The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Financial Arrangements Act 1876 Amendment Act, 1877.”

This Act shall come into operation on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, except as to sections seven, eight, and nine, in respect of which sections it shall come into operation on the passing hereof.

In the interpretation of this Act the following words and expressions shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them, except when there is something in the context repugnant thereto, namely,—

All the words and expressions used in this Act of a similar import to those used in the said Act shall have the same meaning as that given to such words and expressions in the said Act, so far as the same are not repugnant to this Act.

Notwithstanding anything contained in “The Public Revenues Act, 1867,” or any Act amending the same, from and after the coming into operation of this Act all the land revenue, excepting the portion specially reserved under section fifty-nine of “The Land Act, 1877,” accruing within each district shall be and be deemed to be part of the consolidated revenue of the colony. But nothing herein contained shall be deemed to affect the operation of sections eleven and twelve of the said Act, and the said sections shall have and be deemed to have the same force and effect for the purposes of this Act as if they had been hereby re-enacted.

In lieu of the subsidies payable to the County and Borough Councils, and to Road Boards and River Boards under the said Act, there shall be issued and paid out of the Consolidated Fund during each financial year, in respect of all sums received by way of general rates during the year ending on the thirty-first day of March previous thereto, the sums following:—

To each County Council a sum equal to one pound for every pound of general rates so received by such Council, or equal to one pound for every pound on the total of the sums so received by all the Road Boards or parts of Road Boards within the county, whichever of such two sums is the greater: Provided that in any county where no Road Boards exist there shall be paid to the Council of each such county two pounds for every one pound of general rates received by such Council.

To each Road Board and River Board a sum equal to one pound for every pound of general rates so received by each such Board.

To each Borough Council a sum equal to one pound for every pound of general rates so received by each Council.

But for the purposes of this section no sum shall be deemed to be received by any such Council or Board in excess of the sum receivable on a rate of one shilling in the pound of the annual value of rateable property.

A separate account shall be kept of the land revenue accruing within each county, and there shall be paid to such county out of the Consolidated Fund quarterly a sum equal to twenty per centum of such land revenue so accruing in each county.

So much of the subsidies authorized to be paid by the said Act as may be payable to County Councils, Road Boards, and River Boards, in respect of the first half of the present financial year, shall continue to be paid in accordance with the said Act, until the whole of such subsidies are fully paid; and so much thereof as may be authorized to be paid under this Act in respect of the remaining half of such year shall be paid in accordance with this Act in like manner.

Notwithstanding anything in the said Act to the contrary, all revenue arising from leases or letting for gold-mining purposes shall be and be deemed to have been, on and as from the day the said Act came into operation, revenue payable as by the twentieth section of the said Act is provided. Revenue arising under “The Gold Fields Act, 1866,” or any Act amending the same, or any Act for the time being relating to mining for gold in force within the boundaries of any borough, and all revenue arising under “The Gold Duties Act, 1870,” or any Act amending the same, from gold obtained within such borough, may, by order of the Governor in Council, be paid over to the Council of any such borough, and shall form part of the ordinary revenue thereof. But nothing herein contained shall affect rents or moneys payable to the Native owners of land within any such borough from which any such revenue has arisen, but all such rents or moneys shall be paid in the manner authorized by law.

All fees, fines, and other similar payments arising under “The Weights and Measures Act, 1868,” and Acts amending the same, shall be deemed to be revenue payable in the manner directed by subsections one and two of section twenty-three of the said Act.

The fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and tenth sections of the said Act, and the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth sections thereof, are hereby repealed in so far as the same may be inconsistent with this Act.