The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Southland Provincial Debt Acts Amendment Act 1869.”

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in “The Southland Provincial Debt Act 1865” and “The Southland Provincial Debt Act Amendment Act 1866” it shall be lawful for the Auditor of Public Accounts at any time hereafter to make such examinations and to grant such certificates as in and by the said Acts he was authorized and required to make or grant respectively before the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine and it shall be lawful for the Colonial Treasurer at any time hereafter to pay every such debt with interest in sterling money as in and by the seventh section of the said last-mentioned Act he is required to pay before the said first day of January notwithstanding that the examination and certificate relating to such debt shall not have been granted before the said first day of January one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.

The rate of interest to be allowed to creditors whose claims shall not have been examined into and certified by the Auditor before the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine shall from the first of January one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six to the thirty-first of December one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight both days inclusive be at the rate of six pounds per centum per annum upon the amount of their claims and from and after the said thirty-first day of December one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight shall be at the rate of five pounds per centum per annum upon the amount of such claim.