The Short Title of this Act is “The Borough of Port Chalmers Borrowing Act, 1899.”

In the interpretation of this Act the following expressions shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them:—

The Corporation is hereby empowered to borrow, at such rate of interest not exceeding four pounds ten shillings per centum per annum as it shall think fit, any sum or sums of money not exceeding in the whole the sum of five thousand pounds.

It is hereby further enacted that—

After the whole of the said sum of five thousand pounds shall have been raised, it shall not be lawful for the Council to owe to its bankers on overdraft on any account at the end of any financial year any sum exceeding the amount of ordinary revenue for that year payable into such account and then outstanding and uncollected.

Until the whole of the said sum of five thousand pounds shall have been raised, the limit for overdraft prescribed by section two hundred and one of “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1886,” shall be reduced from time to time by the aggregate of the amounts paid into the Municipal Account from time to time out of the loan authorised by this Act.

Such loan or loans shall be raised and expended exclusively for the purposes herein specified, that is to say,—

In payment of such commission, charges, and expenses, including the cost of obtaining this Act, as the Council shall determine to have been actually incurred in connection with such loan or loans:

In payment of the cost of the improvements and extension of the present waterworks and water-supply to the said Town of Port Chalmers, and to the shipping of the port, including—

In payment of a sum or sums not exceeding in the whole the sum of twelve hundred pounds towards the extinction of the overdraft of the Corporation owing on Water-supply Account:

In payment and extinction, when it falls due, of the loan specified in the First Schedule hereto, in so far as the said loan is not completely extinguished by means of the sinking fund applicable thereto.

If there shall remain any balance of the said sum of five thousand pounds after deducting a sum sufficient for all the purposes above specified, such balance may be raised and applied by the Corporation in refunding to its general account moneys heretofore paid from such account into the Water-supply Account.

The following provisions shall apply to any loan raised under the powers herein contained:—

The debentures issued under this Act shall be payable to bearer, and shall be transferable by delivery. No stamp duty shall be payable in respect of any such debentures or coupon.

No debentures under this Act shall be sold at a price that will produce to the purchaser a greater interest than four pounds ten shillings per centum per annum.

The debentures issued under the provisions of this Act shall have a currency not exceeding thirty years from the date of issue.

Such debentures and the coupons attached thereto shall bear the form set forth in the Second Schedule hereto, with such modifications as to the Council seem desirable; and the same need not have the Corporation seal attached thereto, and may be signed by the Mayor and Treasurer, and they shall be numbered consecutively, and the signatures to any coupon may be made by lithography or any other process; and the sum secured by any such debenture shall, both as to principal and interest, be payable at a place to be determined by the Council and stated in such debenture and coupon.

The Council may, by special resolution, make and levy as security for any such loan or loans such special rate or special rates as it may deem necessary, and may pledge the same as security for any loan; and in so doing its authority shall not be limited to the making and pledging of a special rate or special rates estimated as sufficient to cover the interest of such loan, but it may make and pledge a rate or rates of a greater amount: Provided that it shall not levy more in any year during the currency of such loan than shall be sufficient to provide such interest, so long as such interest shall be punctually paid.

No objection shall be allowed in any Court to any rate which the Council shall purport to strike, make, or levy under the provisions of this Act, or which shall or may form the security for the debentures or coupons issued hereunder, and no informality or irregularity, whether in form or in substance, or in the making, striking, or levying of such rate, or in the election or appointment of any body or person acting in connection therewith, shall be allowed by any Court as a defence to any act or proceeding for the recovery of such rate, or be entertained as a ground for quashing such rate or restraining the recovery thereof.

The Council shall have power from time to time to amend any special rate made by it under the provisions hereof by increasing or diminishing the same; but no special rate shall be diminished by the Council under the powers herein contained unless the Controller and Auditor-General shall previously to such reduction in writing approve thereof, and such reduction shall only continue for so long a period as he shall approve.