Nothing in this Part of this Act shall apply in respect of the Wellington Water Region or the Wellington Regional Water Board.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

Any Regional Water Board may from time to time make bylaws for all or any of the following purposes:

Any such bylaw may apply within the whole of the region or within such part or parts thereof as may be specified in the bylaw.

Unless the Governor-General, by Order in Council, in any case otherwise provides, and subject to such conditions as he may impose, no bylaw made under this section shall affect—

Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1) of section 21 of the principal Act, any bylaw made under this section may apply to any bore used for tapping underground water for domestic needs or the needs of animals or for or in connection with fire-fighting purposes.

The provisions of section 25 of the principal Act shall apply to every decision of a Board to refuse to grant a permit or a dispensation from observance of any bylaw, under this Part of this Act, as if it were a decision of the Board under section 24 of the principal Act.

The provisions of sections 391, 392, 395, and 396 of the Municipal Corporations Act 1954 shall, with the necessary modifications, apply in respect of bylaws made or to be made by the Board under section 4 of this Act.

The Minister may at any time, by notice in the Gazette, disallow, in whole or in part, any bylaw made under section 4 of this Act if in his opinion the bylaw is unreasonable or undesirable.

On any such disallowance the bylaw shall, to the extent to which it is so disallowed, become wholly void as if it had been revoked.

Any such disallowance shall take effect as aforesaid either on the day of the publication of the notice of disallowance in the Gazette or on such later date as may be specified in that behalf in the notice.

Any such disallowance shall not affect the validity of anything done, before the disallowance took effect, under the bylaw or part of the bylaw disallowed.

Every person who acts in contravention of or fails to comply with any provision of any bylaw made under section 4 of this Act commits an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction—

For the purposes of this section, the continued existence of anything in a state contrary to any provision of any such bylaw shall be deemed to be a continuing offence.

Without limiting the liability of any person to be convicted of an offence under subsection (1) of this section, the Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction to restrain any breach or threatened breach of any bylaw made under section 4 of this Act by injunction at the instance of the Board, and to make such order in the matter as to costs and otherwise as it thinks fit.

Nothing in any bylaw made under section 4 of this Act shall authorise any Board to make a charge against or levy upon the owner or occupier of any land in respect of any natural water taken on the land or from any bore on the land.

Every Underground Water Authority constituted under the Underground Water Act 1953 is hereby abolished.

All land, interests in land, and personal property, rights, or privileges vested in or held on behalf of every Underground Water Authority specified in the first column of the First Schedule to this Act are hereby vested in the local authority specified, opposite the name of the Authority, in the second column of the said First Schedule.

The District Land Registrar within whose district any land so vested is situated, on written request by the local authority, under the seal of the local authority, shall without fee make such entries in his registers and on any outstanding documents of title and generally do all such things as may be necessary to give effect to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, in respect of land and interests in land specified in the request. The receipt by the District Land Registrar of a written request under this subsection shall be sufficient evidence that the land described in it is land to which subsection (1) of this section applies, in the absence of proof to the contrary.

Notwithstanding anything in section 10 of the Stamp and Cheque Duties Act 1971, no stamp duty shall be payable in respect of the vesting of any property in a local authority under section 11 of this Act.

On the commencement of this Part of this Act, the following provisions shall apply:

Every reference to any Underground Water Authority specified in the first column of the First Schedule to this Act in any Act, agreement, deed, instrument, notice, or other document whatsoever shall hereafter be read as a reference to the local authority specified, opposite the name of the Authority, in the second column of the said First Schedule.

Every bylaw made by any Underground Water Authority specified in the first column of the First Schedule to this Act that is in force immediately before the commencement of this Part of this Act shall, so far as it is not inconsistent with this Act, for all purposes be deemed to have been made by the local authority specified, opposite the name of the Authority, in the second column of the said First Schedule, acting in the capacity of a Regional Water Board, and shall continue in force within those parts of the Regional Water Board’s region to which it related when made until it is superseded by a bylaw made by the Regional Water Board.

The enactments specified in the Second Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed.

Section 4 of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from paragraph (f) of subsection (4) the words “Underground Water Authorities,”.

The Underground Water Committee Regulations 1957 are hereby revoked.

The Orders in Council specified in the Third Schedule to this Act are hereby revoked.

Notwithstanding the repeal of the Underground Water Act 1953, every permit issued by an Underground Water Authority pursuant to bylaws made under that Act shall continue in force as if it had been issued pursuant to bylaws made under section 4 of this Act.

Section 5 of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting, after subsection (1), the following subsections:

Section 14 of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding the following subsection:

Section 20 of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing paragraph (j) of subsection (5).

Subsection (3) of section 21 of the principal Act is hereby amended—

The said section 21 is hereby further amended by adding to subsection (3a) (as inserted by section 12(2) of the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1971) the following paragraphs:

Subsection (3b) of the said section 21 (as so inserted) is hereby amended—

The said section 21 is hereby further amended by inserting, after subsection (3b) (as so inserted), the following subsections:

Section 24f of the principal Act (as inserted by section 39 of the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act 1971) is hereby amended by omitting from the proviso to subsection (4) the words “section 24g”, and substituting the words “section 24h”.

Section 24j of the principal Act (as inserted by section 15 of the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1971) is hereby amended by adding the following subsection:

Section 26c of the principal Act (as inserted by section 17 of the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1971) is hereby amended by repealing subsection (5), and substituting the following subsection:

Section 26g of the principal Act (as inserted by section 17 of the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1971) is hereby amended by inserting in subsection (2), after the words “section shall be”, the words “made and”.

This section shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of April 1972.

The principal Act is hereby further amended by inserting, after section 26i (as inserted by section 17 of the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1971), the following section:

Section 26k of the principal Act (as inserted by section 17 of the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1971) is hereby amended by omitting from subsection (1) the words “and authorisations under this Act to discharge natural water or”, and substituting the words “authorised under this Act to discharge”.

The said section 26k is hereby further amended by omitting from subsection (2) the words “natural water or” in both places where they occur.

The principal Act is hereby further amended by inserting, after section 26 (as inserted by section 17 of the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1971), the following section:

Section 34 of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting in subsection (2), after the word “Act”, the words “for which no penalty is provided elsewhere than in this section”.

Section 39 of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing paragraph (b).

Subsection (1) of section 15 of the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act 1971 is hereby amended—

The principal Act is hereby further amended—

WHEREAS by Order in Council dated the 29th day of October 1958 and published in Gazette, 1958, Volume III, at page 1463, and issued under section 311 of the Public Works Act 1928, the Minister of Electricity was authorised, inter alia, to erect, construct, provide, and use works in connection with the utilisation of water power from the Wanganui, Tokaanu, Tongariro, Rangitikei, and Whangaehu Rivers and all their tributary lakes, rivers, and streams in the land districts of South Auckland, Taranaki, and Wellington for the generation and storage of electrical energy and to raise or lower the level of all or any of such rivers and their tributary lakes, rivers, and streams, and to impound or divert the waters thereof: And whereas under subsection (2a) of section 21 of the principal Act every damming of a river or stream, and every diversion or taking of natural water, and every discharge of natural water or waste into any natural water, and every use of natural water, which is authorised by any Order in Council issued under the Public Works Act 1928 before the 1st day of April 1968 and of which notice in writing is given to the Regional Water Board before the 1st day of April 1970 is authorised under the principal Act: And whereas notice in accordance with the said subsection (2a) was duly given to the Waikato Valley Authority and the Rangitikei Regional Water Board but by inadvertence no such notice was given to the Water Allocation Council which before the 1st day of April 1970 acted as the Regional Water Board for the area through which flow some of the rivers and streams referred to in the said Order in Council: And whereas the Minister of Electricity, pursuant to the powers conferred by the said Order in Council had commenced before the 1st day of April 1970 to construct works to utilise the water power from the said rivers and to raise and lower their level and to impound and divert the waters thereof, such works being now close to completion:

Be it therefore enacted that every damming of a river or stream, and every diversion or taking of natural water, and every discharge of natural water into any natural water, and every use of natural water, which is authorised by the said Order in Council is hereby authorised under the principal Act in accordance with that Order in Council, but shall cease to be so authorised after the 31st day of March 1975 unless the rights or powers conferred by that Order in Council are being substantially exercised by that date.