This Act may be cited as the Valuation of Land Amendment Act, 1927, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Valuation of Land Act, 1925 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Where a Borough Council has, pursuant to the provisions of the Rating Act, 1925, or the corresponding provisions of any former Act, adopted the system of rating property on the basis of the unimproved value thereof the Governor-General in Council may at any time while such system is in force direct or authorize the Valuer-General to ascertain, as at a date or dates to be specified in that behalf,—

On ascertaining the unimproved value of any property or the value of the improvements thereon, as the case may be, pursuant to this section the Valuer-General shall adjust the capital value thereof as appearing on the district valuation roll by the addition thereto or the subtraction therefrom, as the case may require, of an amount equal to the amount by which the unimproved value or the value of improvements, as the case may be, has been increased or reduced.

In any case to which this section applies there shall be a right of objection under section fourteen of the principal Act as if the valuation roll had been revised pursuant to a direction of the Governor-General given under section eight of that Act:

Provided that the right of objection in respect of any property shall be limited to a right to object to the unimproved value only or to the value of improvements only, as the case may require.

In every case to which this section applies the district valuation roll shall disclose with respect to the several properties valued therein the dates upon which the several values were last ascertained by revaluation, and all certificates or other instruments issued by the Valuer-General in respect of any value appearing in a district valuation roll as at any date shall disclose the same facts.

The power to make regulations conferred on the Governor-General by section fifty-seven of the principal Act is hereby extended to enable regulations to be made prescribing the manner in which assessors shall be appointed to the Assessment Court by local authorities. No person shall after the commencement of this Act be appointed as an assessor by any local authority except pursuant to regulations made under this section.

Such regulations shall provide for the nomination by not less than two ratepayers of qualified persons for appointment as assessors, and for the election, at a meeting of ratepayers to be called by the local authority for the purpose, of one of the persons so nominated to be appointed an assessor by that local authority.

Such regulations shall also provide for the appointment without election of an assessor in the event of not more than one person being duly nominated, or in the event of an equality of votes being recorded for two or more persons, or if for any other reason no person is duly elected for appointment.

Subject to the provisions of section nineteen of the principal Act, every person appointed under this section shall hold office for a term of three years.

At any meeting of the Assessment Court the decision of a majority of the members shall be the decision of the Court. If no two members of the Court can agree on any matter, the decision of the President shall be the decision of the Court.

The definition of the term “land” in section two of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting therefrom the words “or flax.”

Section fifty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one the word “and” after the words “Where land is subject to a lease,” and substituting the words “or in any other case where.”