Subject to the terms of any trust affecting those reserves, the trustees of any high school may grant leases under this section of any high school reserves vested in them.

All such leases shall be subject to the provisions of the Public Bodies Leases Act 1908, and the trustees of every high school are hereby declared to be a leasing authority within the meaning of that Act.

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 3 of the Public Bodies Leases Act 1908, the powers of leasing hereby conferred on the trustees of high schools may be validly exercised, notwithstanding any restriction or limitation of leasing powers imposed by any Act in force at the commencement of this Act.

All rents derived from any such lease shall from time to time be paid into the proper fund and be appropriated thereout for the purposes to which the annual income of the trustees is for the time being properly applicable.

On the expiry of any lease of a high school reserve granted by the trustees and existing on 28 October 1911 (being the date of the commencement of the Education Reserves Amendment Act 1911), the trustees may grant the former lessee a new lease of the same land, or of any part thereof, under the provisions of the Public Bodies’ Leases Act 1908 for a period not exceeding 21 years, with perpetual right of renewal for periods not exceeding 21 years, at a rent for the first term of the lease to be fixed by valuation or arbitration in such manner as the trustees determine.

Leases already made before that date may be surrendered with a view to new leases being granted under this section to the former lessees, and preliminary contracts (not inconsistent with the provisions of this section) may be made for effecting any such surrender and new lease.

Subject to the terms of any trust affecting those reserves, the trustees may out of the rents and profits of any high school reserves vested in them pay the whole or any part of the cost of surveying, constructing, or improving any road, street, bridge, ferry, or ford necessary in the opinion of the trustees to the leasing or subdivision of any high school reserve vested in them; and the trustees are hereby empowered to pay or contract to pay that cost in any manner that they think fit.

Subject to the terms of any trust affecting those reserves, the trustees of any high school may sell, either together or in parcels, all or any part of the high school reserves vested in them, or may exchange those reserves or any part thereof under section 14.

Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or in any other Act or in any rule of law, it shall be lawful and be deemed always to have been lawful for the trustees, by private treaty or otherwise, to transfer to the Sovereign, with or without consideration or for an inadequate consideration, any high school reserve held by them freed and discharged from all trusts and reservations affecting the same. Any land transferred to the Sovereign under this subsection shall thereupon be deemed to be Crown land subject to the Land Act 1948.

Except in the case of a sale to the Sovereign under subsection (2) of the last preceding section, every sale of a high school reserve shall be made by public auction, public tender, or public application and ballot at a price fixed by a special government valuation of the land, and at least 2 months’ notice of the intended sale or ballot shall be publicly notified by advertisement in 1 or more newspapers circulating in the land district, and also in the capital town of the provincial district, wherein the reserves are situated.

All moneys arising from any such sale shall, after payment of the costs and expenses payable by the trustees in connection with the sale, be—

Where any such moneys have been invested on mortgage as aforesaid, and the land mortgaged becomes vested in the trustees under any power of sale expressed or implied in the mortgage, the trustees shall hold the land so becoming vested in them upon the same trusts and subject to the same powers and conditions as those on which they held the land from the sale of which the moneys were derived.

The trustees of any high school may from time to time, with the approval of the Minister, borrow money on the security of the rents and profits of the high school reserves vested in them or any part thereof.

Notwithstanding anything contained in any other Act or in any deed or other instrument, the several parcels of land specified in Schedule 1 shall as from the commencement of this Act be deemed to have ceased to be high school reserves, and shall vest in the Sovereign as Crown land subject to the Land Act 1948, freed and discharged from all trusts and reservations affecting the same, but subject to all leases, encumbrances, liens, or easements to which they are subject at the commencement of this Act.

The provisions of every other enactment in force at the commencement of this Act conferring on the trustees of any high school any powers with respect to any land, or providing for the payment to high school trustees of the income of or proceeds of the sale of any land, shall, as from the commencement of this Act, cease to apply with respect to any land specified in Schedule 1.

All moneys and investments of moneys derived from endowments and vested in any high school trustees at the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to be vested in the Sovereign, freed from all trusts and reservations affecting the same. The trustees shall do all such things as are necessary or as the Minister of Finance may direct to be done for the purpose of securing that all moneys to which this subsection relates shall be paid into the Public Account, and that all investments to which this subsection relates shall be transferred into the name of the Sovereign.

For the purposes of the last preceding subsection, the term endowment means—

In this section the term trustees means all incorporated bodies in which is vested, or which have the control of, any land set apart by way of endowment for any university, agricultural college, school of agriculture, high school, or other school, or for the purposes of primary or secondary or university education; and in the case of land vested in the Crown means the Governor-General.

The Governor-General may from time to time, in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign, grant to any trustees any Crown land or land vested in or acquired by the Crown in exchange for the whole or any portion of any endowment or reserve or other land vested in the trustees as such, and may give (out of moneys appropriated by Parliament for the purpose) or receive any money by way of equality of exchange.

Any trustees, with the sanction of the Governor-General, may exchange any endowment or reserve or other land vested in them as such for any other land held in fee simple in New Zealand; and may give (out of any money in their hands applicable for that purpose) or receive any money by way of equality of exchange.

The Governor-General and the trustees may do or cause to be done all acts and things, and may make, sign, or execute all instruments necessary to carry out any exchange under this section.

No exchange under subsection (2) shall be made without the previous consent in writing of the trustees.

All land received in exchange by trustees under this section shall be held by them for the objects and purposes and upon the trusts (if any) for and upon which the land so given in exchange was held.

All moneys received by the trustees by way of equality of exchange for any school site or for any endowment or reserve so exchanged, after payment of the costs and expenses payable by the trustees in connection with the exchange shall, in the case of any school site so exchanged, be paid into the Public Account, and in any other case be—

Where any such moneys have been invested on mortgage as aforesaid and the land mortgaged becomes vested in the trustees under any power of sale expressed or implied in the mortgage, the trustees shall hold the land so becoming vested in them upon the same trusts and subject to the same powers and conditions as those on which they held the land from the sale of which the moneys were derived.

The Governor-General may, by Order in Council, declare that any land for the time being vested in the Sovereign for an educational purpose shall be vested in any university, agricultural college, board, high school trustees, kindergarten association or union, or other incorporated body named in the order, to be held upon trust for the same educational purpose as that for which the land was vested in the Sovereign; and thereupon the land shall be deemed to have been transferred to the body concerned in trust for the purpose specified in the order.

The Registrar-General of Land, on registration of any Order in Council under the last preceding subsection, shall make all necessary endorsements on the record of title in respect of the land, or, if no such record has been issued, shall on the completion of such surveys (if any) as may be necessary, issue a record of title in the name of the body concerned.

The Minister may from time to time, by notice in the Gazette, grant permission on such terms and for such period as he thinks fit to any kindergarten association to use for the purposes of a kindergarten, or to any playcentre association to use for the purposes of a playcentre, any land vested in the Sovereign for the purposes of pre-school education.

The Minister may from time to time, by notice in the Gazette, grant permission on such terms and for such period as he thinks fit to any university, agricultural college, school of agriculture, board, high school trustees, or body of persons (whether incorporated or not) to use for educational purposes any land vested in the Sovereign for educational purposes.

The Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council published in the Gazette, vary the trusts on which any land is for the time being held by the Sovereign for educational purposes, and may in like manner declare any such land which is not required for the purposes for which it is held to be Crown land subject to the Land Act 1948, freed and discharged from every educational trust affecting the same.

The Registrar-General of Land, on registration of any Order in Council under the last preceding subsection shall make all necessary endorsements on any record of title in respect of the land, or, in the case of an order declaring any such land to be Crown land, shall, subject to the provisions of section 17, cancel any record of title in respect of the land.

An order under subsection (1) is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

Where any land that is transferred to or vested in the Sovereign under this Act is subject to a lease which is current at the date of transfer or vesting, and the lessee thereunder has a perpetual right of renewal,—

For the purposes of subsection (1), a lease granted in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (f) or paragraph (g) of section 5 of the Public Bodies Leases Act 1908 or paragraph (b) of section 11 of the Public Bodies Leases Act 1969 shall be deemed to confer on the lessee a perpetual right of renewal.

Every record of title in respect of any land transferred to or vested in the Sovereign under any of the provisions of this Act or declared to be Crown land under subsection (5) of section 15 which is not subject to a registered lease current at the date of transfer or vesting or of the Order in Council or Proclamation, as the case may be, shall, without further authority than this subsection, be cancelled by the Registrar-General of Land. Where any such land is subject to a registered lease current at the date of transfer or vesting or of the Order in Council or Proclamation, as the case may be, the Registrar-General of Land shall, without further authority than this subsection, make all necessary endorsements on any record of title in respect of the land, and the record shall enure in the name of the Sovereign until the expiration or sooner determination of the lease and shall then be cancelled by the Registrar-General of Land.

No cancellation of a record of title under this section shall in any way affect the rights of any person entitled to any lease, encumbrance, lien, or easement in existence at the time of the cancellation over the land comprised in the record of title.

Transfers of land to the Sovereign under any of the provisions of this Act shall be certified as correct for the purposes of the Land Transfer Act 2017 by the Director-General of Lands, and any such transfer so certified may be accepted for registration under that Act.

Nothing in this Act shall apply with respect to the reserve described in the Schedule of the New Zealand University Amendment Act 1914 (being land vested in the Crown in trust as an endowment for providing Taranaki Scholarships under that Act).

The Education Reserves Act 1928 and the Education Reserves Amendment Act 1948 are hereby repealed.

All Proclamations, Orders in Council, Warrants, orders, resolutions, appointments, notices, reservations, and generally all acts of authority which originated under any of the said enactments or any enactment thereby repealed, and are subsisting or in force at the commencement of this Act, shall enure for the purposes of this Act as fully and effectually as if they had originated under the corresponding provisions of this Act, and accordingly shall, where necessary, be deemed to have so originated; but may be revoked or altered under the powers conferred by this Act.

All trustees, schools, reserves, endowments, and lands who or which at the commencement of this Act are subject to any of the enactments hereby repealed shall be deemed to be similarly subject to this Act, and the provisions of this Act shall apply thereto accordingly.

All matters and proceedings commenced under any of the said enactments and pending or in progress at the commencement of this Act may be continued, completed, or enforced under this Act.

The enactments specified in Schedule 2 are hereby amended in the manner indicated in that schedule.