This Act may be cited as the Counties Act Amendment Act, 1907, and shall form part of and be read together with the Counties Act, 1886 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Section one hundred and forty-five of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

The expression “the three first subsections of section one hundred and forty-five,” occurring in section one hundred and forty-nine of the principal Act, shall be taken as referring to paragraphs (1) and (2) and the said new paragraph (2a) thereof.

Notwithstanding anything in section two of the Counties Act Amendment Act, 1903, a special order altering the boundaries of any riding or road district or subdivision of a road district shall, for the purpose of adjusting the representation of ridings under section forty-six of the principal Act, be gazetted and take effect as provided in section one hundred and twenty-five of the principal Act; but such special order shall not, for the purpose of preparing and adjusting valuation rolls, take effect before the time mentioned in the said section two.

Where the Council itself undertakes or contracts for the removal of house refuse, or the supply of dry earth or deodorising substances for or the cleaning of closets, privies, or cesspools not connected with any public drain, for the county or any part thereof, the Council may in respect thereof make and levy a separate rate not exceeding in any one year one halfpenny in the pound on the capital rateable value of the rateable property in the county or part thereof:

Provided that such rate shall be levied only upon such properties as have a house or houses erected thereon.

In lieu of making any such rate the Council may levy a uniform annual charge, but so that the total proceeds thereof shall not exceed the proceeds of such rate. Such charge shall be recoverable in the same manner as if it were a rate.