This Act may be cited as the Hauraki Plains Amendment Act, 1922, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Hauraki Plains Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Save as otherwise provided in this section, the lands described in the Schedule to the principal Act, and all lands that may heretofore have been or may hereafter be acquired under the provisions of section nine of that Act, shall be exempt from all general rates made and levied by the Council of any county within which any part of such lands is situated.

The exemption from rates provided for in the last preceding subsection shall not apply with respect to—

Provided that no lands shall be liable by virtue of this section to any rates in respect of a period prior to the first day of April, nineteen hundred and twenty-three.

Section one hundred and eight of the Reserves and other Lands Disposal and Public Bodies Empowering Act, 1917, is hereby repealed.

The lands described in the Schedule hereto, being lands within the Hauraki Drainage District constituted under the Land Drainage Act, 1908, shall be exempt from any rate that may be made and levied after the first day of April, nineteen hundred and twenty-three, by the Minister of Lands, acting under the authority conferred on him by section three of the Hauraki Plains Amendment Act, 1911.

If any area subject to the operations of the principal Act as defined in section three of the Hauraki Plains Amendment Act, 1912, is hereafter constituted a district under the Land Drainage Act, 1908, or is hereafter included in any such district, it shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in section four of the Hauraki Plains Amendment Act, 1911, be exempt from any rate that may thereafter be made and levied by the Minister of Lands pursuant to section three of the last-mentioned Act.

The proceeds of all rates made and levied pursuant to section three of the Hauraki Plains Amendment Act, 1911, shall be paid into the Hauraki Plains Settlement Account.

Payments in respect of the maintenance of works carried out under the authority of the principal Act may from time to time, without further appropriation than this section, be paid out of moneys standing to the credit of that account.

There may be transferred from the said account to the Consolidated Fund, without further authority than this section, an amount not exceeding the amount of rates made and levied as aforesaid prior to the passing of the Finance Act, 1921–22, and then unpaid.

This section is in substitution for section fifteen of the Finance Act, 1921–22, and that section is hereby accordingly repealed.

The Minister of Lands, acting for and on behalf of the Crown, is hereby authorized to sell to the Hauraki Plains County Council, for such price and subject to such conditions as may be mutually agreed on, and the said Council is hereby authorized to acquire, maintain, and use, all or any of the wharves, jetties, and goods-sheds or other buildings, the property of the Crown, situated on any land subject to the operations of the principal Act as defined in section three of the Hauraki Plains Amendment Act, 1912, or on any land adjacent thereto, together with the lands on which such wharves, jetties, or buildings as aforesaid are situated, and the approaches thereto.

Any agreement for the sale of any property under this section may provide for the payment of the purchase-money by instalments extending over such period, not exceeding twenty-one years, as the Minister thinks fit, and for the payment of interest at the rate of five per centum per annum on the amount of purchase-money for the time being unpaid.

No dues, tolls, fees, or other charges shall be payable by the Crown in respect of the use of any wharves, jetties, or goods-sheds sold pursuant to this section; nor shall any such dues, tolls, fees, or charges be payable by any person engaged in the service of the Crown in respect of any matter arising out of or incidental to such service.