The Short Title of this Act is “The District Railways Purchasing Act 1885 Extension and Amendment Act, 1886.”

In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context,—

The Governor, in the name and on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, may enter into a contract with the company to purchase the railway upon the terms and conditions of the draft agreement hereinbefore mentioned as altered by this Act.

The Colonial Treasurer may, under the authority of an Order in Council, from time to time issue debenture-bonds to such amounts as may be necessary in order to raise sums for the following purposes:—

To pay the sum of thirty-one thousand pounds agreed to be paid to the company in cash.

To redeem and pay off either or both of the mortgages mentioned in the Schedule which are now held by the Association over the property of the company, on such terms as may be certified by the Controller and Auditor-General to be fair and reasonable, or to pay off such mortgages at their maturity.

Every such debenture-bond—

Shall be for a sum of not less than one hundred pounds, and shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding four pounds per centum per annum:

Shall be payable at a date of not more than twenty years from the date of the issue thereof:

Shall be numbered consecutively, so that no two bonds shall at any time bear the same number:

Shall be payable, both as to principal and interest, at a place, within or without the colony, named in the bond:

Subject to the foregoing provisions, shall be in such form and shall contain such other provisions as the Governor in Council may from time to time approve.

In lieu of issuing debenture-bonds, as hereinbefore provided, the Governor in Council may, from time to time, empower the Colonial Treasurer to issue short-dated debentures having currency of not more than seven years from the date of issue, bearing interest at a rate not exceeding five pounds per centum per annum, provided that the amount of such debenture-bonds and short-dated debentures so issued shall not together exceed in the whole the amount of debenture-bonds hereby authorized to be issued.

All such debenture-bonds and short-dated debentures and the interest thereon shall be a charge upon and shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund.

The Governor in Council may from time to time order and direct that any scrip, debenture-bonds, or short-dated debentures authorized to be issued under “The District Railways Purchasing Act, 1885,” or this Act, shall be converted into stock, and inscribed in the manner provided by “The New Zealand Consolidated Stock Act, 1877,” and “The Consolidated Stock Act, 1884;” or in lieu of issuing such securities, the Governor in Council may order and direct that stock shall be created under “The New Zealand Consolidated Stock Act, 1877,” to an amount which, together with the amount of such securities outstanding and unpaid, shall not in the whole exceed the amounts authorized to be issued by “The District Railways Purchasing Act, 1885,” and by this Act. Any such order and direction may be made and given to the Agents for the time being acting under “The New Zealand Consolidated Stock Act, 1877.”

The Colonial Treasurer may, without further appropriation, pay out of the Public Account all such moneys as may under the contract for the purchase of the railway become payable to the company in cash, and may at any time pay out of the same account whatever sum is agreed upon, subject to the certificate before mentioned, between the Government and the Association as the amount to be paid to the Association for the redemption of the mortgages aforesaid; and may also, without further appropriation, pay out of the same account from time to time whatever sums become due as interest on the said mortgages after the first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six.

Upon the payment to the company of the sum of thirty-one thousand pounds in cash, as herein provided for, all the estate, property, and interest of the company in the railway, and everything appurtenant thereto, shall absolutely cease, and shall, become and is hereby declared to be vested in Her Majesty.

The mortgages held by the Association over the railway and other property of the company, and which are specified in the Schedule hereto, shall, upon the principal and interest being paid, be deemed to be and are hereby declared to be absolutely discharged; but if the Association declines to accept the principal moneys until maturity, then the Government shall pay the interest due on the said mortgages from the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, until they mature.

If upon the completion of the contract for the purchase of the railway any moneys are still unpaid by the company on account of the purchase of any land hereby vested in Her Majesty, or on account of any contract made or to be made by the company, or on any other account, the Governor may retain so much of the money herein authorized to be paid to the company in cash as may be sufficient to pay for all such lands, or contracts, or other accounts; but so much of such purchase-money as may be so retained shall be deemed to have been paid to the company for the purpose of this section.

Within six months after the thirty-first day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, and within the same period in each succeeding year for nineteen years thereafter, the Colonial Treasurer shall cause an account to be prepared setting forth the total receipts and expenditure from and on account of the railway during the preceding twelve months, including in such annual expenditure the cost of working and maintaining the railway and the annual interest payable by the Government on account of the purchase of the railway, whether upon the mortgages mentioned in the Schedule or upon debenture-bonds issued under the provisions of this Act, and showing the deficiency, if any, of the receipts to meet such expenditure; and in case any such deficiency shall appear therein, the Colonial Treasurer shall send such account, when certified by the Controller and Auditor-General, to the Property-tax Commissioner.

It shall be the duty of the Property-tax Commissioner forth with, upon the receipt of the account hereinbefore mentioned to raise, by means of rates upon all rateable property within the railway district, a sum equal to one-half of the amount of such deficiency, together with the amount of the estimated cost of making and collecting such rate: Provided that the amount so to be raised shall not in any case exceed half the amount of the interest payable as set forth in the ninth section, and the liability of the ratepayers in the Waimea Plains Railway District in respect of rates after the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, shall extend to amount above provided for, notwithstanding anything to the contrary which may be contained in “The Waimea Plains Railway Rating Act, 1885,” or in any other Act: And provided also that it shall not be incumbent on the Property-tax Commissioner to collect rates of less than two shillings in amount.

The provisions of sections ten to fourteen and sixteen to twenty-one, inclusive, of “The District Railways Purchasing Act, 1885,” are hereby incorporated with this Act, and shall, mutatis mutandis, extend to the Waimea Plains Railway, and shall be applicable for all purposes as effectually as if the said railway had been one of the railways authorized to be purchased under “The District Railways Purchasing Act, 1885,” aforesaid: Provided that the words “thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five,” in clause nineteen of the last-mentioned Act, shall, for the purposes of this Act, and with respect to the purchase of the said Waimea Plains Railway only, be read as “thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six:” And also provided that the lands in the railway district shall, unless reclassified as provided for under section seventeen of the last-mentioned Act, be deemed to be classified for the purposes of this Act, according to the gazetted notice of the classification thereof under “The Waimea Plains Railway Rating Act, 1885,” published in the New Zealand Gazette dated 15th April, 1886.

Section eight of “The District Railways Purchasing Act, 1885,” shall be read as if the words “within six months after the thirty-first day of March in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, and within the same period in each succeeding year” had originally been inserted in the place of the words “within forty days after the thirty-first day of March in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, and on the same day in each succeeding year”; and such section and every part thereof shall be construed as if the alterations hereby made had been originally enacted by the said Act.

Whereas doubts have arisen whether the direction in writing to make, raise, levy, and collect rates to the extent of four thousand seven hundred and forty-six pounds eleven shillings and threepence, issued by the Minister for Public Works to the Waimea Plains Railway Company, and dated the fourth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four, can be held to be a certificate of deficiency of rates in terms of section three of “The District Railways Acts Amendment Act, 1883,” and section five of “The Waimea Plains Railway Rating Act, 1885,” it is hereby enacted that the said direction so made and issued as aforesaid shall be deemed to constitute a certificate of deficiency of rates in terms of the said sections three and five aforesaid.