The Short Title of this Act is “The Municipal Corporations Act Amendment Act, 1891.”

“The Municipal Corporations Act, 1886,” is hereinafter referred to as “the principal Act.”

No special order purporting at any time herebefore to be made under the provisions of “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1876,” or of the principal Act, or any Act amending the same respectively, shall be deemed to be or to have been invalid by reason only that the meeting confirming the resolution shall have been held on the twenty-eighth day after the special meeting adopting the same; and every special order heretofore purported to be made under such provisions as aforesaid, and which shall have been confirmed on such twenty-eighth day, shall, so far as regards the period of time which should elapse between the adopting and confirming meetings, be deemed to be and to have been duly passed and made.

This section shall not prejudice or affect any legal proceedings of any kind whatsoever which shall be pending at the coming into operation of this Act.

In addition to the powers conferred by section four hundred and six of the said Act, the Council may maintain or otherwise aid athenæums, mechanics’ institutes, museums, and public libraries not conducted for the purpose of private profit.

The Governor may at any time, by Proclamation, upon the petition publicly notified by the Mayor and Council of a borough which has not contracted for, or is liable for, any special loan under the provisions of the principal Act, declare any outlying portion of such borough, not being a reserve, to be severed therefrom, and declare the same annexed to the adjacent road district or riding of a county: Provided that the consent of such road district or county has been previously obtained to such annexation.

In any such case the provisions of sections thirty-eight to forty of the principal Act shall apply, mutatis mutandis, for the purpose of determining the financial arrangement to be made between the county or road district and the borough on such severance as aforesaid.

The following property shall not be rateable property under “The Rating Act, 1876,” that is to say:—

Lands and buildings used for a charitable institution, not being an institution within the meaning of “The Hospitals and Charitable Aid Act, 1885,” and not receiving any subsidy from the State, and which is carried on exclusively out of private benevolence for the free maintenance or relief of orphans, or of the aged, infirm, sick, or needy; and

Lands and buildings used for a school which is not endowed out of the public lands, and which is not carried on exclusively for pecuniary gain or profit;

but so that not more than four acres be used and occupied by or for the purposes of any one such institution or school.

Section two hundred and ninety-eight of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding at the end of line ten the following words: “Provided such rate shall only be levied upon such properties as have a house or houses erected thereon.” And the said section is further amended by the addition of the following words: “The Council shall have power to compel householders to pay the cost of removal of nightsoil and rubbish when a contract has been made by the Corporation for the purpose where no rate is levied.”