IV.  Amerika.  1374  246.  Canada.

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  compulation  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,