This Act may be cited as the Counties Amendment Act, 1929, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Counties Act, 1920 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Any separate rate made pursuant to section one hundred and twenty-two of the principal Act for any special work or undertaking, or any special-works rate made pursuant to section one hundred and twenty-four or section one hundred and twenty-five of that Act, may, if the petition presented in relation to such rate so requests, be made as an annually recurring rate, leviable year by year without further petition by the ratepayers or without further proceeding on the part of the Council until such work or undertaking is completed.

Where prior to the passing of this Act a separate rate as aforesaid, or any special-works rate, has been made and the work or undertaking in respect of which it was so made has not been completed, the Council may by special order make an annually recurring rate as aforesaid over the same area:

Provided that such special order shall not be made if, before the date of the meeting at which the resolution making the same is to be confirmed, a petition against the making of an annually recurring rate is presented to the Council signed by a majority of the ratepayers in the area affected.

The Council may at any time submit to a poll of ratepayers a proposal to make and levy a separate rate under section one hundred and twenty-two or a special-works rate under section one hundred and twenty-four or section one hundred and twenty-five of the principal Act, upon all rateable property within the area in respect of which the poll is taken, for such works or undertakings as are stated in the proposal.

Such proposal shall be deemed to be carried if a majority of the valid votes recorded at the poll are in favour thereof.

On the carrying of any such proposal the Council may, without further authority than this section, by resolution, make the rate mentioned in the proposal; and such rate when so made shall be an annually recurring rate leviable year by year without further authority of the ratepayers or further proceeding on the part of the Council until the works or undertakings in respect of which it is made are completed.

The power conferred by this section is in addition to and not in substitution for the power conferred by the principal Act to make and levy any such rate as aforesaid by special order on petition.

Section three of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from paragraph (a) the words “any riding or ridings, then by at least three-fifths of the electors of the riding or ridings affected,” and substituting the words “any riding or ridings or other defined portion of the county, then by at least three-fifths of the electors of the riding or ridings or portion of the county so affected.”

Subsection one of section one hundred and twenty-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding the words “signed by a majority of the ratepayers within the county or the particular portion of the county proposed to be rated.”