State Aid to Religion Abolition Act 1871

An Act to provide for the Abolition of State Aid to Religion.

From and after the thirty-first day of December One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five no moneys shall be set apart for the advancement of the Christian religion in Victoria under the provisions of the Fifty-third Section and for public worship under the Eighth Part of Schedule D of the "Constitution Act", and as from that day such provisions shall be and the same are hereby repealed.

In the construction and for the purposes of this Act the following terms shall if not inconsistent with the context or subject matter have the respective meanings hereby assigned to them, that is to say-

"the Governor" shall mean the person administering the government acting by and with the advice of the Executive Council;

"the Minister" shall mean the responsible Minister of the Crown administering this Act;

"denomination" shall mean any church religious body sect or congregation or the members of any church formed into or acting as a body of persons for religious purposes of what kind of faith or form of belief soever;

"head or authorised representative" shall mean the person accepted as such for the time being by the Governor;

"trustee" shall mean any person holding that office for the time being, whether named as such in the Crown grant or approved of or appointed as such by the Governor, although no legal estate may be vested in such person.

s. 3

All lands which at the time of the passing of this Act have been granted by the Crown without receiving any purchase money or promised or reserved by the Crown or by the Governor permanently or temporarily for church purposes or church and school purposes or dwelling-houses for the ministers of any denomination may, subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, be disposed of by the denomination to or for the benefit of which such lands may have been granted promised or reserved, and the proceeds of disposition applied for the purposes of such denomination in such manner as the denomination may deem most beneficial.

s. 4

Every application for leave to dispose of any such land shall be made in the form in the First Schedule hereto by the head or authorised representative of the denomination, with the consent of the trustees of any such land resident in Victoria, or of the majority thereof, and of the person or persons, if any, entitled to minister in or occupy any building upon the land.

Such application shall be lodged at the office of the Minister, and within one month from the time of lodging the same the applicant shall give notice thereof by advertising the same at length once in the Government Gazette and once in some newspaper circulating in the neighbourhood of the land and by serving a copy of the application upon any trustee of the land resident in Victoria who shall not have consented to such application.

Within one month from the publication of the last advertisement any person may lodge objections to the allowance of the application at the office of the Minister, and a copy of every objection so lodged shall be forwarded by the Minister to the applicant.

If notice of the application shall have been duly given as aforesaid, and if no objection shall have been lodged within one month from the last advertisement, and if the land described in the application shall have been granted promised or reserved as aforesaid, the Governor shall allow the application; and if any objection shall have been lodged as aforesaid the Governor may allow or reject the application, or with the consent of the applicant modify the trusts thereby proposed, and if deemed expedient for the purpose of dealing with any such objection may refer the same for the inquiry and report of any person or persons to be appointed by the Governor in that behalf; and every such allowance shall be signed by the Governor and shall be in the form in the Second Schedule hereto.

s. 8

Upon the allowance of any application, the allowance thereof, as signed by the Governor, shall be published in the Government Gazette, and such publication shall be conclusive evidence that all the provisions of this Act in respect of the application have been complied with and that the trustees named in the statement of trusts are entitled to the land therein described in fee-simple upon the trusts thereof discharged of all trusts and limitations as to the use thereof theretofore affecting the same, anything contained in the seventh section of the "Land Act 1869" to the contrary notwithstanding, and upon the application of such persons the Registrar of Titles under the "Transfer of Land Statute" shall register such persons as joint proprietors in fee of the said land with no survivorship.

s. 9

The certificate of title to be issued as aforesaid shall be in the same form and of the same effect as any other certificate of title issued under the provisions of the "Transfer of Land Statute" as to the title of the proprietors, the immunity of persons dealing with them, and in every other respect; and at the time of applying under this Act for a certificate of title a copy of the Government Gazette containing the allowance shall be deposited with and retained by the Registrar of Titles, under the provisions of Section thirty-eight of the said Statute, as the document declaring the trusts of the land as to which the certificate issues.

The Governor may from time to time frame alter and revoke regulations providing for the manner in which applications under this Act, or objections thereto, shall be lodged or dealt with, or for altering the forms in the Schedules to this Act, so far as consistent therewith, and for the execution of all orders matters or things arising under and consistent with this Act and not herein expressly provided for, and such regulations when published in the Government Gazette, and purporting to be signed by the Minister, shall have the force of law.

s. 11

So much of section six of the "Land Act 1869" as relates to reservations of Crown lands for places of public worship and dwelling-houses for the ministers of any religious denomination shall be and the same is hereby repealed as from the first day of July One thousand eight hundred and seventy, save as to any reservation or application for reservation which may have been made thereunder before the said date.