This Act may be cited as the Taieri Land Drainage Act, 1912, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Taieri Land Drainage Act, 1910 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

The Western Taieri Land Drainage Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board) may make and levy rates, both general and special, on an acreage basis on a graduated scale according to the classification of the lands in the district, but the amount of general and special rates for all purposes shall not exceed four shillings per acre in any year.

The Board shall forthwith reclassify the whole of the land in the district.

By such reclassification or any subsequent reclassification the lands shall be classified into six or more classes by reference to the degree to which those lands have received or are likely to receive benefit from the operations of the Board.

All appeals against any such reclassification shall be decided by the Magistrate sitting with two Assessors, one of whom shall be appointed by the Board and one by the Minister of Lands.

The Returning Officer shall prepare a ratepayers list in the manner provided by the Land Drainage Act, 1908, except that there shall be inserted opposite the name of each ratepayer the total area of rateable land held by him within the subdivision (if any), and the classification of such lands, in lieu of the value thereof.

At all elections and polls of ratepayers every person whose name appears on the ratepayers roll shall be entitled to exercise the number of votes following, that is to say:—

Those occupiers who, in accordance with the classification of lands, are so classed as to pay no rates shall not, so long as such classification is in force, be entitled to any vote.

Any person who has not on the thirty-first day of March last past paid all rates that on the thirty-first day of December previous he was then liable to pay shall not be entitled to any vote, unless such rates are paid before the ratepayers list has been signed by the Magistrate.

The Board shall have, and shall as from the commencement of the principal Act be deemed to have had, all the powers of a River Board constituted under the River Boards Act, 1908.

Every drain, tidal or flood gate, or box, or valve, or other appliance, constructed or maintained by the Board shall be deemed to be the property of the Board; and any person doing any act whereby any such drain, gate, box, or appliance may be damaged or its efficiency impaired shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding thirty pounds.

The Governor in Council may, by Proclamation, declare that the bed of Lake Waipori shall be vested in the Board as an endowment within boundaries to be defined in, and subject to such conditions (if any) as may be prescribed in, such Proclamation.

Upon the gazetting of such Proclamation the bed of the said lake as therein defined shall become vested in the Board as an endowment, subject to such prescribed conditions (if any).

The Board shall, in respect of the bed of the said lake as defined in the Proclamation, be deemed to have been declared a leasing authority within the meaning of the Public Bodies’ Leasing Powers Act, 1908, and shall have the powers of leasing thereby conferred upon local authorities.

Nothing in this Act shall be deemed or be allowed to prejudicially affect any Native fishing-rights over Lake Tatawai which may exist at the time of the passing of this Act.