This Act may be cited as the Canterbury Museum Trust Board Act, 1947.

Section three of this Act shall come into force on the passing of the Act, and the remaining sections of this Act shall come into force on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight.

There is hereby established a Board, to be called the Canterbury Museum Trust Board.

The Board shall consist of—

The Board shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, and shall be capable of holding real and personal property and of doing and suffering all that bodies corporate may do and suffer.

The Board is hereby declared to be a local authority for the purposes of the Local Authorities (Members’ Contracts) Act, 1934, and the Local Government Loans Board Act, 1926.

In the event of any alteration in the districts of any of the local bodies referred to as the result of a scheme under the Local Government Commission Act, 1946, or as a result of action under any other Act, the Governor-General may by Order in Council vary the representation of the respective local bodies on the Board.

The first members of the Board shall be appointed and elected as follows:—

The first members of the Board shall come into office on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight.

Within three months after municipal general elections are held under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1933,—

With respect to every election by local authorities pursuant to paragraphs (b) and (c) of the last preceding subsection, the following provisions shall apply:—

Every member of the Board appointed or elected under this section shall come into office on the day following that on which he is appointed or elected.

Any member of the Board, whether appointed or elected, may from time to time be reappointed or re-elected or may at any time resign his office by writing addressed to the Secretary to the Board.

Every such member, unless he sooner vacates his office, shall continue to hold office until his successor comes into office.

Every casual vacancy shall be filled in the same manner as in the case of the vacating member, and the member appointed or elected to fill any casual vacancy shall hold office only for the residue of the term of the vacating member:

Provided that in any case where the casual vacancy occurs within four months before the date fixed for the next municipal general election under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1933, the vacancy may be filled by the Board.

The powers of the Board shall not be affected by any vacancy in the membership thereof.

The Board shall elect a chairman from amongst its members at its first meeting, and thereafter at the annual meeting to be held in the month of April in every succeeding year.

The chairman shall preside at all meetings of the Board at which he is present. In the absence of the chairman from any meeting the members present shall appoint one of their number to be the chairman of that meeting.

At any meeting of the Board six members shall form a quorum.

All questions before the Board shall be decided by a majority of the valid votes recorded thereon.

At any meeting of the Board the Chairman shall have a deliberative vote and, in the case of an equality of votes, shall also have a casting vote.

The Director of the Museum shall attend all meetings of the Board as far as it is practicable for him to do so:

Provided that, if the Board so directs, the Director shall temporarily retire from any meeting.

Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Board shall regulate its own proceedings.

On the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, the vesting in the Corporation of Canterbury University College of the land described in the Second Schedule hereto shall be deemed to be cancelled, and the said land shall, as on and from that day, be deemed to be vested in the Board, which shall hold such land upon the trusts and for the specific purposes contemplated by the Canterbury Museum and Library Ordinance, 1870:

Provided that nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall affect the rights appurtenant to the land described in section fifty-four of the Reserves and other Lands Disposal and Public Bodies Empowering Act, 1925, created in favour of the Corporation of the City of Christchurch by subsection two of section eight of the Reserves and other Lands Disposal Act, 1932, and all the provisions of that subsection and of subsection three of the said section eight shall, with the necessary modifications, continue in full force and effect.

The District Land Registrar for the Land Registration District of Canterbury is hereby empowered and directed to make such entries in the registers and generally to do all such things as may be necessary to give full effect to the provisions of this section.

All other assets of the Canterbury Museum as shown in the balance-sheet of the Museum appearing in the accounts of Canterbury University College as at the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, shall by virtue of this Act vest in the Board on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight.

All obligations, engagements, and liabilities of Canterbury University College in respect of the Museum shall by virtue of this Act be obligations, engagements, and liabilities of the Board:

Provided that nothing in this Act shall be so construed as to affect in any way the rights of any creditor.

The Board shall indemnify Canterbury University College against all its liabilities in respect of the Museum.

All the functions, powers, and authorities vested in or which might lawfully be exercised prior to the coming into force of this Act by Canterbury University College in relation to the Museum shall by virtue of this Act be vested in and may be lawfully exercised by the Board.

The Canterbury University College Council shall annually pay to the Board one-half of the net income available from its Museum, Library, and School of Technical Science Endowment.

The Councils of each of the City of Christchurch, the Boroughs of Lyttelton and Riccarton, and the Counties of Heathcote, Waimairi, and Halswell shall contribute annually towards the maintenance, support, and development of the Museum an amount equivalent to one-fortieth of a penny in the pound of the capital value of all rateable property within their respective districts; the Council of the County of Paparua shall contribute annually towards the maintenance, support, and development of the Museum an amount equivalent to one-seventieth of a penny in the pound of the capital value of all rateable property within its district; the local authorities of the districts named in the First Schedule hereto, other than the Council of the County of Ashburton, shall each contribute annually towards the maintenance, support, and development of the Museum an amount equivalent to one-hundredth of a penny in the pound of the capital value of all rateable property within their respective districts; and the Council of the County of Ashburton shall contribute annually towards the maintenance, support, and development of the Museum an amount equivalent to one one-hundred-and-fiftieth of a penny in the pound of the capital value of all rateable property within its district.

All such amounts shall be due and payable by the local authorities in each year commencing from the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, and may at the option of the local authority be paid out of its general funds or out of the proceeds of the rate provided for in the next succeeding section.

In addition to any other rate which it is authorized to make each local authority may from time to time make and levy a rate in its district, to be known as the Canterbury Museum rate, for the purpose of providing the contribution payable to the Board in terms of the provisions hereof; and all the provisions of the Rating Act, 1925, shall apply to such rate.

For the purposes of erecting buildings or of making additions or alterations to buildings, or of purchasing land, or of providing furnishings or equipment, or of paying off any loan which has theretofore been raised by the Board or for which the Board is liable, or for any other purposes of capital expenditure, the Board may borrow money; and as security for any such loan the Board may issue debentures or mortgage or charge any land vested in it, but no such debenture, and no mortgage or charge, shall contain or imply any power of sale of any land which the Board has no power to sell.

The provisions of the Local Bodies’ Finance Act, 1921–22, and of the Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1926, shall, with the necessary modifications, apply to the Board in all respects as if the Board were a local authority within the meaning of those Acts, except that it shall not be necessary in any case to take the steps prescribed by sections nine to thirteen of the Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1926.

All moneys belonging to the Board amounting to five pounds and upwards shall, within seven days after they have come to the hand of the proper officer of the Board, be paid into such bank as the Board from time to time appoints, to the account of the Board.

No moneys shall be drawn out of the bank except by cheque signed by any two of such members of the Board as the Board from time to time authorizes to sign cheques, and countersigned by an officer appointed by the Board for the purpose.

There may be paid to the Chairman and to the members of the Board or of any Committee thereof out of the funds of the Board all amounts actually and reasonably expended by them in attending meetings of the Board or of any committee thereof, or in transacting any business of the Board pursuant to a resolution of the Board.

The Board may in every financial year expend for purposes not authorized by any Act or law for the time being in force any sum or sums not amounting in the whole to more than one per centum of the gross receipts of the Board for that year, nor in any case to more than seventy-five pounds.

The costs incurred by Canterbury University College in the promotion and preparation of this Act and in assisting its passage through Parliament may be paid out of the funds of the Board.

The Audit Office shall be the Auditor of the Board, and shall have the same duties and powers in respect of the moneys and accounts of the Board and of every person dealing therewith as if the Board were a local authority within the meaning of section one hundred and twenty-four of the Public Revenues Act, 1926.

Within twenty-eight days after the close of each financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March the Board shall cause to be prepared and submitted to the Audit Office for audit a balance-sheet and income and expenditure account showing fully the financial position of the Board at the close of the year.

The Board may by resolution from time to time appoint fit persons to be Director of the Museum, Secretary to the Board, and all such other officers and servants as it thinks necessary to assist in the execution of this Act, and may pay such persons such salaries and allowances as it thinks fit.

One person may hold two or more of such offices.

Any officer or servant of the Board may be at any time removed from office by the Board.