The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Milford Harbour Board Act, 1878;” and it shall come into operation on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.

In the construction of this Act the following words and expressions shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them, unless there shall be something in the Context repugnant thereto:—

A Board is hereby constituted for the management of the affairs of the Port of Milford, and such Board shall be a body corporate of the name of “The Milford Harbour Board,” and by that name shall have perpetual succession and a common seal, and shall have and enjoy all the rights, powers, and privileges which bodies corporate as such have and enjoy.

It shall be lawful for the Governor, within one month after the passing of this Act, to appoint nine persons to be members of the Board, and such appointment shall be notified in the Gazette, and such nine persons as aforesaid, or a majority of them, shall, on the fourteenth day after the date of such appointment, hold their first meeting at Temuka, in the County of Geraldine.

It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council to grant to the Board that piece or parcel of land, being the sand-spit or shingle-bank situate between the estuary of the River Opihi (known as the Milford Lagoon) and the sea, in the said county, the seaward boundary of the said, land being low-water mark.

The Board shall have power to borrow, subject to the provisions of “The Harbours Act, 1878,” upon the security of all the lands vested in the Board, or of any works constructed or being constructed under this Act, all such sum or sums of money as the Board may deem necessary for the due prosecution of their powers under this Act: Provided that the power of borrowing herein contained shall not entitle the Board to borrow at any rate of interest exceeding seven per centum per annum, or to have outstanding on the said securities at any one time a greater sum than twenty thousand pounds.