the eastern side of the Harbor of Halifax, at a point in such Harbor distant three hundred feet Westerly from the SouthWestern corner of a lot of land formerly owned by Judge Johnston and by him conveyed to John Esdaile; thence to run Eastwardly till it strikes the road leading to the property of the late John Esson; thence by the Southern side of such road and following the course thereof Eastwardly to such Esson property ; thence along the Western boundary of such property, Southwardly to the South-Western corner thereof; thence Eastwardly to Gaston’s Road, and crossing such road to a point at right angles with the extension of a new road laid out by J. W. Watt through Manor Hill Farm; thence Northwardly to such road and by such road for the length thereof; thence Northwardly to the causeway at Hurley’s on the First Lake; thence Northwardly to the North-East boundary of Stair’s Ropewalk property; thence Westwardly to a point three hundred feet into the Harbor of Halifax; and thence Southwardly to the place of beginning; to be called and known as the “Town of Dartmouth”.

Division of the Town into Wards:
2. The Town shall be divided into three Wards :

Ward Number One.

To include all that portion of the Town lying to the South of a line through the centre of Portland Street to the Bridge, and of a line through the centre of the road leading from the Bridge to Hurley’s at the Lake.

Ward Number Two.

All that portion of the Town lying to the North of such lines and to the South of a line through the centre of Gaetz Road and of a line through the centre of Ochterlony Street.

Ward Number Three.

All that portion of the Town lying to the North of the line through the centre of Ochterlony Street and Gaetz Road, and South of the Northern boundary of the Town.

Dartmouth, 1878, showing the division of its three wards.
Dartmouth, 1878, showing the division of its three wards. “Map of the Town of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia”, H. W. Hopkins. https://archives.novascotia.ca/maps/archives/?ID=1005

Council:
3. The Town shall be a corporation and shall be governed by a Council to consist of a Warden and six Councillors, residents of the Town, to be elected by the rate-payers thereof. Such Warden and Councillors shall be ex officio Justices of the Peace within the limits of the Town.

Qualification of Candidates for office of Warden or Councillor:
4. The qualification of a candidate for the office of Warden or Councillor shall be the possession of one thousand dollars, real and personal property beyond any amount he may justly owe.

Persons qualified to vote:
5. All male residents of the Town who shall have been so for at least one year next previous to the election, being natural born or naturalized subjects of Her Majesty of the full age of twenty one years, and who shall have been assessed for Poor or County rates within the limits of the Town for the year previous and paid the same, or who though resident out of the Town shall own real estate therein, on which they shall have been assessed and paid the rates, shall be entitled and qualified to vote at any election for Warden or Councillor.

Election of Wardens and Councillors:
6. The election for Warden and Councillors shall be held Election of on the first Tuesday of May, in the present and each succeeding year. Two Councillors, to hold office for two years, shall be elected by each Ward ; and the Warden to hold office for one year, by all the Wards. The Warden and one Councillor from each Ward shall go out of office at the end of each year, but shall be eligible for re-election.

Senior councillors to retire each year, Persons elected refusing to serve to forfeir $40, Proviso:
7. At the close of the first year, the Warden shall draw lots to determine which of the Councillors for each Ward shall retire. In succeeding years the senior Councillor of each Ward shall retire. Any person elected as Warden or Councillor, and refusing to serve, shall forfeit the sum of Forty Dollars to the refusing to serve use of the Town. Provided that no Warden or Councillor, who shall have served for one term, shall be subject to fine for non-acceptance of office on re-election, until the expiration of three years from the date of his first election.

Appointment of election officers:
8. The first election shall be conducted by a presiding officer to be appointed by the Governor in Council who shall appoint a deputy presiding Officer and Inspector and Poll Clerk for each Ward. Succeeding elections shall be conducted by presiding Officers and Inspectors to be named by the Council, together with a Poll Clerk’ for each Ward. Notice of the time and place of holding elections shall be posted up, in the case of the first election by the presiding Officer, and of succeeding elections by the Council in two of the most public places in each Ward of the Town for ten days previous to the holding of any such election.

Electors must produce receipts for Poor and County rates:
9. Any person offering to vote at any such election shall produce to the officer presiding at such election his receipt for poor and county rates for the year previous, and the production of such receipt shall decide his eligibility to vote at such election.

Nomination of candidates:
10. All candidates for the offices of Warden and Councillors shall be proposed in writing by two rate-payers; the Councillors by rate-payers residents of the Ward for which the Councillors are to be elected, and their names shall be handed in at the first election to the presiding officer appointed by the Governor in Council, and in succeeding elections to the Town Clerk, at least three days previous to the holding of any such election; and the presiding officer and Town Clerk shall post up the names of the candidates in one conspicuous place outside and one inside where the said elections shall be held, and shall also furnish the names of candidates for Warden and Councillors for the several Wards to any rate-payer desiring the same.

Opening and closing of polls:
11. The polls shall be opened at nine of the clock in the morning, and closed at four in the afternoon; but they may be earlier closed by proclamation, if no vote be polled within the hour.

Vote by ballot:
12 The votes shall be given at the election by ballot. The ballot shall be a paper ticket which shall contain in writing or printing or partly written and partly printed the name of the person for whom the elector intends to vote, designating on the back the office which the person named inside is intended to fill. Each voter shall deliver his ballot folded up to the inspector. The inspector shall ascertain that the ballot is single, without reading it, and shall then deposit it without delay in the ballot-box.

Ballot Boxes:
13. There shall be in the charge of the officer presiding one or more ballot-boxes. When the Warden and Councillors are to be elected, there shall be two ballot-boxes in each Ward, to receive separate ballots from each voter for the different offices.

Illegal ballots:
14. No ballot shall contain more names than there are persons to be chosen to the office, no ballot shall be rejected because found in a box to which it does not belong, if otherwise correct, but a ballot if double or containing more names than legal, shall be rejected.

No officer to interfere with voter, Penalty:
15. No officer presiding at any election nor any poll clerk or inspector or officer of the Town present thereat, shall give to any voter any ballot to vote with, or offer or give him any advice as to the person for whom he should vote, or otherwise interfere with the voter in the exercise of his franchise. Any such presiding officer, poll clerk, inspector or officer offending against this section shall forfeit for every offence, a sum not exceeding twenty dollars, to be recovered by any person in the Police Court, or imposed as a fine in the Police Court upon complaint and proof by any person present at such election.

Manner of proceeding when too many ballots in any box:
16. On opening the boxes, if it is found that the ballots in any of the boxes exceed the number of votes entered on the poll list, the ballots of that box shall be returned and well mingled; and then the presiding Officer shall draw out publicly as many of them without looking at them as equals the excess and destroy them at once.

Poll list, Declaration of number of votes:
17. The name of each elector voting at such election shall be written in a poll list to be kept at such election by the Poll Clerk and immediately after the final close of the poll, all the votes given in each Ward, being sorted and counted and publicly declared by the presiding Officer and Inspectors, shall be Declaration of recorded at large by the Poll Clerk, and in making such declaration and record the whole number of votes or ballots given in shall be distinctly stated, together with the name of every person voted for and the number of votes given for each person respectively, and the presiding Officer shall proceed publicly to declare the persons having the majority of votes in heir favor to be duly elected.

Vote of Presiding officer:
18. If there shall be at the final closing of the poll, an equal number of votes polled for two or more persons, the presiding Officer shall give a vote for one or other of the persons having such equality of votes in order to give a majority to one of them; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the presiding Officer from voting previously to the close of the poll in the same manner as other citizens may vote, and in case of his being entitled to vote in any Ward other than that in which he shall be appointed to preside, he may give such vote by proxy—such proxy being in writing and signed and having the receipt for taxes of the presiding officer so voting by proxy annexed thereto.

Notice of closing poll:
19. The presiding officer may at any time give public notice that unless some voter shall come forward to poll within an hour the poll will be closed, and if no voter comes forward within the hour, the poll shall then be finally closed.

Penalty for illegally voting:
20. Any person knowingly and wilfully voting at any election held under this Act when not entitled so to vote ; any person voting in a ward in which he is not entitled to vote ; any person fraudulently putting in more than one ballot when voting; and any person who shall vote in more than one Ward at any such election shall for every such offence forfeit and pay to the Town a sum not less than eight dollars nor more than twenty dollars to be recovered in the name of the Town of Dartmouth in the Police Court; and in default of payment after conviction shall be committed to the County Jail for a term not less than thirty days nor more than six months.

Penalty for offering forged receipt or voting under an assumed name:
21. If any person at an election, for the purpose of giving a vote shall knowingly and fraudulently offer a forged or altered receipt for his rates and taxes or such a receipt or certificate, under assumed belonging to another person, as his own, or shall vote falsely under the assumed name and character of any voter; he shall forfeit and pay to the Town not less than eight nor more than forty dollars to be recovered in the name of the Town of Dartmouth at the Police Office, and in default of payment shall be imprisoned for not less than one month nor more than six months, and in every such case shall be incapable of voting or holding office in the Town for seven years next after the offence.

Presiding Officer to make a return of votes:
22. The Officer presiding at every election shall on or before the next day make a return, in the case of the first election to the Presiding Officer, and of subsequent elections to the Town Clerk, of the names of the persons having the majority of votes and declared by him elected, and when an election of Warden takes place, a return also of the names of the candidates and of the number of votes given for each.

Declarations, Equality of votes:
23. In the first election of Warden, the Presiding Officer, in succeeding elections, the Council, shall in public cause the returns to be read and the votes for each candidate summed up and the person who has the greatest number of votes in his favor shall be declared to be the Warden on the day of the election or the day following. In case of an equality of votes for Warden, at the first election, the presiding officer, at succeeding elections the officer presiding in Council, shall by his casting vote decide which of the candidates shall be Warden.

Result of election to be published in the Royal Gazette:
24. The result of every election respectively of Warden and Councillors shall be published in the next Royal Gazette newspaper after the election.

Swearing in:
25. The Warden and Councillors shall before entering upon the duties of their offices respectively be sworn by taking and subscribing the oath of allegiance and oath of office. These oaths shall be administered to the Warden elect before the Custos of the County or in his absence before two Justices of the Peace for the County. The Councillors shall be sworn to these oaths by the Warden or presiding Councillor, a certificate of such oaths having been taken shall be entered by the Town Clerk in the Town minutes. The oath of office shall be as
follows:

Form of oath of office:
“I, A. B. do swear that I am duly qualified as required by law for the office of —– that I am seized or possessed as the owner in my own right and for my own use and benefit of real or personal estate in the Town of Dartmouth of the value of one thousand dollars beyond the amount of my just debts; and that I have not obtained the same by fraud or collusion to qualify myself for office, and I swear that I will faithfully perform the duties of —– while I hold the office, with diligence and impartiality to the best of my ability. So help me God.”
The blanks shall be filled up with the name of office before the oath is taken or subscribed.

Duties of Warden:
26. The Warden shall be the head of the Council, and the head and Chief Executive officer of the town; and it shall be his duty to be vigilant and active at all times in causing the law for the government of the town to be duly executed and put in force; to inspect the conduct of all subordinate officers in the government thereof, and, as far as may be in his power, to cause all negligence, carelessness, and positive violation of duty to be duly prosecuted and punished-; and to communicate from time to time to the Council all such information, and recommend all such measures, as may tend to the improvement of the finances, the Police, health, security, cleanliness, comfort and appearance of the town.

Duties of the Council:
27. It shall be the duty of the Council to assist the Warden in the discharge of his duties, and to appoint one or more of the members to be a committee to oversee the different public services of the town, who shall at each quarterly meeting report the state of the services committed to their charge. The Council shall have power to control the making, maintaining and improving the roads and streets of the town, and the laying out new ones if necessary.
To direct and enforce the performance of the statute labor, and to control the expenditure of the commutation money. They shall have jurisdiction over all the property of the town, which they shall protect :
Over the support and regulation of the public schools, and the appointment of the teachers :
The support of the Poor :
The licensing the sale of Intoxicating Liquors :
Fixing the rate of Licenses :
Regulating the Assessments :
Collecting the Assessments :
The making all contracts relative to matters under their control, which contracts, after having been duly considered by the Council, shall be signed by the Warden and countersigned by the clerk :
The appointing of all subordinate officers of the town, fixing the amount of their remuneration, and the time and mode of paying them :
The returns of Assessors and Collectors, and the appointing of Presiding Officers, and the regulating the conduct of elections.

Further duties, powers, and authority of Council:
28. They shall vote, assess, collect, receive, appropriate, and pay whatever moneys are required for County Assessments, poor, school and other rates and assessments, and shall have, within the Town, all the powers relating thereto, vested in the Sessions, Grand Jury, School Meeting and Town Meeting; and shall have and exercise within the Town all the powers and authority which within the district, previous to the passing of this Act of Incorporation, where exercised by the Sessions, Grand Jury, or Town or School Meeting, or Trustees of Schools and Public Property. They shall also have the power of enforcing due observance of the Lord’s Day, of preventing vice, drunkenness, profane swearing, obscene language, and every other species of immorality in the public streets and roads, and all places within the bounds of such Town; and of preserving peace and good order in such streets and roads, taverns, and other places, and of preventing the sale of intoxicating liquors to Indians, minors and apprentices, and of preventing the excessive beating, or cruel and inhuman treatment of animals, and of restraining and punishing all vagabonds, drunkards and beggars, and all persons found drunk or disorderly in any street, road, or public highway, in the Town :
Also, the providing for any other purpose, matter or thing specially subjected to the control of the Council by any law or bye-law of the Town ; but no bye-law shall impose any penalty exceeding Eighty Dollars; and the Council may, by a bye-law, impose a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months in default of payment of such fine.

Meetings of Council:
29. There shall be held every year four quarterly meetings of the Council, and special meetings to be called by the Warden as often as necessary.

Presiding officer at meeting:
30. The Warden, when present, shall preside at all meetings, and, in his absence, the Council shall elect a presiding officer for the time being, from among themselves.

Council to appoint Town Officers:
31. The Council shall annually appoint a Clerk, Treasurer, Police and Stipendiary Magistrate, Assessors, Overseers of Poor, Health Officers, Clerk of Licenses, Superintendent of Streets and Commons, Collectors of Poor, County, School, and other rates and assessments, Firewards and Fire Constables, Police Constables, Clerks of Markets and Measurers and Weighers, and every other officer from time to time deemed necessary to the due performance and carrying on the
business of the Town and the preservation of order.

Duties of Town Clerk:
32. The Town Clerk shall, until the Council shall declare otherwise by some bye-law to be by them passed therefor, perform the duties appertaining to the office of Treasurer, Clerk of Overseers of Poor, Clerk of License, Collector of School, Poor, County and other rates and assessments, and all other duties that may be from time to time required of him by the Council.

Duties of officers to be set out in bye-laws:
33. The duties of the various officers shall be specifically to be set out in set out in the bye-laws of the Town.

Council to make rules, regulations and bye-laws.
34. The Council shall also have power to make, and from time to time, to alter and repeal all such bye-laws, rules and regulations, as may be necessary for the conduct and good order of their proceedings, the direction of the Town Clerk and all other officers, and touching all matters within their authority, including the altering, limiting, or modifying the mode in which the labor on the Streets and roads shall be performed or of substituting assessment in lieu thereof, of the performance of labor on the said streets and roads, as they may judge proper, and shall make all rules necessary for the creating and for the conduct, management and regulation of the Police and Municipal Court of the Town and for the regulating the mode of assessment, and of levying the same, and shall also make all regulations necessary for holding elections to supply vacancies occurring within the year in the office of Warden or Councillors, which rules, bye-laws and regulations, when approved of by the Governor in Council, shall have the force of law.

Certain property vested in Town:
35. The Common of Dartmouth, the School House and all property, real and personal, which at the passing of this Act of Incorporation shall be public property or shall have been held in trust for the Town of Dartmouth, shall on the passing of this Act vest in and become the property of the Town.

The Town to be a separate school section:
36. After the passing of this Act the Town shall be set off The Town to be into a separate School Section, and the Town shall have the expenditure of all school rates raised within its limits for the schools of the Town, as also of all Government and School grants for such schools, which grants shall be paid to the Town.

Certain districts to form part of town for school purposes:
37. For all school purposes the district lying between the Northern boundary of the Town and the lands of the British to Government and the district lying between the Southern boundary of the Town and Herbert’s Brook, shall form part of the “Town of Dartmouth,” and the Town shall be entitled to receive and be paid the proportion of the Government School grants, payable in respect of such districts, and to impose and levy the County School assessments and all school taxes on such districts and collect the same in the same manner as if such districts formed part of such Town.

Auditors:
38. The Council shall annually appoint two Auditors. No Auditors. one who during the preceding year shall have been a member of the Council or a contractor or officer appointed by the Council (except an Auditor) shall be eligible. The Auditors shall examine and report upon all accounts affecting the Town or relating to any matter under its control, or within its jurisdiction for the year preceding their appointment. The Auditors shall prepare an abstract of the receipts, expenditures and liabilities of the Town, and also a detailed statement of such particulars in such form as the Council shall direct, and shall report in duplicate on all the accounts audited by them, and shall file such report in the office of the Clerk of the Council within one month after their appointment, and thereafter one copy shall be open to the inspection of any rate-payer at all seasonable hours, and he may by himself or his agent at his own expense take a copy thereof or extract therefrom.

Council to pass accounts after report of auditors:
39. The Council shall, upon the report of the Auditors, finally pass and allow the accounts of the Treasurer and Collectors and all accounts chargeable against the Corporation, and in cases of charges not regulated by law or bye-laws the Council shall allow what is reasonable.

Statement of Auditors to be printed:
40. The Town Clerk shall print and publish the Auditors abstract and shall also publish the detailed statement in such form as the Council shall direct.

Council to have regulating of all moneys in Treasury:
41. The Council shall have the regulating and ordering of all moneys to be paid out of funds in the hands of the Treasurer.

Annual meeting of ratepayers, Warden to report on state and condition of Town:
42. The Council shall in each year convene a public meeting of the rate-payers of the town, to be holden at such time, not later than one week previous to the annual election of Councillors, and at such place as the bye-laws may designate, at which meeting the accounts of the year, as audited, shall be produced if called for, and the Council shall, through the Warden to rereport to the meeting the state and condition of the condition of Town, and the efficiency of the several departments; and shall recommend to the meeting any proposed improvements and alterations, and shall furnish an approximate estimate of the expenses of all kinds required to be incurred for the current year, including the County rates of the Town, for the incoming year, and the amount required to be raised to defray the same, for which sum the incoming Council shall assess and shall also recommend any additional sum required to meet any contemplated extraordinary services or improvements; and the ratepayers may, by a vote of a majority present, affirm such expenditure, and the Council shall, at their next ensuing meeting, pass a bye-law imposing a rate to meet such extraordinary expenditure so affirmed, or shall raise the required amount by the issue of bonds or debentures of the town, and by assessment make provision for meeting the interest.

Issuing of debentures:
43. The Council shall be authorized and empowered upon a vote of a majority of the rate-payers present at the annual public meeting, to issue debentures under the hand of the Warden, and any two or more of the Councillors, and under the seal of the Town and countersigned by the Clerk, for the purpose of raising the necessary funds for the purchase of any property, or the erection of any building for the town or the carrying out any municipal work or improvement.

Payment of interest, Debentures when redeemable:
44. Such debentures shall bear interest at the rate of Six Dollars by the hundred by the year, payable half-yearly, and shall be redeemable at periods to be expressed in such debentures, not exceeding twenty years from the date of issuing the same, and shall not be issued for a less sum than One Hundred Dollars each. The debentures shall be made payable to the respective holders thereof, and the Town shall be at liberty to pay and redeem any of such debentures after the expiration of five years from the date thereof, upon giving the holders six months’ notice.

Such debentures free from taxation:
45. Such Debentures shall be free from municipal taxation.

Sinking Fund:
46. The Council shall, on the request of a majority of the rate-payers at any annual meeting after the issue of any bonds or debentures, make provision for forming a Sinking Fund for paying off such bonds or debentures.

Polling District No. 31:
47. All that part of Polling District number Thirty-one, lying outside of the boundary of the town of Dartmouth, as hereby incorporated, shall for all County, Town, and Poor purposes be still considered and known as District number Thirty
one.

Council authorized to carry out existing contracts:
48. And whereas the rate payers of Dartmouth have previously to the passing of this Act authorized the purchase of certain property, known as the Presbyterian Church property, for the use of the Town, and also the construction of certain water tanks and ponds for fire purposes, the Council are hereby empowered to carry out all contracts, engagements, and agreements heretofore made bona fide, and to provide for the payment of all liabilities heretofore incurred and entered into on behalf of the Town by assessment or the issue of Debentures.

“An Act to incorporate the Town of Dartmouth”, 1873 c17