This Act may be cited as the Government Railways Amendment Act, 1925, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Government Railways Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

For the purposes of the principal Act there is hereby established a Board to be called the Government Railways Board.

The Board shall consist of three persons, being members of the Department, to be appointed by the Governor-General by Warrant under his hand. One member shall be appointed by the Governor-General as the Chairman of the Board.

In the event of the incapacity of any member of the Board by reason of sickness, absence, or other cause, the Minister may appoint any officer of the Department to act in the place of that member during his incapacity.

The Board shall meet at such times and places as it may determine, and at any meeting of the Board two members shall constitute a quorum.

The Board shall, subject to the control of the Minister, be charged with the administration of the Department.

All references in the principal Act or in any other Act to the “permanent head” of the Department, or to the General Manager of Railways, shall hereafter be construed as references to the Board, acting through the Chairman or any member thereof.

This section shall be deemed to have come into operation on the seventeenth day of December, nineteen hundred and twenty-four.

There is hereby established within the Public Account, as from the first day of April, nineteen hundred and twenty-five, a separate account to be called the Working Railways Account.

There shall, without further appropriation than this Act, be paid out of the Consolidated Fund into the Working Railways Account—

In addition to the moneys specified in the last preceding subsection there shall be paid into the Working Railways Account—

There shall from time to time be paid out of the Working Railways Account into the Consolidated Fund the moneys following, namely:—

In addition to the moneys which may be paid out of the Working Railways Account as aforesaid there shall be paid out of that account the moneys following, namely:—

Save as provided in paragraph (a) of the last preceding subsection, all moneys to which this section relates may be paid without further appropriation than this Act.

Section thirty-two of the principal Act is hereby repealed, as from the first day of April, nineteen hundred and twenty-five.

Any moneys in the Working Railways Account which in the opinion of the Minister are not required for the purposes of that account may be invested in manner prescribed by section ninety-one of the Public Revenues Act, 1910, with respect to moneys in accounts outside the Public Account.

The Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council,—

The draft of every Order in Council under this section shall be submitted for the information of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Railways before being submitted to the Governor-General in Council, but failure to comply with the provisions of this subsection shall not invalidate any such Order.

Section nineteen of the Public Service Classification and Superannuation Amendment Act, 1909 (making provision for the payment of subsidy from the Consolidated Fund to the Government Railways Superannuation Fund), is hereby repealed.

Section thirteen of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing the second proviso to paragraph (d).

The Minister may act as the agent of the consignor of any goods carried on the railway to collect from the consignee the price of those goods, and to give a valid discharge in respect thereof.

The terms of any such contract of agency under this section shall be as agreed between the parties, or, in the absence of any special agreement, shall be in accordance with conditions to be published by the Minister in the Gazette.

The Minister shall have and shall be deemed at all times heretofore to have had power to undertake the carriage of passengers and of goods otherwise than by railway, and whether by land or water.

The power conferred by this section shall include power to enter into agreements with other carriers in relation to the carriage of any passengers or goods.

With respect to the carriage of passengers or goods pursuant to this section, the Minister shall, save as may be otherwise provided by contract or by notice published in the Gazette, have the same powers and be subject to the same liabilities, obligations, rights, and protection as he has in the case of the carriage of passengers and goods by railway.

In addition to the matters with respect to which the Minister may make by-laws as specified in paragraph (e) of section ten of the principal Act, he may make by-laws under that section providing for the grant of licenses to persons to ply within the precincts of any railway for the hire of their services.

Such by-laws may prescribe conditions subject to which such licenses may be issued, and may provide for the forfeiture or transfer of such licenses, and for the payment of license fees.

Section four of the Government Railways Amendment Act, 1920, is hereby repealed.

Section ten of the Government Railways Amendment Act, 1921–22, is hereby amended by inserting, after the words “over any Government railway” in subsection one, the words “or of a railway-bridge over any road or street.”

All payments heretofore made by any Council or Board in respect of the construction or maintenance of any such railway-bridge shall be deemed to have been validly made.