The Short Title of this Act is “The Rating Acts Amendment Act, 1888.” It shall be read together with “The Rating Act, 1876,” or “The Rating Act, 1882,” according as the context relates to the one or other of such Acts, or both of them.

No public reserve nor any part of a public reserve, whether Crown-granted or not, or in whomsoever vested, shall be sold for the non-payment of rates due in respect thereof, cither under “The Rating Act, 1876,” or “The Rating Act, 1882;” but the local body to which the rates for such reserve are payable may lease the same from year to year, or so much thereof as shall be required to produce a yearly rental that shall be equivalent to the amount of rates payable in respect of the whole reserve, together with five per centum added to such amount for expenses.

All rates payable in respect of any public reserve, or any part thereof, shall be a first charge on the property of the persons, who may be Trustees thereof as such Trustees, or society, body, or corporation, in or to whom or which such reserve is vested or granted, and may be recovered from the said persons as such Trustees, society, body, or corporation as a debt due to the local body to which such rates are payable.

All lands and buildings used for the purposes of the school, generally known as the Lincoln Agricultural College, within the Provincial District of Canterbury, shall be rateable property under “The Rating Act, 1882,” anything contained in the said Act to the contrary notwithstanding:

Provided that there shall be excepted from the operation of this section the buildings used for the said college, and ten acres of land in the whole, whereon such buildings are erected, or attached, or adjoining thereto.

The Council of any borough may at any time by special order passed in manner provided by “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1886,” resolve that sections twenty-two to fifty-one, both inclusive, of “The Rating Act, 1882,” as amended by “The Rating Act 1882 Amendment Act 1883,” and “The Rating Act 1882 Amendment Act, 1885,” shall apply to the recovery of all rates then due or thereafter to be made for the purposes of such borough, and from and after the making of such special order the said sections as amended shall so apply, and the provisions of “The Rating Act, 1876,” “The Rating Act Amendment Act, 1878,” and “The Rating Act 1876 Amendment Act, 1879,” with respect to the recovery of rates shall thenceforth cease to apply to such borough.