This Act may be cited as the Manawatu-Oroua River District Amendment Act, 1925, and shall form part of and be read together with the Manawatu-Oroua River District Act, 1923 (hereinafter called the principal Act).

Section thirty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting all the words after the words “at the River Board’s option,” and substituting the following: “into four or more classes by reference to the degree, if any, to which those lands have received or are likely to receive either an increase in value or an indirect benefit from the works and operations carried out or proposed to be carried out by the River Board. In the event of the second method of classification being adopted the rates shall be levied upon all the said classes of land (other than lands classified as not having received and not being likely to receive any increase in value or any indirect benefit from the said works and operations) in such proportions as the River Board in each case approves.”

The boundaries of the Manawatu-Oroua River District constituted under the principal Act are hereby extended as from the twenty-second day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, by including therein the area described in the First Schedule hereto.

In lieu of the subdivisions described in the Second Schedule to the principal Act, the district as so enlarged is hereby divided as from the said twenty-second day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, into five subdivisions with the names and boundaries set out in the Second Schedule hereto.

Subsection two of section three of the principal Act and the Second Schedule to that Act are hereby repealed.

If the Board is of opinion that lands not included in the district have derived or may derive benefit from the operations carried out or proposed to be carried out under the powers conferred by the principal Act, the Board may present a petition to the Governor-General praying that the boundaries of the district may be altered so as to include such lands in the district or in any subdivision thereof.

Every such petition shall define with reasonable certainty the boundaries of the lands proposed to be included.

On presentation to the Governor-General of such petition by the Board the Governor-General may, if he thinks fit, direct a Commission, consisting of the Commissioner of Crown Lands, the District Land Valuer for the district in which the lands proposed to be included are situated, and some third person whom the Governor-General deems qualified for the purpose, to inquire and report to him as to whether the lands defined in the petition or any part thereof have derived or may derive substantial benefit from the operations carried out or proposed to be carried out by the Board, and whether such lands or part thereof should be included in the district, and accordingly become liable to levy of rates thereafter to be made by the Board, and to what extent (if any) such lands ought to become liable for the future levy of rates already made by the Board.

Such Commission shall have all the powers, authorities, and functions of a Commission under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1908.

If the Commission reports to the Governor-General that such lands or any part thereof ought to be included in the district, the Governor-General may, by Order in Council, alter the boundaries of the district by including therein such lands or any part thereof. All lands so included shall, as from the date of the Order in Council, be liable to the levy of all rates thereafter made by the Board.

If the Commission reports to the Governor-General that such lands or any part thereof ought to become liable for the future levy of rates theretofore made by the Board, the Governor-General may, by the same Order in Council, direct that such lands or part thereof shall be so liable, and the same shall be so liable for all levies of such rates after the date of the Order in Council.

On any alteration of the boundaries of the district under the provisions of this section the Governor-General may, by the same or any other Order in Council, alter the boundaries of the subdivisions of the district.

Subsection one of section eight of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the reference to paragraphs (a), (b), and (c), and substituting a reference to paragraphs (a), (b), and (e).

Where the Board is of opinion that under any classification heretofore made under section thirty-four of the principal Act minor anomalies and injustices have resulted by reason of the fact that a property classified as a whole receives varying degrees of benefit, it may modify the classification by classifying the property into more than one class, provided always that no modification shall be made which will increase the total rates payable in respect of the property.

Any modification made as aforesaid shall be noted on the classification list and the entry thereon signed by the Board. Every modification shall then for all purposes of section thirty-five of the principal Act be deemed to be part of the classification list as if it had originally appeared thereon.

Where the classification of any property is modified as aforesaid it shall not be deemed to be a reclassification of the property, and there shall be no right of appeal against such modification.

Notwithstanding anything in the principal Act contained, no person shall be entitled to vote at any election of a member of the Board, or at any poll upon a proposal submitted to the ratepayers of the district, or shall be capable of being elected or of holding office as a member of the Board, while the land in respect of which his name appears on the ratepayers roll is by reason of the classification of that land for rating purposes exempt from payment of all rates made and levied by the Board of the district.

Subsection one of section thirty-three of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding, after the word “subdivisions,” the following words: “or any defined part of any subdivision (whether called by a distinctive name or not).”

Subsection two of section thirty-three of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the word “equally”; and by adding, after the word “subdivision” wherever it occurs in the subsection, the words “or defined part of a subdivision”; and after the word “subdivisions” the words “or defined parts.”

Section thirty-eight of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding, after the word “district,” the following words: “or subdivision or defined part.”

If the Board is of opinion that any local authority, whether within the district or outside the district, is deriving or will derive benefit from the operations carried out or proposed to be carried out under the powers conferred by the principal Act or this Act, then and in every such case the Board may apply to the Governor-General to apportion the cost between the Board and the said local authority; and the Governor-General may thereupon, but subject to the provisions of subsection three hereof, by notice gazetted apportion the cost accordingly, and the apportionment so gazetted shall be final and binding on all parties concerned, and may be enforced by the Board as if it were a judgment of the Supreme Court.

When making any such apportionment the Governor-General may apportion among all or any of the subdivisions of the district the proportion of the cost fairly chargeable to such subdivision.

Before making the apportionment aforesaid the Governor-General may, if he thinks proper, appoint some fit person or persons to be a Commissioner or 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 the proportion of the said cost, if any, fairly chargeable to the said local authority and the various subdivisions of the district, and the Commissioners so appointed shall inquire into the said matters, and shall report to the Governor-General thereon.

Before making and levying a separate rate or a special rate over a subdivision or defined part of a subdivision in terms of section thirty-three of the principal Act the Board shall cause the land comprised in such subdivision or defined part to be classified in accordance with the provisions of section thirty-four of the principal Act as amended by this Act. Any such classification shall be in addition to any other then existing classification of the land included therein, and no variation between any such classifications in respect of any of the lands included therein shall in anywise invalidate any or all of such classifications.

In carrying out the classification of land in accordance with the provisions of section thirty-four of the principal Act the persons appointed to make the classification may, in their discretion, treat each property as a whole and classify it accordingly or divide each property into parts and classify each part separately. In any appeal against the classification of any property there shall be no appeal against any decision of the classifiers under this section as to the method of classification to be adopted.

If any local authority exercising jurisdiction over any area wholly or partly within the district of the Manawatu-Oroua River Board, or any ratepayer in such district, claims that any protection works carried out by such local authority or ratepayer within the district are or are likely to be required for the efficient carrying-out of the River Board’s operations under its statutory powers, or are or may be of substantial benefit to such operations, such local authority or ratepayer may request the Board to bear a proportion of the cost of such protection works or to grant some commensurate consideration to the lands within the district in respect of such works.

On receipt of such request the Board shall apply to the Governor-General for the appointment of some fit person or persons to be a Commission to investigate and determine the matter, and the Governor-General may make such appointment accordingly. Such Commission shall have all the powers of a Commission appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1908:

Provided that the Board need not apply for the appointment of a Commission if the Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department, or some other Engineer of the Department appointed by him, gives a certificate in writing that the said works have not been and are not likely to be of substantial benefit to the efficient carrying-out of the Board’s operations under its statutory powers.

There may also be referred to any Commission appointed as aforesaid the question of the value of any river protection works carried out by any other local authority or any other ratepayer in the Board’s district and required or likely to be required for or which are or may be of substantial benefit to the efficient carrying-out of the Board’s operations under its statutory powers, and the Commission shall determine what proportion of the cost of such works should be borne by the Board, or what other relief should be granted by the Board, in consideration of such works.

When the Commission decides that any protection works are or are likely to be required for or of substantial benefit to the efficient carrying-out of the Board’s operations it may recommend that an adjustment be made either in connection with the classification of lands for rating or in some other manner, and the recommendation of the Commission shall be given effect to by the Board. If the Commission recommends that a proportion of the cost of any such works should be borne by the Board it shall also, if so requested, apportion such proportion of the cost amongst the several subdivisions of the district in such shares as it deems just.