The persons issuing writs under this section shall have the like powers as are possessed at the union by the officers charged with the issuing of writs for the election of members to serve in the respective house of assembly or legislative assembly of the province of Canada, Nova Scotia or New Brunswick; and the returning officers to whom writs are directed under this section shall have the like powers as are possessed at the union by the officers charged with the returning of writs for the election of members to serve in the same respective house of assembly or legislative assembly.

43. In case a vacancy in the representation in the house. of commons of any electoral district happens before the meeting of the parliament or after the meeting of the parliament before provision is made by the parliament in this behalf, the provisions of the last foregoing section of this act shall extend and apply to the issuing and returning of a writ in respect of such vacant district.

44. The house of commons, on its first assembling after a general election, shall proceed with all practicable speed to elect one of its members to be speaker.

45. In case of a vacancy happening in the office of speaker, by death, resignation or otherwise, the house of commons shall, with all practicable speed, proceed to elect another of its members to be speaker.

46. The speaker shall preside at all meetings of the house of commons.

47. Until the parliament of Canada otherwise provides, in case of the absence for any reason, of the speaker from the chair of the house of commons for a period of fortyeight consecutive hours, the house may elect another of its members to act as speaker, and the member so elected shall, during the continuance of such absence of the speaker, have and execute all the powers, privileges and duties of speaker.

48. The presence of at least twenty members of the house of commons shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of

the house for the exercise of its powers, and for that purpose the speaker shall be reckoned as a member.

49. Questions arising in the house of commons shall be decided by a majority of voices other than that of the speaker, and when the voices are equal, but not otherwise, the speaker shall have a vote.

50. Every house of commons shall continue for five years from the day of the return of the writs for choosing the house (subject to be sooner dissolved by the governor-general), and no longer.

51. On the completion of the census in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and of each subsequent decennial census, the representation of the four provinces shall be readjusted by such authority, in such manner, and from such time as the parliament of Canada from time to time provides, subject and according to the following rules: 1) Quebec shall have the fixed number of sixty-five members:

2) There shall be assigned to each of the other provinces such a number of members as will bear the same proportion to the number of its population (ascertained at such census) as the number of sixty-five bears to the number of the population of Quebec (so ascertained):

3) In the computation of the number of members for a province a fractional part not exceeding one-half of the whole number requisite for entitling the province to a member shall be disregarded; but a fractional part exceeding one-half of that number shall be equivalent to the whole number:

4) On any such readjustment the number of members for a province shall not be reduced unless the proportion which the number of the population of the province bore to the number of the aggregate population of Canada at the then last preceding readjustment of the number of members for the province is ascertained at the then latest census to be diminished by one-twentieth part or upwards:

5) Such readjustment shall not take effect until the termination of the then existing parliament.

52. The number of members of the house of commons may be from time to time increased by the parliament of Canada, provided the proportionate representation of the provinces prescribed by this act is not thereby disturbed.

Money Votes; Royal Assent

53. Bills for appropriating any part of the public revenue, or for imposing any tax or impost, shall originate in the house of commons.

54. It shall not be lawful for the house of commons to adopt or pass any vote, resolution, address, or bill for the appropriation of any part of the public revenue, or of any tax or impost, to any purpose that has not been first recommended to that house by message of the governor-general in the session in which such vote, resolution, address, or bill is proposed.

55. Where a bill passed by the houses of the parliament is presented to the governor-general for the queen's assent, he shall declare, according to his discretion, but subject to the provisions of this act and to her majesty's instructions, either that he assents thereto in the queen's name, or that he withholds the queen's assent, or that he reserves the bill for the signification of the queen's pleasure.

56. Where the governor-general assents to a bill in the queen's name, he shall by the first convenient opportunity send an authentic copy of the act to one of her majesty's principal secretaries of state, and if the queen in council within two years after receipt thereof by the secretary of state thinks fit to disallow the act, such disallowance (with a certificate of the secretary of state of the day on which the act was received by him) being signified by the governorgeneral, by speech or message to each of the houses of the

parliament or by proclamation, shall annul the act from and after the day of such signification.

57. A bill reserved for the signification of the queen's pleasure shall not have any force unless and until within two years from the day on which it was presented to the governor-general for the queen's assent, the governor-general signifies, by speech or message to each of the houses of the parliament or by proclamation, that it has received the assent of the queen in council.

An entry of every such speech, message or proclamation shall be made in the journal of each house, and a duplicate thereof duly attested shall be delivered to the proper officer to be kept among the records of Canada.

V. PROVINCIAL CONSTITUTIONS

EXECUTIVE POWER

58. For each province there shall be an officer, styled the lieutenant-governor, appointed by the governor-general in council by instrument under the great seal of Canada.

59. A lieutenant-governor shall hold office during the pleasure of the governor-general; but any lieutenant-governor appointed after the commencement of the first session of the parliament of Canada shall not be removable within five years from his appointment, except for cause assigned which shall be communicated to him in writing within one month after the order for his removal is made, and shall be communicated by message to the senate and to the house of commons, within one week thereafter if the parliament is then sitting, and if not then within one week after the commencement of the next session of the parliament.

60. The salaries of the lieutenant-governors shall be fixed and provided by the parliament of Canada.

61. Every lieutenant-governor shall, before assuming the duties of his office, make and subscribe before the governor

general or some person authorized by him, oaths of allegiance and office similar to those taken by the governor-general.

62. The provisions of this act referring to the lieutenantgovernor extend and apply to the lieutenant-governor for the time being of each province or other the chief executive officer or administrator for the time being carrying on the government of the province, by whatever title he is designated.

63. The executive council of Ontario and of Quebec shall be composed of such persons as the lieutenant-governor from time to time thinks fit, and in the first instance of the following officers, namely, the attorney-general, the secretary and registrar of the province, the treasurer of the province, the commissioner of crown lands, and the commissioner of agriculture and public works, with, in Quebec, the speaker of the legislative council and the solicitor-general.

64. The constitution of the executive authority in each of the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall, subject to the provisions of this act, continue as it exists at the union until altered under the authority of this act.

65. All powers, authorities and functions, which under any act of the parliament of Great Britain, or of the parliament of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the legislature of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, or Canada, were or are before or at the union vested in or exercisable by the respective governors or lieutenant-governors of those provinces, with the advice, or with the advice and consent, of the respective executive councils thereof, or in conjunction with those councils or with any number of members thereof, or by those governors or lieutenant-governors individually, shall, as far as the same are capable of being exercised after the union in relation to the government of Ontario and Quebec respectively, be vested in and shall or may be exercised by the lieutenant-governor of Ontario and Quebec respectively, with the advice or with the advice and consent of or in conjunction with the respective executive councils or