Ord. 7-1848. this Colony in general: And whereas it is expedient in order that other and more suitable provisions should be substituted for such portions of the regulations aforesaid as have become obsolete or inapplicable that the said regulations should be wholly repealed and the substance of such of them as it is desirable to preserve expressly re-enacted: Be it therefore enacted by the Governor of Previous laws rethe Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, that the said church regulations of the 25th of July, 1804, and all other laws or customs heretofore in force in this Colony so far as the same are repugnant to or inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Ordinance shall be and the same are hereby repealed. pealed. No government church contributions of right. 2. And be it enacted and declared that no religious community or denomination within this Colony is or shall be entitled to claim to be demandable as as matter of right from or out of Her Majesty's revenue in this Colony any pecuniary contribution or allowance for or towards the support of the ministry of any such community or denomination or any other object whatsoever, and that all such sums as shall from time to time be granted from and out of the said revenue to or in behalf of any such community or denomination shall be deemed to be merely voluntary and gratuitous, and as such to be at all times and exclusively under the absolute disposition and control of Government, and revocable at Her Majesty's will and pleasure. Previous regulations of Dutch church 3. And whereas it is expedient that the religious community or denomination commonly called the Dutch Reformed Church in repealed. South Africa should be invested with the power of regulating its own internal affairs: And whereas the general assembly or synod of the said church is the natural and proper ecclesiastical authority by which rules and regulations for the government of the said church in its own internal affairs may rightfully be made: And whereas the last general assembly or synod of the said church which was held in Cape Town in the month of November, 1842, did agree upon and desire to have duly authorised and established a number of rules and regulations having for their object the proper direction and management of the said church in its own internal affairs: And whereas it is expedient in order to prevent delay and inconvenience that the said last-mentioned rules and regulations should with some exceptions be forthwith established and declared to form and be the rules and regulations for the time being of the said church: Be it enacted that all former rules and regulations for the government of the said church whensoever and by whomsoever made shall be and the same are hereby declared to be repealed, and that the several rules and regulations in the schedule to this Ordinance contained shall be, and the same are hereby declared to be the rules and regulations for the time being of the said church and shall be duly observed as such. Ord. 7-1843. or improve rules, &c. 4. And be it enacted that it shall be lawful for the general General assembly assembly or synod of the said church from time to time duly or synod may alter assembled, and proceeding in conformity with the rules or regulations for the time being in regard to the manner and form of altering, enlarging, or improving church laws and ordinances to add to, annul, alter, enlarge, or improve the rules and regulations contained in the said schedule and any further or other rules and regulations which may from time to time be successively established Provided, always, that any rule or regulation of the said general assembly or synod repugnant to or inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Ordinance shall be null and void. 5. [Repealed by Ord. 16, 1845.] Doctrine and gov church. 6. And be it enacted that the said Dutch Reformed Church ernment of the shall be and remain a church exercising its discipline and government by consistories, presbyteries, and a general assembly or synod and acknowledging, receiving, and professing in regard to the doctrine thereof the doctrines contained in the confession of the synod of Dort and in the Heidelberg catechism; and if any questions or divisions respecting church government discipline, or doctrine should hereafter arise between any members or reputed members of the said church or of any congregation, consistory, presbytery, or general assembly of the same then those persons adhering to and professing respectively the said discipline and government and the doctrines of the said confession and catechism shall be deemed and taken as against all persons who shall adhere to and profess any different discipline, government, or doctrines to be the true congregation, consistory, presbytery, or general assembly as the case may be of the said church, and as such of right entitled to the possession and enjoyment of any funds, endowments, or other property or rights by law belonging to the said church or to the congregation, consistory, presbytery, or general assembly in which any such questions or divisions shall have arisen. Constitution general assembly. of 7. And be it enacted that the general assembly or synod of the said church shall at all times be composed of all acting ministers of the said church and an acting or retired elder to be nominated by each consistory, but the consistory of Cape Town may at all times nominate two elders. Force of rules and regulations. 8. And be it enacted that no rule or regulations of the said church whether contained in the schedule to this Ordinance or to be afterwards framed shall have or possess any direct or inherent power whatever to affect in any way the persons or properties of any persons whomsoever; but all such rules and regulations shall be regarded in law in like manner as the rules and regulations of a merely voluntary association, and shall be capable of affecting the persons or properties of such persons only as shall be found in the course of any action or suit before any competent Court to have subscribed, agreed to, adopted or recognized, the said rules and regulations or some of them in such manner as to be bound thereby in virtue of the ordinary legal principles applicable to cases of express or implied contract. Ord. 7-1843. legal proceedings for 9. And be it enacted that no person or persons composing, Protection against complaining to, or giving testimony before any duly constituted things done in church judicatory of the said church shall be liable to any action, suit, or proceedings. proceeding at law, civil or criminal, at the instance of any member of the said church for or on account of any matter or thing written or spoken by any such person or persons bonâ fide and without malice in reference to or upon the occasion of any scandal, offence, or other matter, real or alleged, which by the rules and regulations of the said church for the time being should be reported to any such judicatory and which any such judicatory is empowered to investigate, nor shall any action, suit, or proceeding at law be instituted for the purpose of preventing any such judicatory from pronouncing in the case of any scandal or offence which shall be brought before it and proved to its satisfaction such spiritual censure as may in that behalf be appointed by the said church or for the purpose of claiming any damages or relief in regard to such censures if the same shall have been pronounced. Actions by and 10. And be it enacted that it shall be lawful for the person or persons in whom by the rules and regulations of the said church whom church profor the time being the possession or administration of any build- perty vested. ings, lands, funds, moneys, goods, or effects belonging to any congregation or presbytery, or to the general assembly shall respectively be vested to sue and be sued in all actions and suits relating to any matter or thing by any such officer or officers respectively possessed or administered as if the same were his or their private property, and in any criminal proceeding the property of any of the matters or things aforesaid may be laid in the person or persons who in any civil action or suit might sue or be sued in respect thereof. SCHEDULE. [As the synod has the power from time to time to annul, or alter rules, the regulations in this Schedule are omitted. See § 4 supra.] No. 8.] [Nov. 22, 1843. Ordinance for improving the Public Roads of the Colony. [Repealed by Act No. 9, 1858.] No. 1.] [Jan. 30, 1844. Ordinance for creating a Police Superannuation Fund. [Repealed by Act 12, 1874.] Laws repealed. Limits of municipality how to be fixed. Limits already fixed. What householdors entitled to fix regulations. No. 2.-Sd. George Napier.] WHEREAS doubts entertained in regard to the limits. which according to the provisions of the Ordinance No. 9, 1836, entituled "An Ordinance for the creation of Municipal Boards in the Towns and Villages of this Colony on which the Local Regulations of each shall be founded," may lawfully be assigned to any municipality constituted and established under and by virtue of the said Ordinance: And whereas it is expedient to remove the said doubts and to amend the said Ordinance in other respects: Be it therefore enacted by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, that every matter or thing in the said Ordinance contained repugnant to or inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Ordinance shall be repealed, and the same is hereby repealed accordingly. 2. And be it enacted that it shall and may be lawful for the committee in the said Ordinance mentioned in framing and drawing up the municipal regulations for framing and drawing which such committee has been elected and appointed to fix the limits of the municipality at and by such convenient boundaries, whether beyond or within the extent in any direction of one mile from the certain central place in the first section of the said Ordinance mentioned as the said committee shall choose and determine. 3. And be it enacted that no limits fixed for any municipality in and by any municipal regulations duly published before the promulgation of this Ordinance shall be deemed or taken to be illegal or invalid by reason that the said limits go beyond or fall short in any direction of the extent of one mile from the certain central place in the first section of the said Ordinance mentioned. 4. And be it enacted that the meeting of resident householders. in the eighth section of the said Ordinance mentioned to which the municipal regulations framed and drawn up by the committee or any amendment of such regulations made under and by virtue of the tenth section of the said Ordinance by the Governor of the Colony for the time being by and with the advice of the Executive Council shall be submitted, shall be a meeting of householders resident within the limits fixed by the said committee, and every other meeting of resident householders directed or contemplated by any succeeding section of the said Ordinance, shall be convened 'Made perpetual by Act No. 15, 1860. See note to Ord. 9, 1836. See Act 45, 1882, and composed of the resident householders within the limits fixed for the municipality by the municipal regulations for the time being. Ord, 3-184 nance 9 of 1836 re 5. And be it enacted that so much of the eleventh section of Section 11 of Ordi the said Ordinance as is comprised in the words following, that is pealed in part. to say, "that at any time within one month after the expiration of each and every year from the publication of any such regulations as aforesaid," be repealed, and the same is hereby repealed accordingly. 6. () And be it enacted that the paying of taxes to the amount of six shillings sterling per annum or any other amount shall from and after the promulgation of this Ordinance cease to be a qualification of the resident householders in the first section of the said Ordinance mentioned, and that in lieu and stead of such qualification the qualification in the forty-eighth section of the said Ordinance mentioned shall be substituted as if the same were in the said first section set forth and described. Qualification householder. Qualification commissioner. 7. And be it enacted that the being proprietor of a house within the municipality and the paying annually a sum of not less than one pound sterling in taxes shall from and after the promulgation of this Ordinance cease to be a qualification to be elected a commissioner for the purposes of the said Ordinance, and that henceforth any person being the proprietor of immovable property situated within such municipality of the value of not less than three hundred pounds, and no other shall be qualified and eligible to be elected a commissioner for the purpose of the said Ordinance. 8. And be it enacted that no commissioner heretofore elected in Elections of com any municipality for the purpose of the said Ordinance shall be m deemed or taken to have been illegally or improperly elected by reason merely that he did not possess either the qualification in the forty-eighth section of the said Ordinance mentioned or the qualification by the last preceding section of this Ordinanee substituted in its stead. missioners already No. 3.-Sd. George Napier.] [January 30, 1844. Ordinance for amending the Law relating to the Rights of Execution Creditors. WHEREAS by the law of this Colony all creditors whose writs of execution against the property of their debtor, are lodged with the Sheriff or other proper officer for executing such writs at any time before the proceeds realized in respect of the earliest or other of such writs shall have been paid over by the said Sheriff or other officer to the party or parties entitled thereto, are entitled to rank 1 But see § 7, Act 13, 1861. |