This Act may be cited as the Thames Harbour Board Loan and Empowering Act, 1920.

This Act shall be deemed to be a special Act within the meaning of the Harbours Act, 1908.

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

The Local Elections and Polls Act, 1908, and its amendments shall apply to every poll taken under this Act, and the Board shall appoint some person to be Returning Officer for the conduct of the poll hereinafter authorized.

Subject to the approval of the ratepayers expressed at a poll to be taken as hereinafter provided, it shall be lawful for the Board to borrow from time to time such sum or sums of money as the Board shall deem fit, but so that the total of the amounts so borrowed and for the time being outstanding shall not exceed in the aggregate two hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds.

The Board may borrow such sum or sums of money as aforesaid for such period or periods as it may think fit, and may again borrow any or all of such sum or sums of money as they fall due for such further or other period or periods as the Board may think fit, not exceeding in the aggregate thirty-six and a half years.

No money shall be borrowed under the authority of this Act, except with the consent of the Governor-General in Council first had and obtained, which shall produce to the lender a higher rate of interest than five pounds ten shillings per centum per annum.

In pursuance of the powers hereby conferred it shall be lawful for the Board from time to time, as it may require, to issue debentures in the form or to the effect in the Second Schedule hereto.

Debentures issued under the authority of this Act, together with interest payable in respect thereof, shall, subject to any outstanding or existing charges, be a charge—

For the purpose of providing for the repayment of the moneys borrowed under the authority hereof the Board shall at the commencement of each year appropriate from the Harbour Fund and set apart as a sinking fund a sum equal to one pound per centum of the aggregate amount of debentures issued under this Act and then outstanding.

The moneys so borrowed shall be applied by the Board under the authority of this Act in payment—

It shall be lawful for the Board, with the approval of the Governor-General in Council, at any time to construct any line of railway and to purchase from time to time any land or lands for all or any of such purposes.

The powers of the Board under this Act shall be exercised subject to the provisions of the Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers Improvement Act, 1910, and in the event of any dispute arising between the Board and the Minister of Public Works in respect of anything done or proposed to be done under this Act the matter shall be referred to the Governor-General, whose decision shall be final.

For the purposes of this Act there is hereby constituted a harbour district, to be called “The Thames Harbour District,” comprising the area described in the First Schedule hereto.

It shall be the duty of the Town Clerk of each borough and the Clerk of each county or town district within the harbour district from time to time, at the request of the Chairman, to prepare a list setting forth the name, address, and occupation (with a description of the property and its capital value) of each ratepayer whose name appears on the valuation roll in force for the time being respecting rateable property in such borough, county, or town district.

Native lands within the harbour district other than customary lands shall be deemed to be rateable property for all the purposes of this Act if and so long as the same are occupied or used and profit is derived therefrom by the Native owners, whether from farming operations or from rent, royalties, or otherwise.

The Valuer-General shall, at the request of the Chairman, cause to be prepared, and shall furnish to the Board when required, a list of all Native lands within the harbour district which are so occupied or used, and shall in such list set forth the capital values of all such lands and the owners thereof.

From these lists the Secretary of the Thames Harbour Board shall prepare a roll setting forth the names of all ratepayers within the said harbour district.

Such roll when prepared shall be signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the Thames Harbour Board, and shall be delivered to the Returning Officer, and shall be the roll upon which the poll shall be taken.

Every ratepayer in the district whose name appears upon the roll shall be entitled to exercise one vote and no more.

The poll shall be taken as follows:—

If the total number of valid votes recorded in favour of the proposal is a majority of the total number of valid votes recorded at the poll the proposal shall be deemed to be carried.

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

As soon as conveniently may be after the poll the Chairman shall send to the Minister of Finance for publication in the Gazette a notice of the number of votes recorded for and against the proposal, and in such notice shall declare the proposal to be carried or rejected, as the case may be.

If in the notice so published in the Gazette it is declared that the proposal was carried, such notice shall be conclusive evidence that the raising of the loan has been duly authorized, and that all proceedings and things required by this Act as conditions precedent to the exercise by the Board of the borrowing-powers hereby conferred have been duly and lawfully taken and done.

If in the said notice it is declared that the proposal was rejected, it shall be lawful for the Board, at any time after the expiration of six calendar months from the date of the publication in the Gazette of such notice, to direct that another poll be held in the same manner and subject to the same conditions upon the same proposal. A third but no further poll may be taken, but such third poll shall not be taken earlier than twelve calendar months after the second rejection.

If the proposal is declared to be carried, a special rate sufficient to provide a sum of not less than ten pounds per centum per annum over and above the amount required by the Board for the purpose of providing interest and sinking fund upon the moneys to be borrowed under the authority of this Act shall be deemed to have been duly made and struck by the Board in manner provided by law and in accordance with the provisions of the Rating Act, 1908, and to have been duly appropriated and pledged by the Board as security in part for all moneys to be borrowed under the authority of this Act, and such rate shall be a continuing annually recurring rate without further proceedings by the Board until payment in full of all such moneys.

The Board shall in each year cause an estimate to be prepared, in such manner and according to such principle and method as the Board approves, of its anticipated total revenue for the year exclusive of such special rate and of its anticipated general expenditure for the year (including interest and sinking fund upon the moneys borrowed under the authority of this Act, but exclusive of capital expenditure upon loan account), and shall upon such estimate determine the deficiency of such revenue to meet such expenditure.

Any credit or debit balance of the Board’s General Account at the close of each year shall be carried forward to the account of the succeeding year for the purpose of the estimate of such succeeding year, and the determination of the deficiency of the revenue of such succeeding year to meet the expenditure thereof.

The Board shall direct the levy in each year of such part of the said special rate as shall be sufficient to provide such deficiency.

Such levy shall be made upon the capital value of all “rateable property,” as such term is defined by the Rating Act, 1908, and amendments, in the boroughs of Thames, Waihi, Te Aroha, and Paeroa, and the counties of Thames, Hauraki Plains, Ohinemuri, and Piako, and the Town District of Morrinsville, not exceeding in respect of each such local authority the respective amounts set out in the Third Schedule hereto. Where less than the maximum rate is required to be levied in any year the rates actually levied in the district of each local authority shall bear to each other the same proportion as the several maximum rates provided in the said Third Schedule:

Provided that the Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council, on application in that behalf made by the Board, vary the proportions specified in the Third Schedule hereto as from a date to be fixed by that Order.

In the event of any new borough, county, or town district being constituted within the harbour district the maximum rate of such new borough, county, or town district shall be the maximum rate of the area of which such borough, county, or town district was formerly a part, or the highest of such rates if the new borough, county, or town district comprises portions of two or more of the districts specified in the Third Schedule hereto.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed as in any manner limiting or affecting the rights of the holders of debentures to be issued by the Board to require the levy of the whole of the rate as defined by section twenty-two hereof if any default is made by the Board in payment of any interest or capital moneys secured by such debentures.

For the purpose of making, levying, and recovering the said rates the Board shall have and may exercise all the powers of making, levying, and recovering rates in the said boroughs, counties, and town district comprising the harbour district which any local body having rating-powers within such boroughs, counties, or town district has or may have under the law for the time being in force regulating the making and recovery of rates therein respectively.

No rate or levy made under this Act shall be set aside or quashed by any proceeding in any Court or otherwise, and no defect in the making thereof shall be set up as a defence to any action which may be brought to recover the same.

Pending the raising of the said loan of two hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds, the Board may borrow from its bankers or any other source any sum or sums of money, not exceeding the whole amount hereby authorized to be borrowed, by the hypothecation or mortgage of any debentures authorized to be issued by this Act, or on any other security, but all moneys so borrowed shall be a first charge upon and shall be repaid out of the loan when raised; and the yearly rate of interest on moneys so borrowed shall in no case exceed five pounds ten shillings per centum per annum, except with the consent of the Governor-General in Council first had and obtained.

The Board may quarry and sell quarry-stone and road-metal or any other material for roadmaking on such terms as it thinks fit.

The Governor-General may, if he thinks fit, at any time after the passing of this Act, appoint any three competent persons to be Commissioners, with all the powers of a Commission appointed by the Governor-General in Council under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1908, for the purpose of inquiring into and determining the following questions, that is to say:—