The Short Title of this Act is “The Government Loans to Local Bodies Act Amendment Act, 1898,” and it shall form part of and be read together with “The Government Loans to Local Bodies Act, 1886” (hereinafter called “the principal Act”).

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in the principal Act, the Treasurer may, without further appropriation than this Act, grant loans to any local authority, being a County Council, Borough Council, Road Board (where the Counties Act is not in operation), or a Water-supply Board, for the purposes of irrigation, water-supply, or water-conservation:

Provided that the total amount of all loans granted under this Act to any one such local authority in any financial year ending the thirty-first day of March shall not exceed one hundred thousand pounds; and also that the total amount of all loans granted under this Act to all such local authorities in such year shall not exceed two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, in addition to the amount of all loans previously agreed to be granted under this Act but not then completed.

The power conferred upon the Colonial Treasurer by the last-preceding section hereof shall be deemed to be irrespective of and in addition to the power conferred upon him by section thirty-seven of the principal Act.

Every loan granted to any such local authority under this Act shall be deemed to be irrespective of and in addition to any loan which may be granted or agreed to be granted to it under the principal Act, but in all other respects every loan granted under this Act shall be deemed to be granted under the principal Act, and the provisions of that Act, as modified by this Act, shall apply accordingly.

The Colonial Treasurer shall not grant or agree to grant to any such local authority any loan under this Act after the thirty-first day of March, one thousand nine hundred and two:

Provided that all loans previously agreed to be granted, but not then completed, may be completed thereafter.

The expression “public work,” as defined in section two of the principal Act, shall be deemed to include the purchase or acquisition of land for the purposes of a public work.

The limit of one thousand pounds, which by section thirteen of the principal Act is prescribed in the case of a loan to a River Board, is hereby extended to five thousand pounds;

Provided that no loan in excess of one thousand pounds shall be granted to a River Board unless the plans of the public work for which the loan is required have been submitted to and approved by the Minister for Public Works.

The provisions of subsection one of section seven of “The Government Loans to Local Bodies Act Amendment Act, 1896” (relating to the restrictions as to loans secured on rateable property that consists of Native lands or Crown lands), shall not apply in the case of—

Native land vested in the Public Trustee under “The West Coast Settlement Reserves Act, 1892,” or any other Act, in trust for Natives, and occupied under lease granted for a term of not less than twenty-one years, with right of perpetual renewal, and provision for compensation for improvements; nor in the case of

Crown land occupied under perpetual lease or lease in perpetuity.

Whenever the whole or any part of a special-rating district in respect of any loan is merged in the district of a local authority other than the local authority that raised the loan, then the local authority in whose district such special-rating district or part thereof becomes merged may, by a special order, and without taking a poll of the ratepayers of such special-rating district or part thereof, make and levy special rates on the rateable property therein for the purpose of providing the interest and other charges upon the loan or portion thereof which, in consequence of the merger, has become a liability of such local authority.

For the purposes of this Act the Council of any borough, whatever its population, shall be deemed to be a local authority within the meaning of the principal Act and this Act.