This Act may be cited as the Dunedin City Council Empowering Act, 1914.

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

In compiling the annual accounts showing revenue and expenditure in respect of the various trading undertakings under the control of the Council—to wit, the tramways, electric power and lighting supply, water-supply, gas-supply, and abattoir—it shall be lawful for the Council to charge against revenue in the several accounts respectively an annual appropriation to provide for renewals. These appropriations shall be exclusive of any amounts carried to the debit of the respective accounts for maintenance and repairs, and shall be devoted to the purposes hereinafter mentioned. It shall be lawful for the Council to compile an annual statement showing a profit and loss account in respect of each of the trading undertakings aforesaid, and to deal with any portion of the amount shown to be to the credit of the said profit and loss accounts by transfer to the Trading Departments’ Renewal Fund Account, as hereinafter defined, and also to the General Account of the district fund it is required to keep pursuant to the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1908. For all the purposes of audit by the Audit Office the said profit and loss accounts shall be deemed to be separate accounts, and shall be subject to the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1908, relating to such accounts.

The appropriations referred to in the last preceding section shall be paid into a separate banking account to be termed “The Trading Departments’ Renewal Fund Account” (hereinafter called the said banking account).

Immediately upon the coming into operation of this Act the Council shall appoint three Commissioners, to be called “The Renewal Fund Commissioners,” and sections thirty-five, thirty-six, and thirty-nine of the Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1913, shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to the Commissioners to be so appointed in like manner as if they were Sinking Fund Commissioners appointed under said section thirty-five.

In respect of the amount standing to the credit of the said Trading Departments’ Renewal and Depreciation Fund Account at the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fourteen, being a sum of one hundred and twelve thousand seven hundred and forty-nine pounds eleven shillings and sixpence, it shall be obligatory upon the Council forthwith to pay to the said Commissioners fifty per centum of the said amount, and, in respect of the remainder thereof, to pay the same into the said banking account as hereinbefore defined. It shall also be obligatory upon the Council to pay to the said Commissioners in the month of April in each year, fifty per centum of the net amount of all appropriations paid into the said banking account during the year ending on the thirty-first day of March then last past. For the purpose of this section the expression “fifty per centum” shall he deemed to mean one-half of the amount as aforesaid taken to the nearest pound sterling.

The said Commissioners shall invest all funds or moneys received by them pursuant to the last preceding section in any class of security authorized by law for the investment of trust-moneys, including the purchase of any debentures issued by the Council as security for the repayment of any loan lawfully raised or of a temporary deposit with the said Council, or in the purchase of any debentures lawfully issued by the Dunedin Drainage and Sewerage Board. Separate accounts shall be kept by the said Commissioners of all moneys paid to or received by them in respect of the several undertakings specified in section three, and in preparing the yearly statement of accounts pursuant to section thirty-nine of the Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1913, the Commissioners shall show in detail the amount of such funds or moneys paid to or received by the said Commissioners as aforesaid.

The residue of the amount standing to the credit of the said banking account shall be retained by the Council and used by it in renewing any considerable portion of the plant that is prematurely worn out or has become obsolete or useless:

Provided that no portion of the said residue shall be used for ordinary repairs and maintenance, meaning thereby those minor reparations which are from time to time made to the plant to keep the same in safe and efficient working-order.

All the funds or moneys mentioned in section seven, together with all accumulations of interest, shall be held by the said Commissioners upon trust to pay to the said Council, either in one sum or from time to time by instalments in respect of each of the said undertakings specified in section three, that portion of the said funds or moneys and interest standing to the credit of such undertaking for the purpose of renewing or replacing the plant of the undertaking, or any part or parts thereof, that may from time to time become worn out, obsolete, or incapable from any other cause of further usefulness:

Provided that the Commissioners shall not be under any obligation to make any payment to the said Council in respect of any one undertaking for any of the purposes aforesaid, unless and until the amount standing to the credit thereof in the said banking account shall have been exhausted.

No demand shall be made by the Council upon the said Commissioners for any smaller sum than ten thousand pounds at one time, and such demand shall be accompanied by a copy of a resolution duly passed by the Council calling up such money and by a full specification of the works proposed to be done. Such resolution shall contain a statement that the money proposed to be called up is required to replace plant or material that has become worn out or obsolete or is incapable from any other cause of further usefulness, and shall be certified by the Mayor as a correct copy of the resolution of Council. For the purpose of the sum mentioned in this section as the minimum amount that the Council may at any one time call up, the demand so made upon the Commissioners may relate to more than one of the undertakings hereinbefore referred to. The Commissioners shall not pay or refund any amount in respect of any one of the various trading undertakings aforesaid in excess of the amount held by them to the credit of the said undertaking for the time being.

The said Commissioners may call for a report by an engineer or other qualified person to be appointed by them, and such engineer or other person shall have the right to inquire into the reasons why the Council proposes to expend the money asked for, and the nature and extent of the work proposed to be done, and such engineer or other person shall report the result of his investigation and of his opinion upon the proposals of the Council to the said Commissioners. The said Commissioners are hereby authorized to pay to such engineer or other qualified person a reasonable sum for his services.

The said Commissioners may pay the money so demanded by instalments as the works proceed, or may decline to pay the, said money except under an order of the Supreme Court or a Judge thereof, in which case the Council may, by summons in Chambers, apply for an order directing the said Commissioners to pay to the Council the money so demanded; and if the Court is of opinion that the Council has proved that the money required is necessary to replace or renew plant Which has become worn out or obsolete or incapable from any other cause of further usefulness, the Court may make the order authorizing the payment of the money to the Council.

If upon the maturity of any debentures issued by the Council the accrued sinking fund is insufficient to pay the debentures, it shall be lawful for the Council to call up from the Commissioners the whole or part of whatever moneys may be held by them in respect of the undertaking for which the said debentures were issued. The Commissioners may either pay the amount so demanded or may call for a report on the financial bearing of the Council’s demands, and the provisions of sections eleven and twelve hereof shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to any demand made upon the Commissioners in terms of this section.

The said Commissioners shall not be answerable for the misapplication or non-application, nor shall they be obliged to see to the application, of any moneys which may from time to time be paid by them to the Council under the provisions in that behalf hereinbefore contained.

It shall be competent for the Commissioners from time to time to report to the Council on the sufficiency or otherwise of the provision made by the Council for renewals by way of annual appropriations to the said banking account; and if, in the opinion of the said Commissioners, the amount so set aside by the Council in respect of any particular portion of the works or plant is inadequate to provide for all the purposes for which the said renewal fund was established, then the Commissioners may make any recommendation that to them appears necessary or advisable.