This Act may be cited as the Christchurch District Drainage Amendment Act 1954, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Christchurch District Drainage Act 1951 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the principal Act or in any other enactment, the Board may in any year, in lieu of any special rates made and levied over any part or parts of the district, whether before or after the passing of this Act, by special order make and levy over the whole of the district or over any number of parts thereof a rate (hereinafter called the consolidated rate) of such amount as will produce a sum not greater than the sum that would be produced by making and levying the special rates separately.

Any consolidated rate may be made and levied over the whole of the district or of any number of parts thereof, notwithstanding that any part or parts of the district may not be liable for any of the special rates for which the consolidated rate is substituted.

Nothing in this section or in any special order passed thereunder shall affect the liability of the Crown for the payment of any such rates in accordance with the provisions in that behalf of section one hundred and twenty-three of the Local Bodies’ Loans Act 1926.

Every special order made under this section shall specify the several rates in lieu of which the consolidated rate is made.

Nothing in this section shall be so construed as to affect in any way the security afforded to any creditor of the Board by any special rate.

The proceeds of a consolidated rate made and levied under this section shall be applied for the purposes of the several rates in lieu of which the consolidated rate was made.