• Preamble

  WHEREAS James Tannock Mackelvie, late of the County of Middlesex in England, Esquire (hereinafter called the testator), by his last will and testament bequeathed all the pictures, prints, bronzes, statues, vases, works of art, articles of vertu, and curiosities which should belong to him at the time of his death (hereinafter called the said collection) to his New Zealand trustees (hereinafter called the trustees), and also directed that certain moneys should be paid to or received by the trustees: And whereas the testator by his said will declared that the trustees should stand possessed of the said collection and moneys upon trust, inter alia, to purchase or acquire a site in or near the City of Auckland and cause to be erected thereon a museum capable to receive and display the said collection and any additions that might be made to the same and to place therein the said collection and to hold the said museum and the contents thereof as a free public museum of art forever and to allow the said museum to be visited at all suitable times on Sundays as well as weekdays by all decent and orderly persons without payment or exceptional privilege, and that after paying the cost of erecting and fitting the said museum and setting apart certain sums as in the said will directed to provide for the payment of the salary or salaries of one or more competent custodians and the cost of keeping the said museum in repair and of insuring the same and the contents thereof upon trust to lay out the surplus of the trust moneys in the hands of the trustees in the purchase, transport, and arrangement of other works of art of any kind or objects of curious or antiquarian interest connected with art to be added to and held and exhibited with the said collection and to fit and appropriate a portion of the said museum as a public library of art and to lay out in purchasing books, instructive, historical, or curious in matters of art, any moneys which might be laid out in adding to the said collection: And whereas it proved impracticable for the trustees, having regard to the moneys available to the trustees, to purchase a site and erect a museum thereon: And whereas in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-two the body corporate called the Mayor, Councillors, and Citizens of the City of Auckland (hereinafter called the Corporation) made available to the trustees a building erected as an annex to the Auckland Art Gallery, and such annex together with additions thereto were used for many years exclusively for the safe custody and exhibition of the said collection and additions made thereto (hereinafter together called the Mackelvie collection): And whereas the trustees on the third day of March, nineteen hundred and thirteen, were incorporated under the provisions of the Religious, Charitable, and Educational Trusts Act 1908 under the name of the Mackelvie Trust Board (hereinafter called the Board): And whereas the arrangements between the trustees and the Corporation and the Board and the Corporation regarding the deposit and exhibition of the Mackelvie collection in the said buildings hereinbefore referred to were set forth in a deed bearing date the twenty-ninth day of September, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and subsequently in a deed bearing date the thirtieth day of May, nineteen hundred and twenty-two: And whereas the first of such deeds was entered into subsequent to the approval of a scheme by the High Court of New Zealand on the sixteenth day of September, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and the second of such deeds was sanctioned and approved by the High Court aforesaid on the second day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-two: And whereas in the year nineteen hundred and fifty-four the Corporation informed the Board that it would no longer be able to keep the said buildings available for the safe custody and exhibition of the Mackelvie collection exclusively: And whereas in the opinion of the Board it still is and may for many years remain impracticable for the Board to purchase or acquire a site and erect thereon a museum of art and it is the desire of the Board to obtain by legislation wide powers whereby the Board may be enabled to make the best possible use of the Mackelvie collection: And whereas in or about the year nineteen hundred and eleven an appointment was made of the Mayor of Auckland for the time being to be ex officio one of the trustees: And whereas by letter dated the nineteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-four, the then Mayor of Auckland resigned office as a member of the Board and doubts have arisen as to the effect of such resignation: And whereas it is desirable to remove such doubts and to make provision for the appointment from time to time by the Auckland City Council of a member of the Board:

  The words “High Court” were substituted, as from 1 April 1980, for the words the “Supreme Court” pursuant to section 12 Judicature Amendment Act 1979 (1979 No 124).

BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: