The Short Title of this Act is “The Dunedin City and Suburban Tramways and Water-power Act, 1903.”

This Act shall be deemed to amend and extend “The Dunedin City and Suburban Tramways Act, 1900” (herein called “the principal Act”), and the principal Act and all Acts incorporated therewith, together with this Act, shall be read as one Act.

In respect of such of the said licenses as confer on the Corporation of the Mayor, Councillors, and Citizens of the City of Dunedin (in this Act called “the said Corporation”) the power to construct a dam or weir, the said Corporation shall, as from the date when it commences to construct the dam or weir which it is thereby empowered to construct, be deemed to be liable to all persons and bodies corporate and politic, including His Majesty the King, for any damage which may be caused through the construction, breaking-away, or other failure of such dam or weir, such damages to be recoverable by action at law or other lawful means.

The said Corporation shall have full power to take up and acquire by application under the provisions of “The Mining Act, 1898,” and the amendments thereof, any mining privilege within a radius of forty miles of the City of Dunedin, or to purchase or acquire in any other lawful manner for generating electricity for power or lighting purposes all such dams or weirs, water-races, water-rights, and privileges in respect of water as it shall think fit, and whether within the Otago Mining District or elsewhere in the Provincial District of Otago.

All the mining privileges in the First Schedule hereto set forth (in this Act called “the said mining privileges”) shall as against all bodies and persons whatsoever be for all purposes deemed to be, and as from the date of the license thereof to have been, valid notwithstanding any defect therein or in the jurisdiction of the Warden to grant the same; and all the conditions imposed by the said several licenses shall be binding upon the said City Corporation and its assigns and inure to the benefit of each local authority mentioned in such conditions, and the said deeds of covenant shall likewise be binding upon the City Corporation and its assigns and inure to the benefit of the Taieri County Corporation and its assigns, according to the tenor and effect of the said deeds respectively.

The dams or weirs, and the water-races and other mining privileges, and the water thereby acquired, stored, and utilised, may be used by the said Corporation for the generation of electric power for the use of the said Corporation, or for the sale by it of motive power and electric light; and the rights conferred by the said mining privileges shall not be liable to loss of priority, cancellation, forfeiture, or surrender under or by virtue of the mining laws of New Zealand, and shall not be liable to forfeiture or be deemed to be abandoned on the ground that such dams, weirs, or water-races have not been prior to the coming into operation of this Act or may not hereafter be constructed or commenced within the time limited in that behalf by law:

Provided that after the expiry of three years from the passing of this Act, if the said Corporation shall not have commenced the construction of the water-race and dam described in the mining privileges granted under or validated by this Act, and continue the work thereon to the satisfaction of the Warden, the said privilege shall be deemed to have lapsed and to have been abandoned, unless the Warden shall from time to time extend the same.

No rent or fees shall be payable to the Crown or otherwise in respect of the said mining privileges or other rights acquired or held under the provisions of this Act.

It shall not be necessary for the Corporation to hold a miner’s right, but it shall nevertheless have the rights, powers, and privileges of a holder of a miner’s right.

The Council of the said Corporation shall have authority and control over the entire area and length of the said dams, weirs, and water-races held under the said licenses notwithstanding that the same are without the city.

The said dams, weirs, and water-races, and all works and property pertaining thereto, shall be deemed to be waterworks belonging to and under the control of the City Council of Dunedin, within the meaning of “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1900,” save that any obligation in section two hundred and ninety to supply pure water shall not apply thereto; nor shall the following subsections of section three hundred and four—namely, subsections numbered three, six, eight, ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen—apply thereto; nor shall section three hundred and five apply thereto; nor shall section three hundred and three apply thereto, save if and when the act complained of shall have the effect of infringing the rights of the said Corporation as appearing in the respective licenses held by it:

Provided that nothing in this Act contained shall be deemed to take away, abridge, or interfere with any existing mining privileges held before the date of the licenses issued to the Corporation and enumerated in the First Schedule to this Act, or prevent any Warden hereafter granting licenses under the provisions of any Mining Act for races and other mining privileges in respect of water, notwithstanding any priority of right conferred upon the Corporation by this Act or otherwise; and, further, that the said Corporation shall have no claim for diminution or for defilement of water by the granting of such licenses for races and mining privileges, or by the granting of licenses for mining claims, or from mining operations and sluicing therefrom, above the points whence the supplies of water by the licenses now held by the said Corporation and enumerated in the First Schedule aforesaid are taken.

The said Corporation shall have full power to use and apply all streams or waters owned or held by it, whensoever and howsoever acquired, to the purpose of generating electricity to be used for the purpose of producing power and light, and to construct, erect, install, and use within and beyond the limits of the city all such works and appliances as it shall think necessary for generating, transmitting, and utilising electricity for producing electric power and light:

Provided that this clause shall not exonerate the said Corporation from the necessity of an authorising order in that behalf under “The Tramways Act, 1894,” or from performing and complying with all such other conditions and requirements as are or shall be imposed by “The Electric Lines Act, 1884,” “The Electrical Motive Power Act, 1896,” “The Counties Act, 1886,” or otherwise by law in respect of the construction, erection, installation, or use of works and appliances of that kind.

The Corporation shall have power, with respect to the said mining privileges and the waters and streams available thereunder pursuant to the provisions thereof, to construct all such reservoirs, waterworks, and other works as are thereby authorised to be constructed: Provided that whenever it is proposed to construct any dam or weir of greater height than is authorised by the license it shall be necessary to submit the plans thereof to the Governor in Council for his approval before constructing the same.

The Corporation shall have full power to contract with the Councils of other boroughs, and with County Councils, Road Boards, Town Boards, Drainage Boards, and Sewerage Boards, and all other local authorities and public bodies whatsoever, for the supply to such bodies and the inhabitants of the local districts thereof of electric power and electric light; and with the consent of any such local authority or public body to erect and install in the district over which it has authority, and in the streets and public places therein, and with the consent of the local authority having control thereof, such works, plant, and erections as may be necessary and convenient for such purposes, and any contract which the said Corporation is empowered to make with any local authority or public body may in like manner be entered into by such local authority or public body with the said Corporation:

Provided that upon the said Corporation deciding to construct the water-race comprised in license No. 16, W.R., mentioned in the First Schedule hereto, it shall give notice in writing to the Councils of the local bodies mentioned in the Fourth Schedule hereto, and each of such Councils shall, within three months after the receipt thereof, notify the said Corporation in writing of the quantity of electricity (if any) required by it for municipal or county purposes, and as soon as the electricity generated by water from the said water-race is available the said Corporation shall be bound to sell the surplus electricity for the purposes aforesaid to such of the said Councils as shall have given notice as before mentioned, subject to the following terms and conditions;—

It shall be lawful for the Corporation in constructing any dam or weir to obtain authority, which the Warden is hereby authorised to grant, to construct the same upon any other site which in its opinion will prove more suitable than that mentioned in the license, but not more than half a mile from the last-mentioned site, without loss of its right or of priority; and the site upon which the same shall be constructed shall be deemed to be granted by the existing license and to he subject to the conditions thereof; and an amended description of the new site of such dam shall be indorsed or minuted upon the license by the Warden without any formal application in that behalf whenever he shall be satisfied, by means of a plan signed by an authorised surveyor, as to the position of such new site.

It shall be lawful for the Corporation to obtain authority, which the Warden is hereby authorised to grant, to construct, in lieu of the race described in the First Schedule hereto as No. 16, W.R., a race on the west side of the Taieri River to carry the same number of heads of water; and such authorisation shall be indorsed or minuted on the license for the said race, and shall be deemed to alter the site and course thereof only, and not to affect the right to divert water thereby granted; and thereafter the provisions of this Act and those of the deed of covenant of the twenty-eighth day of April hereafter mentioned shall apply to the said race and the water thereby diverted in the same manner and to the same extent to which the same apply to the race so described in the said First Schedule as No. 16, W.R.; and the provisions of this section shall apply notwithstanding any alteration in the site of the dam described in the said First Schedule as No. 5, dam, and consequent alteration in the position or course of the said race.

With respect to the water-race described as No. 16, W.R., the Corporation shall, in constructing the same, provide at least two permanent crossings for the passage of persons, stock, and vehicles between the adjoining land and the Taieri River, so that the owners and occupiers of such land, and all persons claiming under them, may have free access to the said river; and the Warden and Assessors, sitting as a Compensation Court constituted under “The Mining Act, 1898,” section ninety-nine, subsection five, shall have jurisdiction to determine any compensation claim arising out of the construction of the said water-race, and may, in granting compensation or in lieu of compensation, define the limits of such crossings and the mode in which they are to be constructed and maintained, and may grant further crossings and similarly define them; and it shall be obligatory upon the Corporation at all times to maintain such crossings in good order and repair.

All applications to the Warden for a change of site of a dam or weir, or the site and course of the water-race No. 16, W.R., shall be made in accordance with the law and regulations for the time being in force with respect to applications for mining privileges, if and when such privileges are granted they shall be deemed to be held under and subject to this Act.

Any Warden and Assessors empowered to hear and determine compensation claims in respect of the construction of works pursuant to the licenses in the First Schedule hereto mentioned shall have the authority conferred by section eighty-four of “The Public Works Act, 1894,” upon Compensation Courts, as if the said section had been incorporated with “The Mining Act, 1898.”

In case any road or reserve under the control of any County or Borough Council or other local or other authority shall or may be lawfully interfered with or lawfully encroached upon by any work or building constructed or to be constructed by the said Corporation, it shall be competent for the Council and such local or other authority to make an agreement for the diversion of such road, and any such agreement when duly executed shall effectually divert the same: Provided that should any such diversion involve taking or using the land of any person or body, the same may be taken under the provisions of “The Public Works Act, 1894,” and due compensation shall be made to such person or body by the said Corporation.

Nothing in this Act contained shall pre-judicially affect the operation of the above-recited deeds of covenant or any similar deed which may have been or may hereafter be entered into with respect to the construction of dams or water-races.

For the purpose of any adjustment of expenditure under the foregoing sections it shall be lawful for the City Council to obtain in anticipation the opinion of the Auditor-General on any question as to the apportionment of any loan or expenditure, and to act on such opinion.

Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to empower the Corporation to apply for any water-right from the streams in the Flagstaff Hill watershed for any of the purposes authorised by this Act.