The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough Rivers Acts Amendment Act, 1872.”

In the construction of this Act, the expression “the said Acts” shall mean “The Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough Rivers Act, 1868,” and “The Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough Rivers Act 1868 Amendment Act, 1870;” and this Act and the said Acts shall be read and construed as one Act.

All land within any district constituted under the said Acts shall be rateable property within the meaning of the said Acts, and this Act, save as is next hereinafter excepted—that is to say, except land the property of Her Majesty and unoccupied, unless the same shall have been sold or leased, or contracted to be sold or leased, or unless a license to occupy the same shall have been issued; land the property of Her Majesty and used for public purposes; land and buildings in the occupation of the Crown or the Government of the Colony, or of the Province in which such land and buildings are situate, or of the Council of a Borough established under “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1867;” hospitals benevolent institutions and buildings used exclusively for public charitable purposes or for literary and scientific institutions; churches chapels and other buildings used exclusively for public worship; the dwellings of officiating ministers of religious denominations; buildings used as schools, provided they be inhabited only by the master or mistress of such schools or his or her family, and such schools be schools receiving aid from the Government of the Colony or the Province in which such schools are, or otherwise of a public character, together with the land immediately surrounding and appertaining to the same; burial grounds and land vested in the Superintendent of any Province, or any Corporation Commissioners or other persons under “The Public Reserves Act, 1854,” or “The Public Reserves Act Amendment Act, 1862,” or any Act or Ordinance passed in pursuance of the said two last-mentioned Acts or either of them: Provided that nothing herein contained shall exempt from being rated hereunder any lands of the Crown occupied under a license from the Crown or other lawful authority, nor lands of the Crown which have been or shall hereafter be sold or leased, or which have been or shall be contracted to be sold or leased, on the ground that no grant or lease from the Crown has been made to the purchaser or proposed lessee or tenant thereof, but such land shall be liable to be rated as if a Crown grant or lease thereof had been made and issued.

For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the said Acts and this Act, the Board may make and levy rates upon all rateable property within the district; and no such rates made in any one year shall exceed the amount of one shilling in the pound of the annual value of such property.

For the purpose of determining the annual value of the property within any district, and for the purpose of fixing the amount of the rates to be paid thereon, the valuation of rateable property last in force duly made by any Borough Council, Town Board, County or Road Board, under any Act or Ordinance respectively permitting such valuation to be made, as the case may be, shall, for the purposes of the said Act and this Act, be the assessment upon which the rate may be levied.

The fourth section of “The Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough Rivers Act, 1868,” shall be read as if the words “three-fourths of the acreage” had been omitted therefrom, and as if the words “three-fourths of the annual value of the rateable property as herein provided” had been inserted therein; and it shall not be necessary, in any list of owners or occupiers, to be made under the sixth section of the said Act, to affix the number of acres owned or occupied by such person opposite the name of such person.

Whenever a Board shall have been elected under the said Acts, the Superintendent shall, by notice in the Provincial Government Gazette of the Province, appoint the day time and place for the first meeting of the Board, and such meeting shall be held on such day and at the time and place in the notice mentioned.

The twentieth and twenty-first sections of “The Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough Rivers Act, 1868,” are hereby repealed: Provided that such repeal shall not affect any rate lawfully made thereunder, or alter any other thing lawfully made or done by virtue of the powers therein contained; and any rate lawfully made under the said twentieth section may be collected, and the payment thereof enforced, under the powers therein contained.

Sections from twenty-two to thirty-two both inclusive of “The Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough Rivers Act, 1868,” shall cease to be in operation within the Provinces of Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough from and after the passing of this Act, except as to any act matter or thing then pending and uncompleted under the said sections or any of them which may be completed and enforced thereunder notwithstanding this section.

In any other Province to which the provisions of the said Acts have been or may hereafter be extended, the said sections hereinbefore mentioned shall only cease to operate therein upon this Act being brought into force in such Province as by the said Acts provided.

Where this Act shall be in force in any Province, then all persons who shall appear upon any assessment roll or rate roll, as the case may be, of lands within the district, as owner or occupier, shall be entitled to vote in the election of each Conservator in manner following (that is to say)—

Where the amount of rate payable by the voter shall be

And whenever this Act is in force as aforesaid, then the forty-sixth and forty-seventh sections of the said Act shall cease to be applicable in respect of any election held under this Act.

This Act shall only be in operation within the Provinces of Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough, unless the same shall be brought into operation in other Provinces in accordance with the provisions of the said Acts.

“The Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough Rivers Act 1868 Amendment Act, 1870,” shall from the date of the passing thereof be deemed to have been in force within the Provinces of Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough notwithstanding anything in the said Act contained.