Present Irish Questions Part 17

(3) In this section the expression 'administration' means probate or letters of administration, and as respects Scotland, confirmation inclusive of the inventory required under the Acts relating to the said stamp duty, and the expression 'personalty' means personal or movable estate and effects.

[Sidenote: Money bills and votes.]

=18.=--(1) Bills for appropriating any part of the public revenue or for imposing any tax shall originate in the Legislative a.s.sembly.

(2) It shall not be lawful for the Legislative a.s.sembly to adopt or pa.s.s any vote, resolution, address, or Bill for the appropriation for any purpose of any part of the public revenue of Ireland, or of any tax, except in pursuance of a recommendation from the Lord-Lieutenant in the Session in which such vote, resolution, address, or Bill is proposed.

[Sidenote: Exchequer judges for revenue actions, elections pet.i.tions, etc.]

=19.=--(1) Two of the judges of the Supreme Court in Ireland shall be Exchequer judges, and shall be appointed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom; and their salaries and pensions shall be charged on and paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.

(2) The Exchequer judges shall be removable only by Her Majesty on address from the two Houses of Parliament, and each such judge shall, save as otherwise provided by Parliament, receive the same salary and be ent.i.tled to the same pension as is at the time of his appointment fixed for the puisne judges of the Supreme Court, and during his continuance in office his salary shall not be diminished, nor his right to pension altered, without his consent.

(3) An alteration of any rules relating to such legal proceedings as are mentioned in this section shall not be made except with the approval of Her Majesty the Queen in Council; and the sittings of the Exchequer judges shall be regulated with the like approval.

(4) All legal proceedings in Ireland, which are inst.i.tuted at the instance of or against the Treasury or Commissioners of Customs, or any of their officers, or relate to the election of members to serve in Parliament, or touch any matter within the powers of the Irish Legislature, or touch any matter affected by a law which the Irish Legislature have not power to repeal or alter, shall, if so required by any party to such proceedings, be heard and determined before the Exchequer judges or (except where the case requires to be determined by two judges) before one of them, and in any such legal proceeding an appeal shall, if any party so requires, lie from any Court of first instance in Ireland to the Exchequer judges, and the decision of the Exchequer judges shall be subject to appeal to Her Majesty the Queen in Council and not to any other tribunal.

(5) If it is made to appear to an Exchequer judge that any decree or judgment in any such proceeding as aforesaid has not been duly enforced by the sheriff or other officer whose duty it is to enforce the same, such judge shall appoint some officer whose duty it shall be to enforce the judgment or decree; and for that purpose such officer and all persons employed by him shall be ent.i.tled to the same privileges, immunities, and powers as are by law conferred on a sheriff and his officers.

(6) The Exchequer judges, when not engaged in hearing and determining such legal proceedings as above in this section mentioned, shall perform such of the duties ordinarily performed by other judges of the Supreme Court in Ireland as may be a.s.signed by Her Majesty the Queen in Council.

(7) All sums recovered by the Treasury or the Commissioners of Customs or any of their officers, or recovered under any Act relating to duties of Customs, shall, notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be paid to such public account as the Treasury or the Commissioners direct.

_Post Office, Postal Telegraphs, and Savings Banks._

[Sidenote: Transfer of post office and postal telegraphs.]

=20.=--(1) As from the _appointed day_ the postal and telegraph service in Ireland shall be transferred to the Irish Government, and may be regulated by Irish Act, except as in this Act mentioned and except as regards matters relating--

(_a_) To such conditions of the transmission or delivery of postal packets and telegrams as are incidental to the duties on postage; or

(_b_) To foreign mails or submarine telegraphs or through lines in connection therewith; or

(_c_) To any other postal or telegraph business in connection with places out of the United Kingdom.

(2) The administration of or incidental to the said excepted matters shall, save as may be otherwise arranged with the Irish Post Office, remain with the Postmaster-General.

(3) As regards the revenue and expenses of the postal and telegraph service, the Postmaster-General shall retain the revenue collected and defray the expenses incurred in Great Britain, and the Irish Post Office shall retain the revenue collected and defray the expenses incurred in Ireland, subject to the provisions of the Fourth Schedule to this Act; which schedule shall have full effect, but may be varied or added to by agreement between the Postmaster-General and the Irish Post Office.

(4) The sums payable by the Postmaster-General or Irish Post Office to the other of them in pursuance of this Act shall, if not paid out of Post-Office moneys, be paid from the Exchequer of the United Kingdom or of Ireland, as the case requires, to the other Exchequer.

[Sidenote: 26 & 27 Vict. c. 112.]

(5) Sections forty-eight to fifty-two of the Telegraph Act, 1863, and any enactment amending the same, shall apply to all telegraphic lines of the Irish Government in like manner as to the telegraphs of a company within the meaning of that Act.

[Sidenote: Transfer of savings banks]

=21.=--(1) As from the _appointed day_ there shall be transferred to the Irish Government the post-office savings banks in Ireland, and all such powers and duties of any department or officer in Great Britain as are connected with post-office savings banks, trustee savings banks, or friendly societies in Ireland, and the same may be regulated by Irish Act.

(2) The Treasury shall publish not less than six months previous notice of the transfer of savings banks.

(3) If before the date of the transfer any depositor in a post-office savings bank so requests, his deposit shall, according to his request, either be paid to him or transferred to a post-office savings bank in Great Britain, and after the said date the depositors in a post-office savings bank in Ireland shall cease to have any claim against the Postmaster-General or the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but shall have the like claim against the Government and Consolidated Fund of Ireland.

(4) If before the date of the transfer the trustees of any trustees savings bank so request, then, according to the request, either all sums due to them shall be repaid, and the savings bank closed, or those sums shall be paid to the Irish Government, and after the said date the trustees shall cease to have any claim against the National Debt Commissioners or the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, but shall have the like claim against the Government and Consolidated Fund of Ireland.

(5) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, if a sum due on account of any annuity or policy of insurance which has before the above-mentioned notice been granted through a post-office or trustee savings bank, is not paid by the Irish Government, that sum shall be paid out of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom.

_Irish Appeals and Decision of Const.i.tutional Questions._

[Sidenote: Irish appeals.]

=22.=--(1) The appeal from Courts in Ireland to the House of Lords shall cease; and where any person would, but for this Act, have a right to appeal from any Court in Ireland to the House of Lords, such person shall have the like right to appeal to Her Majesty the Queen in Council; and the right so to appeal shall not be affected by any Irish Act; and all enactments relating to appeals to Her Majesty the Queen in Council, and to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, shall apply accordingly.

[Sidenote: 39 & 40 Vict. c. 59]

(2) When the Judicial Committee sit for hearing appeals from a Court in Ireland, there shall be present not less than four Lords of Appeal, within the meaning of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, and at least one member who is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court in Ireland.

(3) A rota of privy councillors to sit for hearing appeals from Courts in Ireland shall be made annually by Her Majesty in Council, and the privy councillors, or some of them, on that rota shall sit to hear the said appeals. A casual vacancy in such rota during the year may be filled by Order in Council.

(4) Nothing in this Act shall affect the jurisdiction of the House of Lords to determine the claims to Irish peerages.

[Sidenote: Special provision for decision of const.i.tutional questions.]

=23.=--(1) If it appears to the Lord-Lieutenant or a Secretary of State expedient in the public interest that steps shall be taken for the speedy determination of the question whether any Irish Act, or any provision thereof, is beyond the power of the Irish Legislature, he may represent the same to Her Majesty in Council, and thereupon the said question shall be forthwith referred to and heard and determined by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, const.i.tuted as if hearing an appeal from a Court in Ireland.

(2) Upon the hearing of the question such persons as seem to the Judicial Committee to be interested may be allowed to appear and be heard as parties to the case, and the decision of the Judicial Committee shall be given in like manner as if it were the decision of an appeal, the nature of the report or recommendation to Her Majesty being stated in open Court.

(3) Nothing in this Act shall prejudice any other power of Her Majesty in Council to refer any question to the Judicial Committee, or the right of any person to pet.i.tion Her Majesty for such reference.

_Lord-Lieutenant and Crown Lands._

[Sidenote: Office of Lord-Lieutenant.]

=24.=--(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any Act, every subject of the Queen shall be qualified to hold the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, without reference to his religious belief.

(2) The term of office of the Lord-Lieutenant shall be _six years_, without prejudice to the power of Her Majesty the Queen at any time to revoke the appointment.

[Sidenote: Use of Crown lands by Irish Government.]

=25.= Her Majesty the Queen in Council may place under the control of the Irish Government, for the purposes of that Government, such of the lands and buildings in Ireland vested in or held in trust for Her Majesty, and subject to such conditions or restrictions (if any) as may seem expedient.

_Judges and Civil Servants._

[Sidenote: Tenure of future judges.]

=26.= A judge of the Supreme Court or other Superior Court in Ireland, or of any County Court or other Court with a like jurisdiction in Ireland, appointed after the pa.s.sing of this Act, shall not be removed from his office except in pursuance of an address from the two Houses of Legislature of Ireland, nor during his continuance in office shall his salary be diminished or right to pension altered without his consent.

[Sidenote: As to existing judges and other persons having salaries charged on the Consolidated Fund.]