This Act may be cited as the Papanui Memorial Hall Management Act, 1928.

A Committee of Management to be called the Memorial Hall Committee shall be constituted as follows: The Committee shall consist of ten persons, three of whom shall be appointed by the Christchurch City Council, two by the Waimairi County Council, and five shall be elected by persons resident within the said special area in manner hereinafter described.

The Memorial Hall Committee now existing shall hold and continue to hold office until a new Committee shall have been appointed and elected under this Act.

The actions of the Christchurch City Council in allowing the said existing or any past Committee of Management to keep the Income and Expenditure Account in connection with the Papanui Memorial Hall, and of the said Committee in keeping the said accounts, are hereby validated and confirmed.

The first appointment and election of members of the Memorial Hall Committee shall take place in the month of April, nineteen hundred and twenty-nine, and thereafter an appointment and election shall take place annually in the month of April. Every member appointed or elected under this Act shall remain in office for one year or until his successor has been appointed or elected, as the case may be. An elected member who during his year of office ceases to reside within the said special area shall not be deemed to have retired or to have become incapable of continuing in office as a member of the said Committee, but shall not be capable of being re-elected for a further term. If any member of the Committee shall fail to attend four consecutive meetings of the Committee his office as a member of the Committee may be declared by the Christchurch City Council or the Waimairi County Council to be vacant.

Any vacancy occurring by death or resignation of a member or in any other manner shall be filled in the case of an appointed member by the Council by which such member was originally appointed, and in the case of an elected member by an election; and for such purpose the Chairman of the Memorial Hall Committee shall immediately after the vacancy has been reported to or become known to him call a meeting of the residents in the special area in the manner set forth in subsection three hereof, and shall proceed to an election in manner prescribed in the said subsection, the provisions whereof shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to such election.

For the purposes of the election of members of the Committee the Chairman of the said Committee shall during the month of April in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-nine and in each subsequent year thereafter, by public notice in two newspapers circulating in the said special rating area, call a meeting of the residents in the said area, to be held at the said memorial hall on a day and hour to be fixed in and by the said notice (not being more than fourteen days after the date of the last publication thereof), for the purpose of electing five elective members of the said Committee for the ensuing year. The said Chairman shall proceed at such meeting to obtain nominations of persons so resident and willing to accept election. If not more than five persons shall be so nominated he shall declare the same to have been duly elected, and shall forthwith report the result of such election to the Christchurch City Council and the Waimairi County Council. If more than five persons shall be so nominated, the Chairman shall proceed to an election by ballot. The five persons receiving the greatest number of votes in such ballot shall be declared to have been duly elected, and the Chairman shall report the result of such election to the Christchurch City Council and the Waimairi County Council accordingly.

No business shall be transacted at any meeting of the Memorial Hall Committee unless there shall be present at least three-fifths of the whole number of members.

The Committee shall elect one of its members to act as its Secretary, who shall take and record minutes of all its proceedings. The Committee shall also elect one of its members to act as Treasurer, and one to act as Convenor and as Chairman to preside at all its meetings; in the absence of such Chairman at any meeting the members present may elect one of the members present to preside in his place and during his absence.

The Memorial Hall Committee may from time to time make, rescind, alter, and revoke regulations for the letting of the memorial hall, for the use of the memorial hall and all property relating thereto, and for securing order and the good behaviour of all persons using the memorial hall and any other rooms and all property pertaining thereto.

The Memorial Hall Committee shall control the general maintenance and management of the memorial hall, including the letting of the hall, engagement and payment of attendants and caretakers, maintenance and repairs of the building and furniture.

The said Committee shall receive and pay into a bank to be approved by the said Christchurch City Council and Waimairi County Council all moneys received from whatever source in connection with the hall, and shall have power to operate on the said bank account for the purposes of the hall by cheques signed by the Treasurer and any one other member of the Committee, and shall keep an income and expenditure account of all such moneys, and shall furnish on the first day of April in each year or not later than one month thereafter to the Christchurch City Council and to the Waimairi County Council an annual statement in detail of such account as at the thirty-first day of March immediately preceding that date, and such statement of account shall be audited by the Audit Office.

The yearly surplus or deficiency of such account shall be divided or borne, as the case may be, between the Christchurch City Council and the Waimairi County Council, in the proportion of three-fifths to the Christchurch City Council and two-fifths to the Waimairi County Council, such surplus (if any) to be paid into the Loan Sinking Fund Account, the Loan Interest Account, or a separate account:

Provided, however, that in the event of a surplus the said Committee may in any year retain and carry forward to the ensuing year any sum not exceeding an amount of fifty pounds.

The Committee shall not make any structural alterations or additions to the memorial hall without the previous consent in writing of the Christchurch City Council, and shall not without the like consent undertake any extraordinary expenditure or enter into any contract involving a liability exceeding fifty pounds in any one year.

The Christchurch City Council may, at any time by resolution whereof fourteen days’ previous notice shall have been given to the said Papanui Memorial Hall Committee, resume, either permanently or for such period as shall be fixed by such resolution, the duty of receiving and expending the income of, and all moneys arising out of the management, and out of the use of, the said memorial hall, and assume all the other duties of the said Committee; and the said Christchurch City Council shall during all such time as shall be covered by such notice furnish to the County Council of the County of Waimairi an annual statement thereof as on the thirty-first day of March in each year. And after the expiration of the said fourteen days’ notice the said Committee shall forthwith hand over the balance then in the hands of the said Committee, and at credit in the said banking account of the Committee, to the Christchurch City Council, and on such balance being so handed over the said Committee shall go out of office and be deemed to be dissolved.