This Act may be cited as the Dunedin District Drainage and Sewerage Act Amendment Act, 1907.

In this Act and the Acts hereby amended the following words and expressions, if not inconsistent with the context, shall be deemed to have, and to have had from the passing of the principal Act, the meanings hereby given thereto, in addition to any meaning given to the same words and expressions by the principal Act or any Act amending the same:—

Section twenty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing paragraphs (4) and (5) thereof, and substituting therefor the following:—

In making any by-law under the provisions of the said Acts or any of them the Board may—

Section thirty of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

A by-law made by the Board shall not be deemed invalid merely because it deals with a subject dealt with by the general law.

The continued existence in a state contrary to the provisions of the said Acts or the by-laws of any work or thing shall be deemed a continuing offence within the meaning of the said Acts or the by-laws, as the case may be.

The Board may, notwithstanding a conviction for the continuing breach of any of the provisions of the said Acts or the by-laws, apply to the Supreme Court for an injunction to restrain the further continuance of such breach by the person or persons so convicted.

The Board may by ordinary resolution fix and determine the date for payment of rates directed to be levied by a local body pursuant to section fifty-three of the principal Act, and may by ordinary resolution alter the date fixed and determined for payment of rates so directed to be levied, whether such date has been fixed or determined by an ordinary or by a special resolution, but so that such altered date shall not be earlier than the date so altered.

It shall not be obligatory to fix the same date for the whole of the district.

The Board may in its own name sue for and recover payment of rates made or levied by a local body pursuant to a special order made or to be made by the Board under or by virtue of section fifty-three of the principal Act, or under or by virtue of the provisions of any other Act now or hereafter in force, in like manner and to the like extent as if such rates were rates made and levied by the Board.

The Secretary or other officer of the Board may from time to time inspect and take extracts from or make copies of any rate-book, valuation list, and valuation roll of any local authority; and if any person having the custody of such rate-book, list, or roll refuses or neglects to permit such Secretary or other officer to inspect the same, or to take extracts therefrom, or make copies thereof, at all reasonable times, he shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds.

Section twenty-eight of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

Any notice, demand, order, or direction by the said Acts or the by-laws required or authorised to be given or made by the Board or any officer thereof shall, if due service thereof has been once made on any owner or occupier, be binding on each and every person claiming by, through, or under such owner or occupier to the same extent as if such person had been the owner or occupier of the premises in question at the time of the service of such notice, demand, order, or direction, and the same had been served upon him, and such person shall be liable in connection therewith accordingly.

Any such notice, demand, order, or direction may, if the person to or upon whom the same is to be given or made is absent from New Zealand, be served upon his agent in the same manner as it might be served upon such person if within New Zealand.

If such person is not known or is absent from New Zealand, and has no known agent in New Zealand, and the notice, demand, order, or direction relates to any land or building or works in connection therewith, the notice, demand, order, or direction addressed to the owner or occupier of such land or building, as the case may require, may be served on the occupier thereof or left with some inmate of his abode, and it shall not be necessary in any such notice to name the occupier or owner of such building or land.

When a notice, demand, order, or direction is sent by post it shall be deemed to have been served at the expiration of forty-eight hours after the same was delivered to the post-office.

A note or memorandum of the service of such notice, demand, order, or direction shall be made by the Board in the Register of Charges to be kept by the Board pursuant to this Act.

If it appears to the Board that a group or block of contiguous houses or lands, or of adjacent detached or semi-detached houses, may be drained more economically or advantageously in combination than separately, the Board may order that such group or block of houses or lands be drained by a combined operation, or elect to do the work as provided by section twenty-six of the principal Act.

Section twenty-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing the word “hereinafter” in the last line thereof, and adding thereto at the end thereof the words “in this Act or any Act amending the same.”

If any person executes, provides, or does any works, materials, or things contrary to the provisions of the said Acts or the by-laws, it shall be lawful for the Board by notice in writing to require such person, and the owner of the premises upon or in connection with which the said works, materials, or things have been executed, provided, or done, or either of them, to remove such works, materials, or things, or, in the discretion of the Board, to alter the same so as to comply with the said Acts and the by-laws within a time to be limited by such notice.

Section six of the Dunedin District Drainage and Sewerage Act 1900 Amendment Act, 1906, shall apply to any works or operations required or directed by the Board under or by virtue of this section, and the cost thereof if executed by the Board, and such section shall, mutatis mutandis, be incorporated with and form a part of this section.

The recovery of the cost of any works, materials, or things executed, provided, or done by the Board under any of the provisions of the said Acts or the by-laws shall not be a bar to any proceeding in respect of the breach of any provision of the said Acts or the by-laws, or the recovery of a penalty in connection therewith.

When it is desired by any person to abandon, either wholly or in part, or to extend, contract, or alter any design for any works previously submitted to and approved by the Board or any officer of the Board, notice in writing of such desire shall be given to the Board by the person by whom such approval was obtained, accompanied by plans and sections showing the nature of the abandonment, extension, contraction, or alteration desired; and no such abandonment, extension, contraction, or alteration shall be made without the previous sanction in writing of the Board or the Drainage Engineer.

No person shall abandon wholly or in part, or extend, contract, or alter in construction, any works approved or sanctioned by the Board or any officer of the Board, without the previous sanction in writing of the Board or the Drainage Engineer.

The Board, if it thinks fit, may from time to time (in addition and without prejudice to any other remedy) recover as a simple contract debt, by action in any Court of competent jurisdiction, from the owner for the time being of any premises in respect of which any sum is due as the cost of works, materials, and things executed, provided, and done respectively by the Board, with the interest thereon, the whole or any portion of such sum.

A charge created by or by virtue of the said Acts shall take effect from the entry thereof in the Register of Charges hereinafter mentioned, and that whether the moneys charged thereby have been sued for or not, and notwithstanding the provisions of any other Act to the contrary.

The Board shall keep a Register of Charges under the said Acts, and of the payments made in satisfaction thereof, and the register shall be open to inspection to all persons at all reasonable times on payment of such sum as is from time to time fixed by the Board by resolution, not exceeding one shilling in respect of each name or property searched for; and the Board shall furnish copies of any part of such register to any person applying for the same on payment of such sum as is from time to time fixed by the Board, not exceeding five shillings in respect of each property.

The Board, if it deems it expedient so to do, may acquire more land than may be requisite for the purpose of carrying out any of the objects of the said Acts.

The Board may dispose of by sale or lease any lands acquired by it under or by virtue of the said Acts.

Any land for the time being vested in the Board may be leased by private contract for a term from year to year or for a term certain not exceeding one year.

Every such sale shall be by public auction or public tender; provided that if no bid is received at any such public auction at or over the upset price fixed by the Board, the land offered may be sold by private contract at any time within twelve months thereafter, but at a price not being less than such upset price.

A conveyance, transfer, or lease under the seal of the Board shall constitute a good and valid title to such land.

Nothing in this section shall be deemed to limit or otherwise affect the powers of the Board under or by virtue of the principal Act.

No special order made by the Board shall be quashed by any proceedings in any Court or otherwise unless such proceedings are commenced within six months from the making of such special order.

The provisions of paragraphs (a) to (f), both inclusive, of section six of the Dunedin District Drainage and Sewerage Act, 1906, shall apply to any works, materials, or things executed, provided, or done by the Board pursuant to section twenty-six of the principal Act or this Act, and the cost thereof.

Section forty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing the words “any by-law” where such words occur immediately preceding the word “six,” and substituting therefor the words “by resolution from time to time.”

Any officer or person acting for the Board shall be entitled to search and take extracts from the records of the Lands, Deeds, and Survey Offices within the district without payment of any search fee.

This Act shall take effect from the passing of the principal Act.