This Act may be cited as the Hawke’s Bay Rivers Amendment Act, 1917, and it shall form part of and be read with the Hawke’s Bay Rivers Act, 1910 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

In this Act—

Notwithstanding anything in the principal Act or in any other statute contained, the Governor-General may, if he thinks fit, at any time after the passing of this Act, appoint any five competent persons to be Commissioners, with all the powers of a Commission appointed by the Governor-General in Council under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1908, for the purpose of inquiring into and determining the following questions, that is to say:—

Enlargement or curtailment of district.

Creation and abolition of wards and alterations of ward-boundaries.

Number of members of Board, and representation of wards.

Rating, whether to be uniform or graduated.

Composition for rates.

Of the said Commissioners one may be a Judge of the Supreme Court, and two others at the least shall be civil engineers.

In case any such Judge as aforesaid shall be appointed a Commissioner he shall ex officio be Chairman of the Commission; but if no such Judge shall be so appointed, the Governor-General shall appoint one of their number to be Chairman.

The Commissioners shall sit to hear evidence in Napier and Hastings, and may at their pleasure sit for the like purpose in any other place or places either within or without the district.

So soon as practicable after the date of their appointment the Commissioners shall make to the Governor-General a report in writing under their hands wherein they shall set out their decisions touching the several questions referred to them, and upon receipt by the Governor-General of such report the Minister of Internal Affairs shall forthwith cause the said decisions to be published in the New Zealand Gazette as well as in some newspaper circulating in the district, and from and after the gazetting thereof the said decisions shall have the force of law without any other authority than this present Act, and all authorities and persons concerned shall take all proper steps and proceedings with a view to carrying out the said decisions and giving them full effect.

All and singular the provisions of any and every statute relating or applicable to the Board or the district which shall be repugnant to or inconsistent with the said decisions or any of them shall, upon the gazetting of the said decisions, be deemed to be ipso facto repealed to the extent of such repugnancy or inconsistency as aforesaid.

Pending the gazetting of the said decisions, it shall not be incumbent on the Board to fill up any extraordinary vacancies that now exist therein or any like vacancies that may occur therein during the continuance in office of the present members.

In case the said decisions shall not be gazetted at least thirty days prior to the second Tuesday in January, nineteen hundred and eighteen (being the day appointed for the next general election of members of the Board), then the present members of the Board shall continue to hold office until the expiration of thirty days from the day whereon the said decisions shall be gazetted.

The fees of the Commissioners, their personal expenses, and all other expenses incurred by them in or about the prosecution of the said inquiry, shall be chargeable against and shall be paid by the Board, but this provision is without prejudice to the general discretion of the Commissioners to award costs to or against any party to the inquiry.

The parcel of land known as Section 3, Block II, Clive Survey District, containing one hundred and twenty-two acres three roods, more or less, and extending along the seashore from the mouth of the Tukituki River to the mouth of the Ngaruroro River is hereby vested in the Board in fee-simple as a river-improvement reserve.

For the purpose of completing the purchase of all or any lands which the Board have prior to the passing of this Act agreed to acquire as reserves for river-works, the Board may, by special order, raise a special loan under the Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1913, without taking any of the steps described in sections eight to twelve of that Act.

For the purpose aforesaid the Board may from time to time borrow money, at any rate of interest approved by the Minister of Finance, on the security of the rents and profits of the reserves vested in them, or any of those reserves.

The word “reserves” where used in the last preceding subsection shall be deemed to mean and include all lands for the time being vested in or belonging to the Board.

The Board are hereby declared to be a “leasing authority” within the meaning of the Public Bodies’ Leases Act, 1908.

All costs and expenses of and incidental to the promotion of this Act shall be chargeable against the Board, and shall be paid out of moneys belonging to the Board.