This Act may be cited as the Petone and Lower Hutt Gas-lighting Amendment Act, 1933, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Petone and Lower Hutt Gas-lighting Act, 1922 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

The Board may contract with any other corporation or person for the supply of gas in bulk to the Board at Petone or elsewhere upon such terms as may be agreed upon, subject, however, to all the conditions as to taking a poll contained in subsections two to seven inclusive of section three of the Petone and Lower Hutt Gas-lighting Amendment Act, 1927, the provisions of which subsections shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to any contract proposed to be entered into under the authority of this Act.

Notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained, it shall be lawful for the Board, without taking any poll, from time to time to enter into any agreement for the variation or modification of any such contract, or for extending the term thereof for any period not exceeding two years.

The Board’s powers under the principal Act shall be deemed to include the laying of all mains and the provision of all pumping - syphons, traps, and other apparatus that may be necessary or convenient for bringing gas from the premises of any person or corporation supplying the Board to any points outside such premises.

The Board shall consist of seven members.

Whenever there shall be a general election of Councillors in each borough the electors of each borough shall elect three members of the Board; and the seventh member shall be appointed by resolution of the six members so elected or, in the event of even voting, by the Governor-General in Council.

In the event of the death or ouster from office of any of the six elected members before the appointment of the seventh member, such appointment shall be deferred until the vacancy so occasioned shall have been filled up.

The Chairman shall be elected annually from among the members, and shall hold office until the appointment of his successor.

Every member shall come into office on the day of his election or appointment, and shall, unless his office sooner becomes vacant, continue in office until his successor is elected or appointed.

If the office of the seventh member shall become vacant otherwise than by the appointment of his successor, the members of the Board shall proceed by resolution to appoint some other person to be the seventh member:

Provided that in the event of even voting the seventh member shall be appointed by the Governor-General in Council.

This section is in substitution for section eleven of the Petone and Lower Hutt Gas-lighting Amendment Act, 1927, and that section is hereby accordingly repealed.

The provisions of the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1925, shall apply, and shall be deemed always to have applied, to all elections of members and to all polls taken by the Board.

Notwithstanding anything contained in any Act, the Board may agree with the Petone Borough Council or the Lower Hutt Borough Council for each or either such Council to conduct and supervise within its own district any election of members of the Board, or any poll required to be held by the Board, in so far as such members are required to be elected, or the proposal the subject of such poll is required to be voted on, by the electors or (as the case may be) the ratepayers of such district.

Whenever any such agreement is entered into the Board may pay to the Borough Council or Borough Councils with which such agreement is made the reasonable additional cost incurred by such Borough Council in respect of any such election or poll held or taken simultaneously with any other election or poll held or taken by such Borough Council, or the reasonable cost of any such election or poll not so held or taken, as the case may be; the amount to be paid to be fixed, if disputed, by the Audit Office after such inquiries as it thinks fit.

Section ten of the Petone and Lower Hutt Gaslighting Amendment Act, 1927, is hereby amended by substituting the words “fifty pounds” for the words “twenty-five pounds”.