The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Dunedin Gaol Street Act, 1877.”

It shall be lawful for the Governor, and be is hereby authorized and empowered, to stop up all or any of such portion of the public street as is particularly described with regard to its situation, course, boundaries, and admeasurements in the Schedule to this Act annexed.

Before the said portion of the said public street is stopped up by the Governor, he shall cause a notice to be inserted in at least two newspapers published in Dunedin, describing in general terms the situation, length, and course of the said portion of the said public street intended to be stopped up, and calling upon all persons objecting to the stopping up of such portion of such public street to state in writing any well-grounded objections they may have to the stopping up of such portion of such public street, and to leave within sixty days from the first publication of such notice such statement addressed to the Commissioner of Crown Lands, at his office in Dunedin, and marked “Objections to closing Gaol Street;” and on or before the day of publication of the said notice, maps exhibiting the portion of the street intended to be stopped up shall be deposited at the Land Office in the said City of Dunedin, and there shall be printed, written, or lithographed on the said maps a notice intimating the last day for lodging such objections: Provided that if the delineation of the said portion of the said public street intended to be stopped up is not contained in a map of a single sheet, but is contained in a map of more sheets than one, it shall be sufficient to deposit at such office the sheet or sheets of such map on which is delineated the said portion of the said public street intended to be stopped up, or copies thereof respectively.

At the expiration of the sixty days’ notice, if no objections have been made, or if the Governor, upon consideration of the objections made, shall determine nevertheless that the said portion of the said public street ought to be stopped up, the Governor shall declare, by Proclamation in the New Zealand Gazette, that such portion of such public street shall thenceforth cease to be a public street or thoroughfare, and shall no longer form part of the streets of the City of Dunedin, and the Governor may thereupon take such proceedings as he may think fit for stopping up such portion of the said public street.

It shall be lawful for the Governor, and be is hereby authorized and empowered, to contract with any person or persons, or body or bodies corporate, for the sale, exchange, or disposal in any way he may think fit of the land over which passed the said portion of the said public street stopped up.

It shall be lawful for the Governor to exchange any of the said lands over which the said portion of the said public street stopped up under the provisions of this Act passed for any other lands, and to complete and perform any contracts heretofore entered into for the exchange of such lands for other lands over which a new public street has been made, in lieu of the said portion of the said public street stopped up under the provisions of this Act, so soon as the lands over which such new public street has been made shall have been conveyed to Her Majesty in exchange for any lands over which the stopped up portion of the said public street passed, and the lands so conveyed in exchange to Her Majesty shall be vested in Her Majesty, her heirs and successors for ever, subject to the rights of the public to use the surface thereof as public street or highway.

At all times after the passing of this Act, maps of the said portion of the said public street referred to in this Act, and which is particularly described in the Schedule hereto, shall be kept at the office of the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the time being, in Dunedin, and be at all convenient times open for public inspection, and all persons may at all convenient times examine gratis at such office such maps.