The Short Title of this Act is “The Canterbury Rivers Act 1870 Amendment Act, 1882,” and it shall be deemed to be incorporated with “The Canterbury Rivers Act, 1870” (hereinafter called “the said Act”).

The word “Board,” where the same is hereinafter used, shall be taken to mean the Board of Conservators of the Mandeville and Rangiora Drainage District.

From and after the passing of this Act the Board shall be elected in manner provided by “The Regulation of Local Elections Act, 1876,” which is incorporated with this Act.

Every person whose name at the time of any election of a member of the Board is on the ratepayers’ roll in force in any borough or Road Board district, in respect of property within the said drainage district, and who has paid all rates due in respect of such property up to the date of such election, shall be entitled to vote at such election according to the following scale, that is to say,—

As soon as conveniently may be after the passing of this Act the Governor shall, by Proclamation, appoint some day not exceeding thirty days after the date of such Proclamation upon which all the members of the Board then holding office shall cease to hold office, and upon which an election of new members shall take place, and also shall appoint some fit person as returning officer to conduct such election.

On the days so appointed the electors shall elect five duly-qualified persons to be members of the first Board.

The qualification for membership of the Board shall be the possession of the right to vote at an election for the Board.

The members of the first Board shall decide by ballot at their first meeting after election which three of their number shall go out of office on the first Tuesday in the month of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five, and on the said last-mentioned day the three members who shall be determined by such ballot to go out of office on the said day shall go out of office accordingly, and the remaining two members shall hold office until the first Tuesday in the month of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven.

On the first Tuesday in the month of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five, three members shall be elected to supply the place of those vacating office as aforesaid.

On the first Tuesday in the month of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, the two members who shall have remained in office as aforesaid shall go out of office, and thereupon an election shall be held to supply the vacancies thereby created.

On the first Tuesday in January in every second year thereafter the two or three members, as the case may he, who shall then have been longest in office shall go out of office, and thereupon the vacancies thereby created shall be supplied by election in manner aforesaid.

Every member of the Board going out of office in manner aforesaid shall be eligible for re-election.

If any member of the Board shall be adjudged bankrupt, or shall take or apply to take the benefit of any Act for the relief or protection of insolvent debtors, or shall compound with his creditors, such person shall cease to be a member of the Board, and his office shall thereafter become vacant, and the vacancy thereby created shall be deemed to be a casual vacancy.

Every casual vacancy occurring in the Board shall be filled up by duly-qualified persons to be elected by the Board, but any person so elected by the Board shall retain his office so long only as the member in whose place he shall have been elected would have been entitled to retain the same.

During any vacancy or vacancies in the Board the continuing members thereof shall have power to act in all respects as if such vacancy or vacancies had not occurred, and no act of the Board shall be invalid by reason only of the existence of any such vacancy or vacancies.

Any person who shall act as a member of the Board without being duly qualified, or after he has become disqualified, shall incur a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds, and in any proceeding for the recovery of such penalty, the burden of proving his qualification shall be upon the person against whom such proceeding is taken.

The Board shall be a corporation under the name of “The Board of Conservators for the Mandeville and Rangiora Drainage District,” having perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to make, alter, and renew the same, to purchase, take, hold, and transfer property, real and personal, and to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in any Court of law or equity, and for the purposes of the said Act and this Act to do and suffer all other acts and things which a body corporate may lawfully do and suffer.

All acts which shall be done by the Board at any meeting thereof, or by any Committee of the Board, or by any person acting as a member of the Board, shall, notwithstanding that it may afterwards be discovered that some defect existed with regard to the election or appointment of any member or members of such Board, or of any person or persons so acting as aforesaid, or that he or they was or were or had become disqualified, be as valid as if every such person had been duly elected or appointed, and was duly qualified to be and to act as a member of such Board.

The Board shall have an office wherein to hold their meetings and transact business in some convenient place within their jurisdiction, and shall cause proper minutes to be taken and kept of the proceedings of each meeting. All books of account, and minutes of meetings, and transactions of the Board shall at all reasonable times be open to the inspection of any elector or of any holder of the debentures of the Board, and any person refusing or obstructing any such inspection shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds.

The first Board shall hold its first meeting after election at a time and place to be fixed by the Governor, and at such first meeting, and afterwards annually, in the month of January in each year, the Board shall appoint one of their number to be Chairman of the Board for the then ensuing year.

The Board shall not exercise any of its borrowing powers without the consent of two-thirds of those of the persons entitled to vote for the election of members of the Board who are so entitled in respect of a freehold qualification, which consent shall be obtained by a poll of the same.

The poll shall be taken in the following manner:—

As soon as conveniently may be after the result of the poll has been ascertained, the Returning Officer shall give public notice of the number of votes recorded for and against the proposal as above provided, and shall declare that such proposal has been carried or rejected as the case may be.

Sections nine to eighteen, both inclusive, of the said Act, and “The Canterbury Rivers Act 1870 Amendment Act, 1877,” are hereby repealed so far as the same relate to the said Mandeville and Rangiora Drainage District, or to the said Board.

Notwithstanding such repeal, all acts done by the existing Board of Conservators of the said district up to the time of the election of the first Board under this Act shall be valid.