This Act may be cited as the Roman Catholic Bishops Empowering Act 1954.

In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context,—

Any Bishop may sell and dispose of any hereditaments by public auction, public tender, or private contract, except in cases where a sale is expressly forbidden by the terms of the trust on which the hereditaments are or are intended to be vested in such Bishop, and any such sale may be for cash or on credit, or partly for cash and partly on credit.

Any Bishop may exchange any hereditaments which are or are intended to be vested in him for other freehold hereditaments in New Zealand, with power to pay out of any moneys applicable for that purpose or to receive any money for equality of exchange.

The net proceeds of any sale and the net moneys received for equality of exchange shall be dealt with in any one or more of the following ways—that is to say, they shall be laid out in the purchase of other freehold hereditaments in New Zealand, or expended in effecting permanent improvements to any other hereditaments held or to be held on the same trusts as affected the hereditaments sold or given in exchange, or they shall be invested in any securities for the time being permitted by the law of New Zealand for the investment of trust funds.

All hereditaments purchased or received in exchange, and all such investments and the income arising therefrom, shall be held upon the trusts that affected the hereditaments sold or given in exchange.

Any Bishop shall have the power to borrow money on the security of mortgage of any hereditaments, but so that all moneys so borrowed shall be expended only in effecting permanent improvements to the hereditaments mortgaged or to other hereditaments held on the same trusts as those mortgaged, or in paying off any mortgage theretofore effected over any such hereditaments; and any such mortgage may confer upon the mortgagee a power authorizing him to sell the mortgaged hereditaments for default in the payment of principal and interest or in the observance or performance of any of the covenants contained or implied in any such mortgage.

Any Bishop shall have power to lease any hereditaments for a period not exceeding ninety-nine years, but so, nevertheless, that every lease shall take effect in possession or within six calendar months from the date thereof, and shall reserve such rent and contain such covenants and provisions as such Bishop may deem reasonable, and so also that no fine, forfeit, or premium shall be payable in respect of any such lease.

Any Bishop may accept the surrender of any lease on such terms and conditions as he shall think fit.

Any Bishop may from time to time rescind or vary any contract of sale or any contract to effect an exchange or to grant a lease.

No purchaser of any hereditaments, no person giving to a Bishop any money by way of exchange, no person from whom a Bishop shall borrow any money, and no lessee paying any rent to a Bishop shall be bound or concerned to inquire into or to see to the application of any money paid by him to such Bishop or be responsible for the misapplication thereof, and no person effecting an exchange shall be concerned to see to the vesting of any land exchanged by him.

Any Bishop shall have power in respect of any hereditaments to lay off, form, construct, and dedicate roads, and to pay the costs and expenses in connection therewith, out of any money subject to the same trusts as those upon which the hereditaments so to be dedicated were held, or out of any other money applicable for the purpose.

Any Bishop shall have power to set apart such reserves as may be required by any legislation or the regulations thereunder for the time being in force, or by lawful authority, to be set apart in the event of any hereditaments being subdivided for sale, lease, or other disposition.

Any Bishop may from time to time empower by deed any person or persons to exercise during his absence from New Zealand all or any of the powers and authorities conferred upon him by this Act, and the exercise of such powers and authorities by such person or persons shall be as valid and effectual to all intents and purposes as if the same had been exercised by the Bishop himself.

Nothing contained in any Act conferring powers upon a Bishop relating to hereditaments acquired by purchase, gift, devise, or in any manner howsoever shall, in the case of hereditaments not acquired exclusively for parish purposes, require or be deemed to require that—

shall be applied, utilized, or expended in favour of the ecclesiastical parish in which the hereditaments sold, exchanged, mortgaged, leased, or received by way of exchange shall be respectively situated.

Where any legal or beneficial estate or interest in any land of any tenure or in any chattel interest in such land is vested in, held by, or registered in the personal name or names of the present or any future holder or holders of the office of an Archbishop or Bishop of a Roman Catholic archdiocese or diocese in New Zealand, whether alone or jointly or in common with any other person or persons, or by or in the name or names of any person or persons now deceased, including a deceased Archbishop or Bishop, whether alone or jointly or in common with any other person or persons, and the Bishop in whose archdiocese or diocese the said land or chattel interest in land is situate is of the opinion that the said legal or beneficial estate or interest does not form part of the beneficial estate of such holder or holders of the said office or of such deceased person or persons, and that such estate or interest is vested in, held by, or registered in the name of such holder or holders of the said office or such deceased person or persons in trust for a religious, charitable, educational, or other purpose of the Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand or of any body, society, or organization associated with such church or forming part thereof, such Bishop may apply to the Registrar to register the Bishop as proprietor of such estate or interest, in lieu of such holder or holders of the said office or deceased person or persons, to be held by such Bishop pursuant to the Roman Catholic Lands Act 1876, the Roman Catholic Lands Extension Act 1890, and this Act.

Every application to the Registrar under section sixteen of this Act shall be in such form as shall be required by the Registrar and shall be accompanied by—

On receipt of an application under section sixteen hereof accompanied by the documents and payment referred to in section seventeen hereof the Registrar shall as soon as practicable thereafter give notice thereof in such newspaper or newspapers and on such occasions as he thinks desirable for the purpose of bringing the application to the notice of all persons likely to be affected by the said application. Such notice shall be in a form approved by the Registrar.

Any person claiming the beneficial ownership of any estate or interest affected by any such applications may within two months after the date of the first publication of the notice lodge with the Registrar a caveat forbidding the registration of the Bishop as the registered proprietor of the estate or interest to which the said application applies.

On receipt of any caveat within the time limited therefor the Registrar shall cause notice thereof to be served on the Bishop, and shall not proceed further with the application until the caveat is withdrawn or removed.

Any caveat may be withdrawn by the caveator by written notice to the Registrar.

Where a caveat has been lodged, the Bishop may withdraw the application by written notice to the Registrar or may apply to the Supreme Court on motion for an order that the caveat be removed.

Upon the hearing of the motion and on proof of the service thereof, the Supreme Court may make such order in the premises, either ex parte or otherwise, as to the Court seems meet.

Without limiting the generality of the last preceding subsection, the Court may order the caveat to be removed as to the whole or any part of the land affected by the application, and in any case the Bishop may amend the application in terms of the order.

If for a space of three months after receipt of notice of the lodging of a caveat, or such extended time as the Supreme Court on summary application may direct, the Bishop does not apply to the Supreme Court for an order that the caveat be removed as hereinbefore provided, the application shall be deemed to have lapsed and the Registrar shall proceed no further therewith.

When the time limited for lodging a caveat against any such application has expired and all caveats so lodged have been withdrawn or removed, and the Registrar is satisfied that the application, as originally submitted or later amended, has been duly made under this Act, the Registrar shall proceed to carry out the steps required by such application and to register the Bishop as the registered proprietor of the estate or interest affected thereby, and shall, if necessary, issue a new certificate of title in respect thereof.

Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to limit, modify, or abridge any provision of the Roman Catholic Bishops Empowering Act 1951, which Act shall be deemed to apply in all respects to this Act in the same manner as if this Act had been in force prior to the coming into force of the Roman Catholic Bishops Empowering Act 1951, so that a Coadjutor Archbishop or Bishop and any other person or persons included in the expression “Coadjutor Bishop” by section two of such last-mentioned Act shall be deemed to have all the powers, authorities, and discretions given to a Bishop by this Act.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland Empowering Act 1924, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland Empowering Act 1929, and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Dunedin Empowering Act 1940 are hereby repealed.

This Act is hereby declared to be a private Act.