This Act may be cited as the Waitara Harbour District and Empowering Act, 1907.

This Act shall be deemed to be a special Act within the meaning of the Harbours Act, 1878, which Act is hereby incorporated with this Act.

The Waitara Harbour District is hereby constituted for the purposes of this Act, and such district shall comprise those portions of the Counties of Clifton and Taranaki (including the Borough of Waitara) as are described in the Schedule hereto.

Nothing herein shall prejudice or affect the right of the New Plymouth Harbour Board to continue to levy rates over the area comprised in the harbour district hereby constituted for the purpose of providing for payment of interest and sinking fund on the existing loan of two hundred thousand pounds borrowed by the New Plymouth Harbour Board under the provisions of the New Plymouth Harbour Board Ordinance 1875 Amendment Act, 1877, or on so much of any future loan or loans as the New Plymouth Harbour Board may hereafter raise for the purpose of paying off the balance of the existing loan of two hundred thousand pounds, but for no other purpose whatsoever.

Whereas by Crown grant dated the eighth day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, twenty-five acres and twenty-five perches (comprising one hundred sections) of land in the present Borough of Waitara were granted to the Waitara Harbour Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board) as an endowment upon trust for the construction and maintenance of a bridge over the River Waitara, and for the maintenance of the banks and improvement of the said river: And whereas the existing bridge over the Waitara River (which had been built before the date of the said Crown grant) has since been maintained by the Board, and it has now become necessary to entirely rebuild the same: And whereas the Board desires to be empowered to borrow for the purpose of rebuilding such bridge a sum not exceeding seven thousand pounds, and to mortgage the lands comprised in the said grant as a security for the repayment of any sum or sums so borrowed: Be it therefore enacted as follows:—

Whereas the Board was, by Order in Council, on the twenty-seventh day of February, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, declared to be a leasing authority under the Public Bodies’ Powers Act, 1887: And whereas the Board has since that date granted different leases under and in accordance with the provisions of the Harbours Act, 1878: And whereas doubts have arisen as to the validity of such leases: Be it therefore enacted that all leases which since the twenty-seventh day of February, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, have been granted by the Harbour Board under and in accordance with the provisions of the last-mentioned Act are hereby declared to be valid.

Upon the surrender of any lease heretofore granted by the Board under the provisions of the Harbours Act, 1878, or of the Public Bodies’ Powers Act, 1887, for a fixed term of years, but without any covenant therein for renewal, the Board may, in addition to the powers expressly specified in section eleven of the Public Bodies’ Powers Act, 1887, in any new lease for the remainder of the term of the former lease, covenant to grant renewals from time to time for a period not exceeding twenty-one years at any one time, but at a rent to be fixed by the Board by a special resolution, or by valuation, or by arbitration. Any such new lease may provide for the payment of valuation by the incoming tenant or improvements made upon the land, whether by the lessee named in such lease, his executors, administrators, or assigns, or by any former lessee or tenant of all or any part of the land included in such lease. Any such new lease may contain the provisions for securing payment of valuation set out in section three of the Public Bodies’ Powers Act 1887 Amendment Act, 1891.