The Short Title of this Act is The New Plymouth Exchanges Completion Act 1874 Amendment Act 1885.

This Act shall be deemed to be incorporated with The New Plymouth Exchanges Completion Act 1874, hereinafter referred to as “the said Act,” and the provisions of the said Act as herein modified shall apply to this Act and to the exchanges included herein.

In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context,—

The exchanges included in Schedule 1 hereto be subject to the provisions of the said Act as amended hereby.

The lands mentioned in the first column of the Schedule to the said Act, as amended by this Act, and in the first column of Schedules 1, 2, and 3 to this Act, shall be deemed to have vested in the Superintendent of the late Province of Taranaki on the thirty-first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, upon the trusts and for the purposes provided by section two of the said Act.

Section four of the said Act is hereby repealed, and in lieu thereof it is enacted that, before section three of the said Act shall take effect to vest in the exchangee the land included in the third column of the Schedule to the said Act, as amended by this Act, or in the third column of Schedules 1 and 2 to this Act, the exchangee or person claiming under him shall obtain and take up a grant from the Crown (or, in cases where such exchangee claims under a prior exchange, a certificate of the completion of such prior exchange) for the land to be given up by such exchangee; and such grant or certificate, together with all instruments of title in his control under which the exchangee claims the section given up by him, shall be by such person delivered to the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the district, who shall thereupon issue to such person a certificate in the form in Schedule 4 hereto.

Any certificate issued under the said Act, or to be issued under this Act (whether under the hand of the Superintendent of the late Province of Taranaki, or of the Commissioner of Crown Lands), shall vest and be deemed to have vested absolutely the land received by the exchangee in such exchangee on the thirty-first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.

And whereas Crown grants in fulfilment of contracts with the New Zealand Company have been issued, and may hereafter be issued, in the names of persons entitled thereto, but which persons have not made any claim for the issue of such grants, or produced the land orders under which the land included in such grants was held; and it is expedient, in order to facilitate the completion of titles under The New Plymouth Exchanges Commission Act 1865, and the various Acts amending the same, generally to enact as follows: Be it enacted that it shall be lawful for the registrar of Deeds or District Land Registrar, as the case may be, for the district wherein the affected lands are situated to require security (such security being taken in the name of the Lost Land Orders Commissioner), in such form and to such extent as he shall think right, in any case where such land order has been lost or destroyed, and where security has not previously been given, from the person entitled to the Crown grant, before delivering such grant; and the security so taken shall be deemed to be in satisfaction of that required under The Lost Land Orders Act 1861.

And whereas, under the provisions of The New Plymouth Public Works Ordinance 1855, various sections of land in the Town of New Plymouth have been sold by the late Provincial Government, and conveyances of the lands so sold have been executed by the then Superintendent to the purchasers thereof, and it is desirable to remove doubts as to the validity of such conveyances: Be it enacted that such conveyances shall be deemed to have been valid and effectual to vest absolutely in the respective purchasers thereunder the lands therein comprised.

And whereas it may happen that the owners of sections granted in fulfilment of contracts with the New Zealand Company may be absent from the colony, and have no known agent in the colony: Be it enacted that the Public Trustee, whenever he shall deem it expedient, in order to complete exchanges, or otherwise in the interest of such owner, so to do, may take up such grant and complete such exchange; and all moneys paid by the Public Trustee for such purpose shall be a charge upon the land in respect of which they have been paid.

And whereas the exchanges intended to have been effected of the following sections cannot be carried out, by reason of the intended exchangees thereof not having acquired a title thereto, and it is expedient to declare that such intended exchanges shall be deemed to have lapsed: Be it therefore enacted that all contracts for the exchange of sections one thousand one hundred and forty-eight, one thousand two hundred, one thousand two hundred and eight, and one thousand two hundred and eleven, New Plymouth, for any other sections, and all certificates of exchange issued under The New Plymouth Exchanges Commission Act 1865, in respect thereof, shall be deemed to have been void.

And whereas under the said Act it is provided that one John Harrison, upon surrendering a Crown grant for section one thousand one hundred and seven, New Plymouth, should be entitled to section one thousand five hundred and forty, New Plymouth, and it is expedient to vest the said section one thousand five hundred and forty, New Plymouth, in the said John Harrison, without requiring the surrender of the said Crown grant: Be it enacted that the said section one thousand five hundred and forty may be granted to the said John Harrison as from the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, unconditionally.

And whereas one James Evans or his assigns surrendered to the Superintendent of the late Province of Taranaki the Crown grant for section one hundred and forty-six, New Plymouth, and received in lieu thereof a grant from the Crown for section one thousand and thirty-six, New Plymouth: Be it enacted that the whole estate and interest of the said James Evans, the grantee, in the said Section one hundred and forty-six, shall be deemed to have vested in the said Superintendent as from the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.

Paragraph eighteen of the Schedule to The Special Powers and Contracts Act 1883 is hereby repealed.

And whereas various errors have been found to exist in the Schedule to the said Act, and it is expedient to amend the same: Be it therefore enacted that the said Schedule shall be read as if the exchanges included in Schedule 2 hereto had been inserted in the said Act, instead of the exchanges for which the same are substituted.

And whereas the several exchanges in the said Act comprised in Schedule 3 hereto cannot be given effect to as in the said Act provided, and it is expedient to make other provision for the completion of such exchanges: Be it therefore enacted that grants from the Crown to the exchangees or to the persons through whom they claim for the sections mentioned in the third column of the said Schedule 3 hereto shall be and the same are hereby validated.

And whereas the exchange intended to have been effected of Sections three hundred and ninety and two hundred and ninety-seven, Town of New Plymouth, cannot be carried out by reason of an error made in the Report number one thousand two hundred and fifty-six of the New Zealand Company's Lands Claims Commissioner on claim number one thousand six hundred and eighteen, respecting the former of such sections, and there is no means by which such Commissioner can now correct the said error: And whereas it is expedient, in order to enable the said exchange to be completed, to annul the said report: Be it therefore enacted that the said Report number one thousand two hundred and fifty-six, whereby one Samuel Farrar is decided to be entitled to a Crown grant for Section three hundred and ninety, Town of New Plymouth, is hereby annulled from the date thereof.