This Act may be cited as the Wairau Harbour Board Empowering Act, 1922.

This Act shall be deemed to be a special Act within the meaning of the Harbours Act, 1908, and shall be read and construed along with the Wairau Harbour Board Act, 1907, and the Wairau Harbour Board Loan and Enabling Act, 1916.

Section five of the Wairau Harbour Board Loan and Enabling Act, 1916, is hereby amended by omitting the words “by way of special order, and it shall not be necessary to take a poll on any proposal to raise any such loan or loans.”

If at any time the Board decides to borrow any moneys under the provisions of the Wairau Harbour Board Act, 1907, or the Wairau Harbour Board Loan and Enabling Act, 1916, a special rate upon all rateable property in the Wairau Harbour District for the purpose of providing the annual charges upon moneys to be borrowed under the authority of the said Acts may be made and levied by the Board in manner provided by law and in accordance with the provisions of the Rating Act, 1908.

The special rate to be levied as aforesaid shall not exceed one farthing in the pound upon the capital value of all rateable property in the said harbour district.

For the purpose of providing a sinking fund for the liquidation of any loan authorized by the said Acts the Board shall pay to the Commissioners to be appointed under section one hundred and ninety-seven of the Harbours Act, 1908, in every year a sum equal to one per centum of the moneys borrowed or so much thereof as is for the time being outstanding.

For the purpose of making, levying, and recovering the said rates the Board shall have and may exercise all the powers of making, levying, and recovering rates in the said harbour district as are conferred upon local authorities by the Rating Act, 1908, and for such purpose the Rating Act, 1908, and its amendments are incorporated herewith.

No rate or levy made under this Act or the said Acts shall be set aside or quashed by any proceeding in any Court or otherwise, and no defect in the same or the making thereof or in any direction for levy shall be set up as a defence to any action which may be brought to recover the same.

Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to limit or affect the powers of the Board under any Act now in force.