The Short Title of this Act is and this Act may be cited as the Otago Presbyterian Church Board of Property Act 1962.

This Act is for the purpose of consolidating and amending the various Acts mentioned in Schedule F hereto which Acts are hereby repealed.

All Corporations, Committees, persons, things, and circumstances, and generally all acts of authority, which are appointed, created, or originated under any of the Acts hereby repealed and which are subsisting, continuing, or in force on the coming into operation of this Act shall enure for the purposes of this Act as fully and effectually as if they had been appointed or created or had originated under the corresponding provisions of this Act and accordingly where necessary shall be deemed to have been so appointed or created or to have so originated.

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

The Trustees acting under the Otago Presbyterian Church Board of Property Act 1906 on the coming into operation of this Act and their successors in office as hereinafter provided shall have perpetual succession and shall be and continue to be for ever hereafter one body politic and corporate in deed and in law by the name or style of the Otago Presbyterian Church Board of Property (herein referred to as “the Board”) and by this name and style they and their successors in office may sue, prosecute, and shall be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in any Court of Judicature in New Zealand or elsewhere, in the same manner and form and as fully and effectually as any person in New Zealand may or can do.

The number of the Trustees shall not be more than seven or less than five.

If any present Trustee or any future Trustee to be appointed in the place or stead of any present Trustee as hereinafter provided shall die, desire to be discharged from his trust, or go to reside out of the Provincial District of Otago for more than six months in succession, or cease to be a member of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, or be removed, or suspended from membership thereof, or refuse to act, or become incapable of acting, or if he shall become bankrupt, or insolvent, or be convicted of any crime, or be committed to a mental Hospital or Institution, or become a protected person under the Aged and Infirm Persons Protection Act 1912, then and in any such case, such Trustee shall ipso facto cease to be a member of the Board.

When and so often as a vacancy in the office of Trustee shall occur, the Board shall thereupon or as soon thereafter as conveniently may be, at a meeting to be called for that purpose, nominate and appoint another fit and proper person to be a Trustee in the place of each Trustee so ceasing to be a member of the Board as aforesaid.

In appointing a new Trustee it shall be sufficient for all purposes to enter in the minute book of the Board, a minute in the form or to the effect set forth in Schedule G hereto and such minute if attested by at least one witness, shall be conclusive evidence of such appointment and shall be prima facie evidence of any other statement contained therein, and it shall not be necessary to prove in any proceeding or matter that any Trustee has been appointed hereunder or under any Act hereby repealed, and all acts done by any such Trustee shall be valid notwithstanding any defect that may afterwards be discovered in his appointment.

Immediately after the making of any such appointment, the Board shall cause to be delivered to the Clerk of Synod a copy of such minute certified as correct by the Chairman or the Factor of the Board.

The Board shall have and use a common seal for the affairs and business thereof and may from time to time and as often as to it shall seem expedient break, change, alter, or make new the same, as it shall think fit.

By the name aforesaid the Board shall at all times hereafter be able and capable in law to purchase, acquire, have, take, hold, receive, and enjoy all or any property real or personal whatsoever, in the most full and ample manner that may be allowed by law and in particular but not by way of limitation, the Board shall have power and subject to the provisions (if any) hereinafter set forth in respect of any particular property or properties, is empowered—

Contracts on behalf of the Board may be made, varied, or discharged as follows, that is to say:

The Trustees shall meet together for the transaction of business, adjourn, and otherwise regulate their meetings as they think fit.

At the first meeting in each calendar year the Trustees shall appoint one of their number, whether then present or not, to be Chairman of the Board. Such Chairman, who shall hold office until his successor is appointed, shall preside at all meetings of the Board. If at any meeting the Chairman is not present within five minutes after the time appointed for the holding of that meeting then the Trustees then present shall elect one of their number to be the Chairman of that meeting.

Unless three Trustees are present, no meeting of the Board shall be constituted for the transaction of business.

All acts to be done and all questions to be decided at any meeting shall be done and decided by the Trustees then present by a majority of votes, for which purpose each Trustee present shall have one vote while in the case of equality of votes the Chairman shall have a second or casting vote.

Proper minutes shall be kept of the proceedings of each meeting in a book to be kept for that purpose, and any such minutes if purporting to be signed by the Chairman of such meeting or by the Chairman of the next succeeding meeting shall be prima facie evidence of the matters stated in such minutes.

The continuing Trustees may act notwithstanding any vacancy in their number, but if and so long as their number is reduced below three the continuing Trustees may act for the purpose of increasing the number of Trustees to that number but for no other purpose.

Previous to any meeting of the Board (excepting cases of emergency when it may be convened within less time) notice to attend such meeting signed by the Factor shall be sent through the Post Office or delivered to each Trustee not less than three days before the time appointed for such meeting.

Any three Trustees, by requisition in writing signed by them, may call upon the Factor to convene a meeting of the Board and in all cases where the Factor shall refuse or neglect for three days so to do the said three Trustees may call a meeting by notice signed by them stating the time and place of such meeting, which notice shall be sent through the Post Office or delivered to each Trustee not less than three days before the time appointed for such meeting.

The lands described or referred to in Schedule A hereto shall be and continue to be vested in the Board, and such lands and all lands and hereditaments which have been or may hereafter be purchased or acquired in place of or substitution for or with the moneys received from the sale of any of these lands or which shall otherwise be acquired by the Board for the purposes of the Ecclesiastical and Educational Funds as hereinafter defined shall be held by the Board upon the trusts, intents, and purposes hereinafter declared concerning the same.

The Board shall have and from time to time may exercise in respect of the said lands or the moneys from time to time held by the Board as part of either such Funds all or any of the powers conferred on it by section 12 hereof.

The Board shall receive and take the rents, issues, and profits, and all other moneys becoming payable in respect of the said lands, and all income produced by the investment of any of those moneys.

The Board shall account to Synod for all sums received by the Board in respect of the said lands and of any investments of the moneys which may for the time being form part of either Fund within the time and in the manner provided in section 42 hereof.

Two-thirds of the moneys of the nature of income received by the Board from the said lands under section 22 hereof and the whole of the moneys of the nature of income so received from moneys or investments from time to time held by the Board as part of the Ecclesiastical Fund shall each year be applied by the Board in accordance with such regulations as Synod in manner hereinafter provided may have made or may from time to time hereafter make for the purposes of building and repairing or the provision of sites intended for manses, churches, church halls, and other buildings used or to be used for religious purposes in the Provincial District of Otago, or of repaying in whole or in part any moneys which may have been or may at any time hereafter be raised for any such purposes, or of endowing or aiding in the endowment of any theological chair or chairs or any lectureship or lectureships in connection with the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand in any College or University which has been or may hereafter be erected in the Provincial District of Otago, and of paying any salaries and other moneys to the holder or holders or occupier or occupiers of such theological chair or chairs or lectureship or lectureships which in the opinion of Synod shall be necessary for the more effectual working, management, and maintenance of any such College or University, or of any one or more of such purposes or of any other purpose or purposes consistent with the above purposes as may from time to time be determined by Synod according to the said regulations, and shall be and continue to be called “the Ecclesiastical Fund”:

Provided however that should any part of the Ecclesiastical Fund not be applied by the Board or expended by it in any one year for all or any of the aforesaid purposes, the part so not applied or expended shall not be capitalised unless Synod by resolution so directs, but shall be carried forward and shall be capable of being applied by the Board in future in accordance with the aforesaid regulations made by Synod, and in the meantime the Board may invest the same or any part thereof in any of the modes of investment authorised by this Act:

Provided also that Synod may at any time and from time to time direct that any part or parts of the Ecclesiastical Fund shall be added to the capital of that Fund.

The Board shall set apart the remaining one-third of the moneys of the nature of income received by the Board from the said lands under section 22 hereof, and shall hold the same and any other moneys at present held by it which came either directly or indirectly from the said one-third and the investments for the time being representing any part or parts of those moneys as a fund for educational purposes as hereinafter provided, which fund shall be and continue to be called “the Educational Fund”.

The capital of the Educational Fund shall comprise the moneys which stood to the credit of that Fund in the books of the Board on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and sixty-one, and any moneys which from time to time Synod shall direct to be added thereto as capital.

All moneys from time to time coming into the Educational Fund either from the remaining one-third of the money of the nature of income received by the Board from the said lands under section 22 hereof or from the income earned thereby or by the capital of the Educational Fund shall for the purposes of the trusts hereof and unless Synod by resolution from time to time otherwise directs be deemed to be income of the Educational Fund.

The income of the Educational Fund shall be applied by the Board in accordance with such regulations as Synod in manner hereinafter provided may have made or may from time to time hereafter make for the following purposes, that is to say:

Provided however that should either of the aforesaid parts of the said income not be applied by the Board or expended by it in any one year for all or any of the aforesaid purposes the part so not applied or expended shall not be capitalised unless Synod so directs, but shall be carried forward, and shall be capable of being applied by the Board in future years in accordance with the aforesaid regulations made by Synod, and in the meantime the Board may invest the same or any part thereof in any of the modes of investment authorised by this Act:

Provided also that Synod may at any time and from time to time direct that any part of the said income shall be added to the capital of the Educational Fund.

Every professor of any literary chair as aforesaid endowed in the whole or to the extent of two-thirds of such endowment from the Educational Fund shall be appointed and removable by the Board with the concurrence of Synod.

The lands described in Schedule C hereto shall be and continue to be vested in the Board upon the trusts, intents, and purposes hereinafter declared concerning the same.

The lands described in the first part of the said Schedule C shall be and continue to be held by the Board upon trust as a site for the first or principal church in connection with that part of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand which is situated in the Provincial District of Otago.

Subject as aforesaid the Board shall have and may from time to time exercise in respect of all or any of the lands described in the said Schedule C all or any of the powers conferred on the Board by section 12 hereof:

Provided however that any lease granted by the Board of any part of the lands so described, shall be so granted upon a request in writing addressed to the Board by the Clerk of or any other person duly authorised in that behalf by Synod.

The Board shall receive and take the rents, issues, and profits and all other moneys from time to time coming from or being earned by the lands described in the said Schedule C and shall account to Synod for all sums so received within the time and in the manner provided in section 42 hereof.

The Board shall apply the moneys which it has previously received or may hereafter receive in respect of the lands described in the said Schedule C in accordance with such regulations as Synod in manner hereinafter provided may have made or may from time to time hereafter make for the purposes of building and repairing manses, churches, church halls, and other buildings used for religious purposes in the Provincial District of Otago or of repaying in whole or in part any moneys which may have been or may at any time hereafter be raised for any such purpose and until any part of the moneys so received is so applied, the Board may invest the same or any part thereof in any of the modes of investment authorised by this Act.

The lands described in Schedules D and E hereto shall be and continue to be vested in the Board on the trusts intents and purposes hereinafter declared concerning the same.

The land described in Schedule D hereto shall subject to any lease existing of any part thereof be held as a site for a college or other educational institution.

The Board may lease any part of the land described in Schedule D and which in the opinion of the Board shall not be required for the said college or educational institution and the lands described in Schedule E upon any terms, provisions, powers, and authorities upon which the Board is empowered to lease the lands vested in it and may accept the surrender of any such lease.

The Board shall receive and take the rents, issues, and profits and all other moneys from time to time coming from or earned by the said lands and, within the time and in the manner provided in section 42 hereof, shall account to Synod for all sums received by the Board in respect both of the said lands and of the moneys from time to time held by the Board and which have come to it from the said lands.

The Board shall apply the moneys which it has previously received or may hereafter receive in respect of the said lands in accordance with such regulations as Synod in manner hereinafter provided may have made or may from time to time hereafter make for the purpose of the erection and maintenance of any college or other educational institution now erected or hereafter to be erected on the lands described in Schedule D and until any part of the moneys so received are so applied the Board may invest the same or any part thereof in any of the modes of investment authorised by this Act.

When under the provisions of sections 25, 35, and 40 hereof, the Board is required to account to Synod, it shall do so on or before the fifteenth day of February in each year by furnishing to Synod a statement in writing duly audited showing the moneys the Board has received up to the thirty-first day of December immediately preceding and also showing which amounts are capital and which are of the nature of income and also showing all sums lawfully paid by the Board out of the moneys it has so received.

The regulations of Synod to be made from time to time for the guidance of the Board shall be made in the following manner that is to say: they shall be passed as an Interim Act of Synod and one copy of such Act, together with a notice of the day on which Synod intends finally to adopt such regulations, shall be sent to each one of the Ministers and Elders who are for the time being members of Synod and to each Presbytery within the bounds of Synod; and each Presbytery under the jurisdiction of Synod shall be sent one more copy of such Act and of such notice than there are Sessions within its bounds and each such Presbytery shall thereupon send one of each such copies to each such Session; and each such Session shall be entitled to appear before and be heard by its Presbytery on the subject of such regulations and if any such Session dissents from its Presbytery’s recommendation to Synod on that subject, such Session shall be entitled to appear before and be heard by Synod in that behalf, before any such regulations as aforesaid shall be adopted by Synod and before any alteration shall be made in any regulations which shall be already in force; and it shall be lawful for Synod from time to time to pass and adopt such regulations either with or without alterations or amendments as to Synod shall seem expedient.

Whenever any act, matter, or thing to be done by the Board requires the concurrence, direction, or consent of Synod, then Synod may either generally or in any particular case or cases, by resolution, delegate, either absolutely or subject to any such conditions as Synod by resolution may impose, and subject always to the powers of variation and revocation hereinafter reserved to any Presbytery or to a special commission appointed in accordance with the usages of Synod or to a special committee of Synod, its powers and authority to give the necessary concurrence, direction, or consent, with full power and authority in all or any of the said matters, and any concurrence, direction, or consent given by such Presbytery, special commission, or special committee in accordance with the terms and conditions (if any) of such resolutions shall be deemed to be an exercise by Synod of such powers so delegated as fully and effectually as if such delegation had not been made and the concurrence, direction, or consent had been given by Synod itself, and any such delegation by Synod may at any time be varied or revoked by resolution of Synod; but, until notice of any variation or revocation shall have been given to such Presbytery, special commission, or special committee, all or any acts, matters, and things done, executed, or performed under and by virtue of the powers and authority so delegated shall be binding on Synod in like manner as if such delegation had not been made. Any such delegation and the terms thereof, as well as any variation or revocation of such delegation (if any), shall be evidenced by a certificate under the hand of the Moderator or Clerk for the time being of or some other person authorised in that behalf by Synod.

The lands described or referred to in Schedule B hereto shall be and continue to be vested in the Board upon and subject to the trusts and for the purposes on and for which the Board presently holds each part of those lands.

Any land from time to time purchased or otherwise acquired by the Board under the powers and provisions of paragraph (i) of section 12 hereof shall thereafter be held by the Board upon, subject to, and together with the trusts, powers, and provisions upon and under which the same is so purchased or acquired, but subject thereto the same shall be so held upon, subject to, and together with the powers and provisions of this section for the congregation for which it is purchased or otherwise acquired.

Subject to any particular trusts, powers, and provisions under which the same may have been purchased or otherwise acquired, the Board shall have and may from time to time exercise in respect of each part of the said lands all or any of the powers given to the Board by section 12 hereof.

The rents, issues, and profits of each part of the said lands shall be received by the person who, according to the trusts on which such part is held, is entitled thereto, and that person shall pay or discharge all outgoings and expenses in respect of such part:

Provided however that if such rents, issues, and profits, or any part thereof, are received by the Board, it shall account therefor to the person so entitled thereto, and when so doing shall be entitled to deduct all sums lawfully paid by the Board in respect of such part of the said lands.

All outgoings and expenses in respect of each part of the said lands which the Board shall be called on to pay shall be charged against and be paid either out of the income earned by the part in respect of which it is incurred or by the person for whom that part is held by the Board or in the event of the Board being unable to recover the whole or any part of such outgoings or expenses from either of those sources, it may charge the same against and recover it from the Ecclesiastical Fund as a sum lawfully paid by the Board thereout.

If at any time the Board shall, at the request of Synod and so as to provide any moneys required by the congregation for which any part of the said lands are held, execute any mortgage or other security, then, as between the person advancing those moneys and the Board, such mortgage or other security shall have the fullest legal effect and any personal covenant therein shall not be limited but as between the Board on the one hand and Synod and that congregation on the other hand the interests, principal, and other moneys payable under such a mortgage shall be charged and paid in the manner provided in subsection (5) of this section for charging and paying outgoings and expenses.

It shall be lawful for the members of the Deacons’ Court of any congregation under the jurisdiction or control of Synod, by written application in the form or to the effect set forth in Schedule H hereto, signed by the Chairman and the Clerk of such Court and with the written consent of the Board endorsed on such application, to apply to the Registrar of the Supreme Court at Dunedin, in the Provincial District of Otago, to be made a corporate body; and upon receipt of such application such Registrar shall issue a certificate, in the form or to the effect set forth in Schedule I hereto, incorporating the members of the Deacons’ Court making such application; and by the name mentioned in such certificate such members and their successors in office shall for ever thereafter be and be called one body politic and corporate in deed and law by such name and style, and except as hereinafter provided shall have and may exercise all or similar powers, rights, and privileges to those mentioned or referred to in sections 5, 11, and 12 of this Act; and the issue of such certificate or a certified copy thereof shall be conclusive evidence that all conditions precedent have been complied with, and of the congregation named therein being under such jurisdiction or control aforesaid, and all Courts and persons shall take judicial notice of the signature and seal to such certificate and certified copy respectively:

Provided that no Deacons’ Court so incorporated shall in any way purchase, acquire, sell, exchange, dispose of, or mortgage any land, or any interest in any land, except with the consent of Synod evidenced by a writing under the hand of the Moderator or the Clerk for the time being of or some person authorised in that behalf by Synod.

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 3 of the Incorporated Societies Amendment Act 1953, any Deacons’ Court incorporated under the provisions of this Act may use the word “Incorporated” as the last word of its corporate name or title.

Upon the issue of the certificate of incorporation of the members of any such Deacons’ Court, all property, whether real or personal, held by such members or any of them, or by any other person or persons on behalf of the congregation the members of the Deacons’ Court of which shall have been so incorporated, shall thereupon vest, without any conveyance or other assurance, in such members and their successors in office by the name or style mentioned in such certificate, upon and subject to such trusts, and with and under the same powers of administration, as may exist as regards such property respectively.

All rights, remedies, and powers existing at the date of incorporation, or which may afterwards exist or arise under, upon, or in respect of any deed, contract, instrument, matter, or thing made, entered into, or done by all or any of the former, existing, or future members of an incorporated Deacons’ Court, shall be exercised and enforced only by and against, as the case may be, such incorporated Deacons’ Court by the name and style thereof, but not otherwise.

Contracts made on behalf of the members of any incorporated Deacons’ Court may be made, varied, or discharged as aforesaid, that is to say:

Upon production to any District Land Registrar in the Land Registration Districts of Otago and Southland of:

such Registrar shall record in his register and on the instrument of title produced to him as aforesaid an entry of the vesting pursuant to section 47 of this Act of such estate or interest in the Court, in the name and style mentioned in the certificate of incorporation.

Any Deacons’ Court which on the coming into operation of this Act has been incorporated under the provisions of the Otago Presbyterian Church Board of Property Act 1906 or of any Act repealed thereby shall, except as hereinafter provided, have and may exercise all or any similar powers, rights, and privileges to those mentioned or referred to in sections 5, 11, and 12 of this Act:

Provided that no Deacons’ Court so incorporated shall in any way purchase, acquire, sell, exchange, or dispose of or mortgage any land or any interest in any land except with the consent of Synod evidenced by a writing under the hand of the Moderator or Clerk for the time being of or some person authorised in that behalf by Synod.

By written application in the form or to the effect set forth in Schedule J hereof and executed under its Common Seal, any incorporated Deacons’ Court may from time to time, with the written consent of the Board endorsed on such application, apply to such Registrar as aforesaid, to change its name to that shown in such application; and upon receipt of such application such Registrar shall issue a certificate in the form or to the effect set forth in Schedule K hereto; and thenceforth the Deacons’ Court so applying shall be known by the name shown in the last mentioned certificate; and the issue of such certificate or a certified copy thereof shall have all the incidents and consequences (mutatis mutandis) of the issue of the certificate of incorporation referred to in section 47 hereof.

All acts done by persons purporting to act as members of any incorporated Deacons’ Court shall be valid notwithstanding any defect that may exist or be afterwards discovered in their appointment or qualifications.

In the event of—

then and in any of those events all property whether real or personal, held by the Deacons’ Court (whether incorporated or not) of any such congregation, or by any person, persons, or body on behalf thereof or otherwise belonging thereto, shall be held or disposed of, and the income and proceeds of such property shall be applied as Synod shall by resolution direct; and it shall be lawful for the Moderator for the time being of Synod or some other person authorised in that behalf by Synod, by a deed-poll or such other instrument as the case may require setting forth such resolution or the effect thereof, and attested by the Clerk for the time being of Synod, to transfer, assure, assign, or otherwise deal with the said property and the income and proceeds thereof as Synod by any such resolution may have directed; and such deed-poll or other instrument if purporting to be signed and attested as aforesaid, shall be evidence of the facts therein respectively stated, and shall, subject as hereinafter appears, effectually transfer, convey, and assign in law and in equity the whole property and premises thereby purporting to be transferred, conveyed, assigned, or otherwise dealt with; and any such resolution, deed, or instrument, purporting to be signed and attested as aforesaid, shall be conclusive evidence of the existence of such Synod, of the due appointment of such Moderator, such other authorised person, and such clerk, and of the happening of all conditions precedent:

Provided that where the property being dealt with consists of any estate or interest in land subject to the Land Transfer Act 1952 and the dealing with that land is one the registration of which is authorised by that Act no effect in law shall be given by the instrument hereinbefore referred to until it has been registered in accordance with that Act. For the purposes of that registration the Moderator or the other person authorised by Synod as aforesaid shall be deemed the registered proprietor of the land for the purposes of that dealing:

Provided that, notwithstanding the trusts on which and the powers with which the same is held, after Synod has by resolution given any direction as aforesaid, the person, persons, or body in whom or in which the said property or any part thereof is, shall, or may be vested, shall have full power to transfer, assure, assign, or deal with the same according to the terms of and pursuant to any such resolution in the same manner as the Moderator or other authorised person is hereby empowered to do and also to execute all necessary deeds or instruments, each of which shall have the same force and effect as if it had been signed and attested as aforesaid.

Whereas the Board is registered as the proprietor of all that area of land situated in the Borough of Mosgiel described as Allotments 1 to 15 and 22 to 30 and parts of Allotments 16 to 21 Deeds Plan 164 Township of Stuart Town, which land is leased partly for farming purposes, partly for residential purposes, and partly for industrial purposes, and which land is part of the lands described in Schedule A hereto: and whereas in or about the year nineteen hundred and twenty-two, it being expedient that the Council of the said Borough should be given power to acquire inter alia the whole of the said area of land and to sell or lease the same for the purposes of closer settlement in the said Borough, the said Council was by the Mosgiel Borough Empowering Act 1922 empowered to purchase the said area of land from the Board in the manner therein prescribed and then to subdivide the same or any part or parts thereof, to lay out and form any street or streets as was deemed necessary therein or thereover, and to sell and dispose of such land or any part or parts thereof and to lease any part or parts thereof for the time being remaining unsold: and whereas the Board was, by that Act and provided the procedure therein prescribed was complied with, empowered to sell the whole of the said area of land to the said Council: and whereas in pursuance of the provisions of that Act the said Council has taken certain steps and done certain things to enable it to exercise the powers given it by that Act, but doubts have arisen as to what (if any) further steps and things require to be taken and done by the said Council so as to make those powers fully operative: and whereas the Board itself wishes to develop the said area of land or such part or parts thereof as may from time to time be required for the purpose of closer settlement in the said Borough or of industrial use therein, but has not elsewhere powers sufficiently wide to enable it so to do to the best advantage in that, in particular, part of the said area of land is zoned and is most suitable for industrial purposes while there is no present demand for its use for residential purposes but some persons requiring sites there for industrial purposes will not take up the same under any form of lease and in order to make sites for such purposes readily available and thus turn parts of the said area to the best advantage the Board will require to have power at its discretion to sell parts of the said area of land therefore in respect of the said area of land, the Board is hereby empowered to and may from time to time hereafter exercise in respect of the whole or any part or parts thereof all those powers set forth in section 12 hereof with this addition that the powers set forth in paragraph (a) of that section with the consent of Synod evidenced by a writing under the hand of the Moderator or the Clerk for the time being of Synod may from time to time be exercised by the Board without the limitation imposed by the second proviso to that paragraph (a).

Any error or omission in the several Schedules hereto shall not affect the validity of the title of the said Board to the lands therein mentioned, or in any way control or supersede the titles thereto as appearing in the title-deeds therefor.

This Act is declared to be a private Act.