This Act may be cited as the Hutt Park Act, 1907.

From and after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eight, the land described in the First Schedule hereto, and now vested in trustees appointed under the Hutt Public Park and Racecourse Act, 1866, is hereby vested in trust for recreation purposes in a joint standing committee appointed from time to time under the provisions of Part VII of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1900, by the Councils of the Boroughs of Petone, Lower Hutt, and Eastbourne.

There is also vested in such joint standing committee, as from the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eight, all the right, title, and interest of the said trustees to and in the land described in the Second Schedule hereto, and held by the said trustees under a lease dated the seventh day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and made between Christopher Heath and Jasper Kenrick Peck of the one part and the said trustees of the other part.

Such joint committee shall be a body corporate under the name of the Hutt Park Committee, and shall have and may exercise in relation to the said land all the powers and duties conferred by Part VII of the said Act on Councils, except the power to borrow money or make a rate, and in addition may make by-laws and execute deeds and contracts in the manner prescribed by the principal Act.

Subject to the provisions of this Act, the joint committee shall have and may exercise in respect of the land described in the First and Second Schedules hereto (hereinafter referred to as the said land) all the powers vested in local bodies in respect of reserves for recreation purposes.

The said land shall, as from the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eight, vest in and be held by the joint committee, subject to the tenancies, easements, and rights to which the land is on that date subject.

The rents and profits derived under this Act from the said lands shall, after payment of all expenses of administration, be applied in improving the said land in such manner as the joint committee determines.

Notwithstanding anything in this Act or in any lease granted under the authority of this Act, the Minister of Defence may at any time, on giving to the chairman for the time being of the Hutt Park Committee not less than fourteen days’ notice in writing, take possession of such part of the said land as he thinks fit for defence purposes, and occupy the same for a period or periods not exceeding twenty-eight days in any one year.

Compensation shall be payable by the Crown for all damage done during any such period of occupation to the fences or other erections or to the stock on the land so occupied.

Within thirty days after receiving from the joint committee a request so to do, the trustees in office under the Hutt Public Park and Racecourse Act, 1866, shall furnish under the hand of their chairman to the joint committee a balance-sheet showing the financial position of the trust as on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eight; and, after paying and discharging all debts and other liabilities incurred by the trustees, shall pay over to the joint committee or to such person as it appoints all moneys (if any) then remaining in the hands of the trustees after payment of all liabilities.

As from the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eight, the trustees shall cease to hold office, and shall thenceforth be released and discharged from all liabilities of the trustees in or about the execution of the trusts upon which the said land was held by them.

The Wellington Provincial Ordinance known by the Short Title of the Hutt Public Park and Racecourse Act, 1866, is hereby repealed as from the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eight.

SCHEDULES.