The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Wanganui Hospital Act, 1872,” and it shall come into operation on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.

The Act of the Superintendent and Provincial Council of the Province of Wellington, shortly intituled “The Wanganui Hospital Act, 1872,” is hereby repealed.

The Mayor Councillors and Burgesses of Wanganui, hereinafter called “the Corporation,” may accept from the Superintendent for the time being of the Province of Wellington a conveyance of all the lands and hereditaments described in the Schedule hereto, and the Superintendent may convey and transfer the said lands and hereditaments to the Corporation without consideration, to hold to them and their successors upon trust for the purposes of this Act.

Until the said lands and hereditaments shall have been conveyed and transferred to the Corporation, the Superintendent for the time being of the said Province shall pay over to the Corporation from time to time as they shall be received all rents and profits of the said lands and hereditaments.

All moneys and personal property of every description which shall at the coming into operation of this Act be held by or vested in the said Superintendent, or in any other person upon trust for the purposes of the said Hospital, shall immediately vest in the Corporation to be held used and applied by them for the purposes of this Act, and shall as soon as practicable be paid delivered transferred and assigned to the Corporation accordingly.

The Corporation shall have the following powers:—

The Corporation shall hold all rents and profits of any of the said lands, and all moneys received by them in exercise of the powers given to them by this Act, or otherwise received by them for the purposes of the said Hospital, upon the following trusts:—

The Eleventh Part of “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1867,” shall extend and apply to the sums of money to be received and the accounts to be kept by the Corporation under this Act. The Corporation shall in every year, as soon as may be after the annual audit of their accounts, forward to the Superintendent for the time being of the Province of Wellington a balance sheet showing the state of the accounts relating to the said Hospital, together with a full report of their proceedings in relation to and of the progress and condition of the Hospital during the preceding year.

If upon any such report of the Corporation forwarded to the said Superintendent or otherwise it shall appear to the Superintendent that the annual sums applied or to be applied by the Corporation for the purposes of the said Hospital, whether arising from the endowments thereof or not, are insufficient, or will during the next ensuing year prove insufficient for the due and efficient maintenance thereof, and the Corporation shall not consent to increase the same to a sufficient amount as hereinafter provided, he shall report the same to the Governor, and the Governor in Council shall thereupon appoint one or more Commissioners to inquire into and report concerning the matter, and the Governor in Council shall order the Corporation to contribute from the Borough Fund such annual sum (if any) as upon the report of such Commissioners he shall think fit.

If the Corporation shall consent to increase the said annual sum by a stated amount, and the said Superintendent shall notify to the Corporation that he deems the same sufficient, the Corporation shall during the year next after the receipt of such notification, and in every year afterwards until the end of the current year in which they shall have signified to the said Superintendent their intention to discontinue the payment thereof, pay out of the Borough Fund of the Borough of Wanganui, for the purposes of the said Hospital, such stated sum as aforesaid.

If the Governor in Council shall order the Corporation to contribute out of the Borough Fund any annual sum as aforesaid, the Corporation shall during the year next after the making of such order, and in every year afterwards until the end of the current year in which they shall have signified to the said Superintendent their intention to discontinue the payment thereof, pay out of the said Borough Fund, for the purposes of the said Hospital, the annual sum so ordered to be paid.

All matters and things to be done by the Corporation in pursuance of the rights powers and duties conferred or imposed upon them by this Act, shall be done by the Council of the Borough of Wanganui, or by a Committee thereof, in the same manner as the ordinary business of the Corporation.