The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Wanganui Mayors Act, 1874.”

So soon as the present Mayor of the Borough of Wanganui shall, under the provisions of “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1867,” or of any Act passed subsequently thereto relating to Municipal Corporations in New Zealand, cease to be Mayor of the said borough, either by effluxion of the term of office or from or by any other cause or means, then and from thenceforward the Mayor for the time being of the said borough shall be elected in manner hereinafter provided.

So soon as the present Mayor of the said borough shall cease to be Mayor as aforesaid, then, if such vacancy shall occur by effluxion of the term of office, an election shall be held to fill the said office on the day next after the day on which such vacancy shall occur, if such day shall not be a Sunday or a public holiday, and in that case on the following day; and in case such vacancy shall occur otherwise than by effluxion of the term of office, then an election shall be held to fill such office on the fourteenth day next after the day on which such vacancy shall occur if such day be not a Sunday or a public holiday, and in that case on the following day; and the Town Clerk shall notify such vacancy as last mentioned in some newspaper generally circulating within the borough, and that an election will take place to fill the same; and on the day of election in either of the said cases, those persons who for the time being would be entitled to vote in the election of Councillors for the said borough shall in manner hereinafter mentioned elect to be Mayor of the said borough some person then qualified to be a Councillor for the said borough, and the person so elected shall hold the office of Mayor of the said borough until the third Wednesday in the month of December next succeeding his election; and on the third Wednesday in the month of December in each year succeeding the year in which a Mayor shall first be elected under the preceding part of this section if such day shall not be a public holiday, and in that case on the day following, some person so qualified as aforesaid shall in like manner be elected Mayor of the said borough for the year then next ensuing.

Every election of a Mayor of the said borough to be made under the authority of this Act shall be held in the same manner, and the proceedings shall be the like as now are or as shall from time to time by law hereafter be required and provided for with respect to the elections of Councillors for the said borough, save that the candidate who shall have the greatest number of votes in all the wards of the said borough taken together shall be deemed and declared to be elected Mayor; and all the provisions of the laws now in force relating to the election of Councillors of the said borough shall, so far as the same are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, apply to elections under this Act.

Every extraordinary vacancy in the office of Mayor of the said borough shall be filled up by election as aforesaid as if the same were an ordinary vacancy; but the person elected to fill an extraordinary vacancy shall hold the office of Mayor until the expiration of the current year of office only, and he shall then go out of office.

Whenever an extraordinary vacancy shall occur in the office of Mayor of the said borough, the persons by whom such vacancy is to be filled up shall, upon a day which shall be notified by the Town Clerk in some newspaper generally circulating within the said borough, not being less than eight nor more than fourteen days after the occurrence of such vacancy, and in default of such notification then on the fourteenth day after the occurrence of such vacancy if such day shall not be a Sunday or a public holiday, and then on the following day, elect in manner aforesaid a person qualified as aforesaid to fill such vacancy.

Except in regard to the mode of electing the Mayor of the said borough as aforesaid, all the provisions of the hereinbefore-mentioned Act, and of all other Acts for the time in force relating to Municipal Corporations in New Zealand, shall, so far as the same are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, apply to every Mayor elected for the said borough under this Act.