The Board may levy rates on a graduated scale according to a classification made as hereinafter provided of the land upon which the rate is to be levied.

Before making a rate under this section in any year the Board shall, by resolution, classify all the land in its district.

In classifying the land in its district the Board shall have regard to the degree in which different pieces of land are affected by rabbits; and may have regard to—

The rate shall be made and levied on each class of land in such proportions as the Board appoints:

“Provided that, before the appointment of such proportions as aforesaid, the Board shall cause public notice to be given of the proportions it proposes to appoint; and shall, at a meeting of the Board to be held after the expiration of a period of twenty-eight days after the first publication of the notice, consider all objections in writing (if any) received by the Board to the proposed proportions.

Every classification so made shall be set forth in a list to be sealed with the common seal of the Board, and the Board shall immediately cause public notice of the classification to be given, and of the place where and of the period during which the classification list may be inspected, and shall allow it to be inspected at reasonable times at that place for a period of not less than twenty-one days.

Any person aggrieved by the classification may appeal against it on the ground that the land of the appellant, or any other land in the district, has not been fairly classified.

A notice of appeal setting out the grounds thereof shall, within seven days next after the expiration of the period of twenty-one days appointed for the inspection of the classification list, be filed in the Magistrate’s Court nearest to the public office of the Board by the person aggrieved, and a copy thereof shall within the same seven days be lodged by that person at that office.

The appeal shall be heard by a Magistrate at such convenient time and place as the Magistrate, on the application of any party, appoints, of which not less than three days’ notice shall be given by that party to the Secretary of the Board and to every other person affected by the appeal.

On the hearing of any such appeal the Magistrate may confirm the classification list or cause it to be amended in such manner as he thinks reasonable, and he shall sign the list so confirmed or amended, and the determination of the Magistrate shall be final and conclusive.

Every classification list sealed with the seal of the Board, or signed by a Magistrate in the case of any such appeal as aforesaid, shall, for the purpose of any proceedings for the recovery of rates, be sufficient evidence of a classification duly made by the Board in accordance with the requirements of this section.”