The Short Title of this Act is “The Timaru Harbour Board Loan Act, 1899.”

In this Act, the expressions—

The Board shall have power to borrow, in addition to the sums authorised by any previous Acts, subject to the provisions of “The Harbours Act, 1878,” any sum not exceeding one hundred thousand pounds, at a rate of interest not exceeding four and a half pounds per centum per annum, to be applied in and about the construction and carrying out of works for the improvement of the Port of Timaru, including such works as are defined by the words “harbour works” in the interpretation clause of “The Harbours Act, 1878,” as shall be by the Board considered necessary for the requirements of the harbour of Timaru, and also to obtain, erect, and construct all such plant, cranes, sheds, and works of every description, and to enter into all contracts for or ancillary to the purposes of the improvement of the said harbour as shall be judged necessary and proper by the Board for that purpose, or for the safety, convenience, or reception of vessels resorting to the said harbour, and for the more convenient loading and unloading of such vessels, or for the safety and protection of any works constructed, or proposed to be constructed, by the Board. The said sum may be raised by one or more loans, or, if a loan of the whole amount is authorised, it may be raised in one sum, or different sums at different times, as the Board thinks fit.

The Board may repay out of any such loan any liabilities or overdrafts existing at the time this Act comes into force, and during the construction of the work for which the loan is raised may, for a period not exceeding two years from the coming into operation of this Act, pay out of such loan the interest thereon.

Before any such loan is raised the consent of the ratepayers in the harbour district shall be first obtained in the mode hereinafter prescribed:—

The Chairman shall convene meetings of the ratepayers to be held within the boroughs situate within the district and of the ratepayers of any riding, or part of a riding, or, in the case of a county not divided into ridings, of any road district, town district, or part of a road district which is within the harbour district, upon a day not more than ten days after the last publication of a notice to be published as hereinafter mentioned, to consider the said proposal. Such meetings may be held on different days within the before-mentioned time, and shall be convened by notice published in a newspaper circulating in the district, and every such notice shall specify the time and place in the boroughs, ridings, parts of ridings, road districts, town districts, and parts of road districts at which meetings are to be held; also the following particulars;—

The particular works proposed to be undertaken;

The sum proposed to be borrowed for such purpose;

Any special rates or tolls or the rents and profits of any property which it is proposed to pledge as security for such loan, not being moneys received by way of grant from the General Government or moneys theretofore pledged as security for any loan or appropriated to any special purpose.

The Chairman shall appoint one of the members of the Council of each borough, or some officer of the said Council, to preside at the meeting to be held within each borough; and shall appoint one of the members of the County Council elected for each riding, or elected for some road district or town district in the harbour district, as the case may be, or some officer of the said Council or other proper person being an officer of some road board or Board of Commissioners of a town district, to preside at such meeting within the riding, road district, or town district, if such person shall be willing to act, and if any of such persons shall be unwilling to act, or become incapacitated from acting from any cause, then such person as the Chairman thinks fit.

The person so appointed shall be called “the Presiding Officer,” and he shall preside at the meeting to be held in the borough, riding, or part of a riding, road district, town district, or part of a road district for which he has been appointed, and be, or some other person appointed by the Chairman, shall preside at the taking of any poll as hereinafter provided; but if any such person shall at any time refuse, or be unwilling, or become incapacitated from any cause from presiding at such meeting, or at the taking of any such poll, then the Chairman shall appoint such other person as he thinks fit to preside at such meeting or at the taking of any such poll.

After due consideration and discussion of the proposal, the Presiding Officer shall give notice that a poll will be taken.

The poll shall be taken as follows:—

The Chairman shall publish a notice, setting forth the day, not less than one nor more than three weeks from the day of the said meeting, or the last of them, if held on different days, on which the poll will be taken, and may, if he think fit, appoint different days within the above-mentioned period for taking the poll in the boroughs and different ridings or parts thereof, or road districts, town districts, or parts thereof, within the harbour district, and as many polling-places as he may deem necessary for such boroughs and ridings, town districts, road districts, or parts thereof:

The Chairman shall give notice to the Presiding Officer, or other person appointed by him to do so, requiring him to take the poll upon the day appointed;

The Presiding Officer, or other person appointed by the Chairman as above mentioned, shall on the day so appointed proceed to take the poll in the manner provided by “The Regulation of Local Elections Act, 1876,” for taking a poll at any election, and shall provide voting-papers and all things necessary for taking the poll;

The voting-papers shall be printed in the form in the Schedule to this Act, with the words, “I vote for the above proposal,” and “I vote against the above proposal,” legibly printed at the foot of each voting-paper.

The voter shall erase one or other of the said lines, and his vote shall be deemed to be given according to the one of the said lines which he leaves unerased.

All the provisions of “The Regulation of Local Elections Act, 1876,” as regards taking a poll, shall, so far as they are applicable, and except as by this section or otherwise provided, apply to the taking of a poll on the proposal to raise the said loan.

A separate poll shall be taken in each riding, part of a riding, road district, town district, or part of a road district as aforesaid, and each voter shall have and may exercise as many votes as he has and may exercise at any election of the local governing body of the county within which such riding, part of a riding, road district, town district, or part of a road district is situated; and a separate poll shall also be taken in each borough, and each voter therein shall have, and may exercise, as many votes as he could have exercised at any election of the local governing body of the borough if section fourteen of “The Municipal Franchise Reform Act, 1898,” had not been passed.

If the number of votes given for the proposal within the district exceed the number given against it by one-fourth, or more than one-fourth of the latter, the resolution in favour of the proposal shall be deemed to be carried, and the Board may proceed with the proposal accordingly; but if there is not such a majority in favour of the proposal the resolution shall be deemed to be rejected, and the Board shall not so proceed, unless and until the proposal in its original or some modified form is again submitted to the ratepayers in manner hereinbefore provided, and is carried by such majority as aforesaid.

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

When any such resolution is carried, the Chairman shall send a notice thereof to the Colonial Secretary, who shall publish the same in the General Government Gazette, and such notice so gazetted shall be final and conclusive evidence that the raising of the loan to which it refers has been duly authorised under the provisions of this Act, notwithstanding any omission or irregularity in any provision, matter, or thing required to be done hereunder or under “The Regulation of Local Elections Act, 1876.”

In case the Harbour Fund of the said district shall be insufficient to pay the expenses incurred by the Board in the construction, maintenance, and repair of its present and future harbour works, and all other current expenses, and the interest on previous loans and on the loan hereby authorised to be raised or sooner should the available income of the Board prove insufficient to meet such interest, and the Board determine that it is desirable to make and levy a rate, a rate shall be levied by the Board upon the rateable value of all rateable property in the harbour district as appearing on the valuation rolls in force for the time being of the boroughs and counties and parts of counties comprised within the said harbour district, and the proceeds of such rate shall be applied towards payment of the annual charges to accrue in respect of the loan to be raised under this Act:

Provided that, in lieu of making and levying such rate as aforesaid, or, at any time after such rate shall have been made, in lieu of continuing to levy the same, the Board may from time to time allocate and recover from the local authorities in the harbour district mentioned in “The Timaru Harbour Board Empowering Act, 1890,” a sum equivalent to the annual amount of such rate to be fixed, apportioned, and raised in manner therein mentioned and the provisions of the Act last above mentioned (as amended by “The Timaru Harbour Board Act, 1899”) and of “The Timaru Harbour District Bating Act, 1894,” shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to the rate or contributions so to be levied or allocated, and shall be deemed to be incorporated with and to form part of this Act.

The amount to be levied or allocated by the Board in each year shall not exceed such amount as is required to provide for the payment of interest on the aggregate amount for which debentures shall at any time be issued, after taking into account whatever sum of money may be available from the revenue of the Board for the previous year for payment of interest on the loan hereby authorised to be made.

Any such sum available from the revenue of the Board for the previous year shall be taken into account as aforesaid, and the balance required for interest on the loan shall then be levied or allocated in manner hereby provided.

The Board may at any time raise a loan or loans without taking a poll as herein provided for the purpose of paying off or consolidating any existing loans, or any existing and future loans, or any future loans, and such repayment or consolidation may be effected in such manner and on such terms and conditions as the Board thinks fit.

No rate or allocation of contributions made under this Act shall be capable of being set aside or of being quashed by any proceedings of any Court or otherwise, and no defect in the same shall be set up as a defence to any action which may be brought to recover the same.

For the purpose of making, levying, and recovering the rate hereby authorised to be made and levied, the Board shall have and may exercise all the powers of making, levying, and recovering rates in each borough and each riding, part of a riding, road district, town district, or part of a road district within the district which any local body having rating powers within such boroughs, or the county or part of a county within which such riding or part of a riding, road district, or town district is situated shall or may have under the law for the time being in force regulating the making and recovery of rates therein respectively; and the provisions of the Acts for the time being in force in the boroughs and counties or parts of counties included in the said harbour district, providing for levying rates for the payment of the annual charges on loans raised by such boroughs or counties, shall, so far as applicable, be deemed to apply to the rate hereby authorised to be made and levied:

Provided, however, that the period for which the said rate shall be levied or allocations of contributions shall be continued shall be until the loan hereby authorised to be raised is paid off: Provided that during that period either of the two modes referred to may be adopted and varied from time to time as the Board may deem expedient.

All or any of the powers hereby granted to the Board as to the making, levying, recovering, and collecting the rate hereby authorised to be made may by resolution of the Board, which may, however, from time to time be varied or rescinded, be delegated by the Board to the Councils of the boroughs, and to the Road Boards, Boards of Commissioners of town districts, and Councils of counties included within the said harbour district, or to one or more of them, so far as relates to rateable property situate within the boundaries of such boroughs, road districts, town districts, and counties respectively, and on receipt of notices in writing of such delegations, signed by the Chairman of the Board, the Mayor of each borough and the Chairman of the said Road Boards, Boards of Commissioners, and Councils of Counties shall forthwith cause all necessary steps to be taken for the performance of the acts in respect of which power may have been delegated as aforesaid.

For the performance of the acts, power to perform which may be delegated as aforesaid, there shall be paid by the Harbour Board to the body performing the same remuneration, to include all disbursements and services, at the rate of two pounds ten shillings per centum per annum on the net amount of all moneys collected by such body and paid to the credit of the Harbour Board at the Bank at Timaru at which its account may for the time being be kept.

When and so often as the Board shall fail to pay, at the proper time and place for so paying, either the principal sum secured by the debentures to be issued for any loan hereby authorised or the coupons for interest payable thereon, then immediately on default being made any person to whom any such sum is owing may apply, ex parte by petition, in a summary way to a Judge of the Supreme Court for relief under this Act; and the Judge may, if satisfied of the truth of the matters alleged in such petition, appoint, upon such terms as to security and remuneration as he shall think fit, a Receiver of the rate and contributions hereby authorised to be levied or allocated.

From and after the date of such appointment, and upon it being advertised by publication in the Gazette, and in the newspapers circulating in the district for such time as the Judge shall order, the said rate and contributions shall vest in the Receiver, and shall cease to be vested in the Board, and the said Receiver may exercise all the powers of the Board in respect of such rate and contributions as aforesaid.

All moneys received by the Receiver shall be applied—

In payment of the expenses of the application and order;

In payment of the Receiver’s remuneration fixed as aforesaid, and his reasonable and necessary expenses;

In payment pro ratâ of the sums then overdue by the Board which are secured by the said rate; and

The residue after payment of the above to the Board.

The Receiver shall account for all such moneys in such manner as the Judge directs.

The rates authorised to be levied under “The Timaru Harbour Board Loan Act, 1881,” and “The Timaru Harbour Board Loan Act, 1885,” and the contributions authorised to be allocated for the payment of interest payable thereunder, may be made and levied and allocated with, and included in, the ate or contributions authorised to be made and levied or allocated under this Act.

Nothing in “The Local Government Voting Reform Act, 1899,” shall be deemed to affect the provisions of this Act.

This Act shall be deemed to be a special Act within the meaning of “The Harbours Act, 1878.”