This Act may be cited as the Westport Harbour Act, 1920, and shall come into operation on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and twenty-one.

The Westport Harbour Board is hereby abolished, and, subject to the provisions of this Act, the provisions of the Harbours Act, 1908, shall, after the commencement of this Act, apply to the Harbour of Westport as in the case of harbours where there is no Harbour Board.

All lands and other property, whether real or personal, which at the commencement of this Act are vested in the Westport Harbour Board are hereby vested in the Crown for the estate or interest for which they are held by the said Board, subject, however, to all charges, encumbrances, or other estates or interests then affecting the same.

All the contracts, engagements, debts, and liabilities of the Westport Harbour Board existing at the commencement of this Act shall thereupon become the contracts, engagements, debts, and liabilities of the Crown.

If the title to any land which by this Act is vested in the Crown is subject to the provisions of the Land Transfer Act, 1915, the District Land Registrar shall, on the application of the Minister of Railways, register His Majesty the King as the proprietor thereof for the estate and interest therein of the Board hereby abolished, and for the purposes of this section the certificate of the said Minister that any property is vested in the Crown by virtue of this Act shall be accepted by the District Land Registrar as sufficient evidence of the fact so certified.

The Governor-General may from time to time, by notice in the Gazette, declare any property vested in the Crown pursuant to this section to be subject to the Government Railways Act, 1908, as being property held or used in connection with or for the purposes of a Government railway, and any such notice may be in like manner cancelled.

All moneys borrowed by the Westport Harbour Board on the security of its endowments or otherwise, and unpaid on the commencement of this Act, shall thereafter be deemed to have been borrowed by the Government of New Zealand on the security of and charged on the public revenues of New Zealand, and the provisions of the New Zealand Loans Act, 1908, and the Public Debt Extinction Act, 1910, shall apply thereto accordingly.

There may from time to time be appointed a Harbour-master, engineer, and such pilots, wharfingers, and other officers as may be necessary for the proper conduct of the business of the harbour of the Port of Westport.

The officers so appointed shall be deemed to be permanent officers of such Department of State as may be lawfully appointed in that behalf.

Every person who on the commencement of this Act becomes a permanent officer of a Department of State pursuant to this Act and who immediately prior to the commencement of this Act was in the service of the Westport Harbour Board shall become a contributor to the Government Railways Superannuation Fund or the Public Service Superannuation Fund, and shall on his retirement be entitled to count for superannuation purposes his continuous service as from that date, and also the period of service with the Westport Harbour Board that he would have been entitled to count for the purposes of the Westport Harbour Board Superannuation Fund if this Act had not been passed.

All moneys which on the commencement of this Act are standing to the credit of the Westport Harbour Board Superannuation Fund or are payable to that fund shall be apportioned in such manner as the Governor-General deems equitable between the Government Railways Superannuation Fund and the Public Service Superannuation Fund.

All retiring-allowances which on the commencement of this Act are payable out of the Westport Harbour Board Super annuation Fund shall thereafter be payable out of the Public Service Superannuation Fund.

All allowances which on the commencement of this Act are payable out of the Westport Harbour Fund pursuant to section two of the Local Authorities Superannuation Amendment Act, 1912, shall thereafter be payable out of the Consolidated Fund.

All moneys required for the purposes of this Act shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund out of moneys to be appropriated by Parliament for those purposes.

All revenues which after the commencement of this Act are derived from the Buller Coalfield Reserve and the Westport Colliery Reserve (being the lands respectively described in the Third and Fourth Schedules to the Westland and Nelson Coalfields Administration Act, 1877) shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

There shall be paid by the shipper a special rate of threepence in respect of every ton of coal brought for shipment in the Port of Westport.

The said rate shall be collected by the Harbourmaster or other person lawfully appointed to collect such rate, and shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

All moneys accumulated under section twelve of the Westport Harbour Board Act, 1884, and which have not been applied for the purposes specified in that section shall, on the commencement of this Act, be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

The enactments mentioned in the Schedule hereto are hereby repealed.