The Short Title of this Act is “The Wellington Harbour Board Reclamation and Empowering Act, 1903.”

In the construction of this Act, if not inconsistent with the context,—

This Act shall be deemed to be a special Act within the meaning of the Act.

The Board may, subject to the provisions of the Act, from time to time fill up and reclaim from the sea the land described in the First Schedule hereto, and may for that purpose, if it thinks fit, enter into any contract or contracts with any person or persons for the execution of all or any works which may be necessary or expedient in or about the filling-up and reclamation of such land as aforesaid, upon such terms and conditions as may seem to it proper and reasonable.

The land described in the First Schedule (hereinafter referred to as “the said reclamation”) shall vest in the Board for the purposes for which the Board is constituted;

Whereas certain lands in the vicinity of the land described in the First Schedule hereto, now occupied partly as store-yards by the Public Works, Post and Telegraph, and Marine Departments, and partly as a poultry-grading yard by the Agricultural Department, are required to be given up by the said Departments to enable railway communication to be made over the said reclamation, and it is expedient that other land be vested in His Majesty in lieu thereof: Be it therefore enacted as follows:—

The Governor may, by notice in the Gazette, declare that any portion or portions of the said reclamation specified in the said notice, or any portion or portions of the said reclamation together with any portion or portions of the land described in the Second Schedule hereto (not exceeding in either case four acres in the whole), shall revest in His Majesty; and His Majesty shall at all times have the right of ingress and egress over the land described in the Schedules hereto to the portion or portions of land specified in the said notice.

His Majesty shall pay to the Board, within twelve months from the date of the Gazette containing the notice, or the date of the completion of the reclamation if the completion thereof be subsequent to the date of the said Gazette, a proportionate part of the cost of such reclamation, and of the retaining-walls on the seaward boundary, and of the sewers and drains within and the roads and approaches upon such reclamation, together with interest thereon from the date of Gazette or of such completion aforesaid, as the case may be, until payment, at the rate of four per centum per annum:

Provided that such proportionate part shall be calculated on the area specified in the said notice in excess of two acres and a quarter:

Provided also that in the event of the portion or portions of the said reclamation specified in the said notice not being available at the time when the said store-yards and poultry-grading yard are required to be given up as aforesaid, the Board shall defray the cost and expenses of or incidental to the removal of the buildings and plant from the same and the re-erection thereof on such other land as the Minister in charge of the said Departments in each case thinks fit; and such costs and expenses may be deducted from the said proportional cost.

At least three months before gazetting the notice referred to in section six hereof the proposed notice shall be submitted to the Board for its consideration.