This Act may be cited as the Municipal Corporations Amendment Act, 1938, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1933 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Section twenty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding to subsection one the words “and the vacancy shall be deemed to be an extraordinary vacancy”.

In the case of the Cities of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, the annual allowance payable to the Mayor under section twenty-eight of the principal Act shall be such amount, not exceeding seven hundred and fifty pounds, as the Council from time to time fixes.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the said section twenty-eight, the allowance of the Mayor of any of the said cities who is in office at the passing of this Act may be increased during his term of office.

Section sixty-one of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one the words “by any three Councillors”, and substituting the words “by any number of Councillors being not less than one-third of the total membership of the Council (exclusive of the Mayor)”.

Section sixty-two of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

Subsection one of section sixty-six of the principal Act shall be deemed to authorize, and to have always authorized, the payment to any officer or servant of the Council of such allowances and travelling-expenses as the Council thinks fit in respect of his attendance at any conference or meeting.

Section ninety of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding to subsection two the following further proviso:—

Section ninety-two of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one the words “one penny”, and substituting the word “twopence”.

Section ninety-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one the words “publicly notified”.

It shall be lawful and be deemed to have always been lawful for the Council from time to time to enter into contracts of insurance insuring members of the Council against loss from personal accident arising out of and in the course of the exercise of their powers or duties as members of the Council, and to pay the premiums payable in respect of such contracts.

Where an exhibitor’s license has been granted under the Cinematograph Films Act, 1928, in respect of any building vested in the Corporation, the Council may grant a lease of that building to the holder of the license or, where the license has expired, to the last holder of the license at a rent to be fixed in accordance with the provisions of the next succeeding subsection and without selling the lease by public auction or public tender.

The rent shall be fixed by three independent persons: one to be appointed by the Council, one by the proposed lessee, and the third by such two appointed persons. The rent fixed by any two of such persons shall be final, and where no two of them reach the same decision the decision of such third person as aforesaid shall be final.

The Council may terminate any lease granted under this section in the event of the lessee ceasing to be the holder of an exhibitor’s license granted as aforesaid in respect of the building comprised in the lease.

No lease granted under this section shall be for a longer term than seven years.

The Council may in any year expend such sums as it thinks fit in connection with the observance of Anzac Day.

The Council of the borough in which the annual meeting of the Municipal Association of New Zealand, Incorporated, is held in any year may in that year or in any earlier or later year expend in connection with the holding of the meeting and the reception and entertainment of delegates and other persons attending the meeting such amount or amounts as the Council thinks fit, not exceeding in the aggregate a sum equal to one per centum of the total general rate struck by the Council in the year in which the meeting is held.

This section shall be deemed to have come into force on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-six.

Section one hundred and sixty-eight of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding the following paragraph:—

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

Paragraph (k) of subsection four of section one hundred and seventy-five of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the words “such plots or beds”, and substituting the words “any such plots or beds (whether laid out before or after the commencement of this Act)”.

Section three hundred and sixty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting, after paragraph nineteen, the following paragraph:—

For the purposes of any resolution or by-law of the Council any grass-plot or flower-bed laid out by or under the authority of the Council shall be deemed to be sufficiently described if the street in which it is laid out and its approximate locality in that street are specified.

The Council shall at all times keep available for public inspection at its principal office a record of all grass-plots and flower-beds for the time being laid out by or under its authority in any street.

Section two hundred and twenty-three of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection three the words "any drain so constructed", and substituting the words “any public drain”.

Section two hundred and twenty-nine of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

Section two hundred and thirty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting, after the words “Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1926”, in subsection six, the words “by special order, and without taking the steps prescribed by sections nine to thirteen of that Act”.

Subject to the provisions of this section, the Council may cause to be placed on or under any private land or under any building in the borough such pipes as it considers necessary for the conveyance of water in connection with any waterworks:

Provided that it shall not be lawful so to place any such pipe other than an underground pipe unless the permission in writing of the owner of the land or building has been first obtained.

The provisions of the Ninth Schedule to the principal Act shall, with the necessary modifications, apply with respect to the placing of any such pipes.

The Council may from time to time alter, renew, repair, and cleanse any such pipe.

The Council may establish a municipal fire brigade.

Where the Council has not established such a brigade it may agree with any fire brigade or other group of persons for the provision of the necessary plant and labour for the purpose of extinguishing fires, and for the payment to any such brigade or persons of such remuneration as the Council thinks fit.

Any fire brigade or group of persons with which an agreement has been made under the last preceding subsection shall be deemed for the purposes of the principal Act (including this Act) to be a municipal fire brigade; but the members of the brigade or group shall not by reason of this subsection be deemed to be officers or servants of the Council.

The foregoing provisions of this section shall not apply to any borough that is a fire district or part of a united fire district at any time after the thirty-first day of March next following the date of the constitution of the Fire Board of the fire district.

This section is in substitution for section two hundred and sixty-five of the principal Act, and that section is hereby accordingly repealed.

Section two hundred and sixty-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one the words “Fire Inspector personally”, and substituting the word “person”.

Sections two hundred and sixty-seven and two hundred and sixty-eight of the principal Act are hereby repealed.

Section two hundred and sixty-nine of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

All damage to property caused by the Mayor, or by the principal officer of a municipal fire brigade, or by any person acting under the orders of the Mayor or of such officer, in the due execution of his duties under this Act relating to the prevention of fires shall be deemed to be damage by fire within the meaning of any policy of insurance against fire, anything in such policy to the contrary notwithstanding.

This section is in substitution for section two hundred and seventy of the principal Act, and that section is hereby accordingly repealed.

The Council may from time to time make by-laws for the purpose of—

No by-law made under this section shall come into force unless and until it is approved by the Minister.

The Minister may at any time, by writing under his hand, require the Council to make by-laws under this section, and in particular, but without limiting the generality of his powers hereunder, may require the Council to make by-laws prohibiting the use of any electrical installation until the installation has been inspected and approved by officers of the Council, or, as the case may be, by officers of a Fire Board, and prescribing fees to be payable in respect of any such inspection.

The Minister may at any time, by writing under his hand, require the Council to revoke, alter, or extend any by-laws made by it under this section.

If the Council does not within three months from the receipt of a requisition of the Minister under the foregoing provisions of this section comply with the requisition, the Governor-General may make such regulations as he thinks fit to give effect to the requisition, and such regulations shall have the full force of by-laws made by the Council under this section and approved by the Minister.

Section three hundred and sixty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing paragraph twenty-nine thereof. All by-laws that were made under the said paragraph and are in force on the passing of this Act shall enure for the purposes of this section as fully and effectually as if they had been made under this section, and accordingly shall, where necessary, be deemed to have been so made.

The power conferred upon Fire Boards to make by-laws under the authority of paragraphs (d), (i), (j), and (k) of subsection one of section sixty of the Fire Brigades Act, 1926, shall not be exercised in respect of boroughs at any time after the passing of this Act.

All by-laws that were made under the authority of the paragraphs referred to in the last preceding subsection and are in force on the passing of this Act shall remain in force until they are replaced by by-laws of a like nature hereafter made under this section.

The following provisions of the Fire Brigades Act, 1926, shall not hereafter apply with respect to any borough—namely, subsection three of section sixty, section seventy-one, and section seventy-two.

The principal Act is hereby amended by repealing the Twelfth Schedule, and substituting therefor the Schedule to this Act.

The Surveyor, the Inspector of Buildings, and any other person appointed in that behalf by the Council, and in the case of a borough that is a fire district or part of a united fire district, the Superintendent of Fire Brigades and any other officer appointed in that behalf by the Superintendent, shall have at all times free access to any part of any licensed building in order to inspect it or to ascertain whether sufficient safeguards against fire and means of escape in case of fire are provided in respect of the building.

Every person who obstructs or hinders the Surveyor, the Inspector of Buildings, the Superintendent, or any other officer as aforesaid in the execution of his powers under the last preceding subsection commits an offence and is liable to a fine of fifty pounds.

This section is in substitution for section three hundred and fifteen of the principal Act, and that section is hereby accordingly repealed.

The principal Act is hereby consequentially amended as follows:—

The occupier or person having control of any building licensed in accordance with the provisions of the Schedule to this Act shall keep all aisles and exit passages in the building and all exits therefrom free from obstruction, and shall prevent persons from standing or sitting in such aisles, exit passages, and exits while the building is being used for any of the purposes specified in section three hundred and twelve of the principal Act. The Surveyor, the Superintendent of Fire Brigades, or the principal officer of a municipal fire brigade, or any person authorized in that behalf by any of them, may himself remove any such obstruction or direct any person remaining in any such aisle, exit passage, or exit to leave the same.

Every person who commits any breach of the provisions of this section, or who fails to comply with any direction of the Surveyor, Superintendent, principal officer, or other person as aforesaid, or who in any way hinders or prevents the removal of any such obstruction commits an offence and is liable to a fine of fifty pounds.

In the exercise of the powers relating to the supply of gas conferred on it by Part XXII of the principal Act, the Council shall have and be deemed to have always had power—

For the purposes of section two hundred and eighty-nine of the principal Act, all moneys owing to the Council by the owner or occupier of any premises in respect of anything done to or installed in the premises or sold for use in the premises pursuant to this section or to section fifty-eight of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1936, shall be deemed to be an advance made by the Council to the owner or occupier under the said section two hundred and eighty-nine.

For the purposes of the principal Act the term “Sanitary Inspector” means a Sanitary Inspector appointed as such for the purposes of the Health Act, 1920, and of Part XXIII of the principal Act.

Section two of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing the definition of the term “Inspector of Nuisances”.

All references to Inspectors of Nuisances in the principal Act or in any regulations or by-laws made under that Act shall hereafter be deemed to be references to Sanitary Inspectors.

Every person holding office at the passing of this Act as an Inspector of Nuisances under the principal Act shall be deemed to have been duly appointed as a Sanitary Inspector.

For the purpose of relieving or preventing congestion of traffic the Council may provide parking-places as defined in subsection six of this section, and for that purpose may—

The Council shall not authorize the use of any part of a street as a parking-place so as unreasonably to prevent access to any premises adjoining the street, or the use of the street by any person entitled to the use thereof, or so as to be a nuisance.

The exercise by the Council of its powers under this section with respect to the use as a parking-place of any part of a street shall not render it subject to any liability in respect of loss of or damage to any vehicle or the fittings or contents of any vehicle parked in the parking-place.

The Council may make such by-laws as it thinks fit as to the use of parking-places, and in particular as to the vehicles or class of vehicles that may be entitled to use any parking-place, as to the conditions upon or subject to which any parking-place may be used and as to the charges to be paid to the Council in connection with the use of any parking-place.

The Council may, in the exercise of its powers of leasing and letting under Part XVI of the principal Act or under any other Act, let or lease to any person for use as a parking-place any parking-place provided by it (not being part of a street).

In this section the expression “parking-place” means a place where vehicles, or any class of vehicles, may wait; and includes a place that transport-service vehicles, or any class of transport-service vehicles, may use as a station; and also includes all necessary approaches and means of entrance to and egress from any such place, and all such buildings, ticket-offices, waiting-rooms, cloak-rooms, and other facilities as may be deemed necessary or desirable by the Council for the efficient use of such place for the purpose for which it is provided.

Section three hundred and twenty-seven of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding to the definition of the term “worker” the words “or who is resident or desires to become resident in or near to the borough”.

Section three hundred and twenty-eight of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one the words “employed or resident in the borough”.

Section three hundred and sixty-one of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting, after the words “in pursuance of this Act” in subsection one, the words “or any other Act”.

The said section three hundred and sixty-one shall not apply with respect to any action or proceeding commenced by the Audit Office under the Public Revenues Act, 1926, the Local Authorities (Members’ Contracts) Act, 1934, or any other Act.

Section three hundred and sixty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

Section three hundred and eighty-one of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing subsection four thereof.

For the purposes of section thirty-three of the Town Boards Act, 1908, as amended by subsection two of section three hundred and ninety-three of the principal Act, sections ten to fourteen of this Act shall be deemed to form part of Division V of the principal Act, and sections fifteen to thirty-four of this Act shall be deemed to form part of Division VI of the principal Act.

For the purposes of section thirty-four of the Town Boards Act, 1908, as amended by subsection two of section three hundred and ninety-three of the principal Act, section thirty-six of this Act shall be deemed to form part of Part XXXII of the principal Act.