The Short Title of this Act is “The Education Reserves Act, 1908.”

This Act is a consolidation of the enactments mentioned in the First Schedule hereto, and with respect to those enactments the following provisions shall apply:—

Savings.

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

The Governor may from time to time reserve any waste lands of the Crown or any lands taken under “The New Zealand Settlements Act, 1863,” or any Act amending the same or construed therewith, as sites for public schools.

Such lands shall be granted to the Board of the district in which they are situate in trust for the purpose aforesaid.

The Trustees of any high school, and, with the consent of the Governor in each case, the School Commissioners hereinafter mentioned, and every Board may from time to time set apart as sites for public schools any part of the Education reserves or lands vested in them or it.

All lands reserved or set apart under or by virtue of this or any other Act as sites for public schools shall, from the time of the making or setting apart thereof, vest, without grant, conveyance, or transfer, in the Board of the district wherein the same are situate.

The Board may, with the consent of the Minister, sell or exchange any site for a public school.

In the case of a sale the money received shall, as soon as conveniently may be, be invested in the purchase of—

In the case of the sale or exchange of a site having any buildings or other erections thereon, a separate valuation of such buildings and erections shall be made by some person appointed by the Minister, and so much of the proceeds of the sale or exchange as equals the amount of such valuation may be applied by the Board towards the erection of other school buildings instead of being invested as aforesaid.

The Governor may from time to time by Proclamation provisionally reserve any waste lands of the Crown, or any lands taken under “The New Zealand Settlements Act, 1863,” or any Act amending the same or construed therewith, as endowments for primary and for secondary education within the provincial district in which such lands are, subject, however, to the following conditions:—

In order to provide an endowment for primary education in the North Island, at least five per centum of the waste lands in each provincial district therein open for sale on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, and a like percentage out of all land over which the Native title is thereafter extinguished in each such district, and which from time to time is acquired or purchased by or on behalf of the Crown, shall be reserved and set apart as an endowment for the maintenance of primary education within the education district in which such land is situated.

All such lands shall be granted to the School Commissioners for the provincial district in which such lands are situated, and shall be held by them under and subject to the powers contained in this Act with respect to other endowments vested in such School Commissioners.

All reserves and endowments made for high schools, and vested in any persons under any Act, shall vest in such persons from the coming into operation of such Act without any grant, conveyance, or transfer.

The persons in whom for the time being is vested the real property of any high school (hereinafter called “the Trustees”) shall have all such powers of selling, exchanging, and leasing the hereditaments and premises vested in them, or any part thereof, as are hereinafter mentioned.

Every lease and sale of lands under the last preceding section shall be made by public auction or public tender, and at least two months’ notice of such intended lease or sale shall be publicly notified by advertisement in one or more newspapers circulating in the land district, and also in the capital town of the provincial district wherein the lands are situate.

All rents and profits derived from any such lease or sale shall from time to time be paid into the proper fund, and be appropriated thereout for the purposes to which the annual income or proceeds of any real estate vested in the Trustees are for the time being properly applicable.

The Trustees may, subject to this Act, let any lands vested in them, or any part thereof, at such rents and upon such terms and conditions as the Trustees determine.

Where the lands are rural or pastoral lands, a lease thereof may be made for any term not exceeding twenty-one years.

Where the lands are town lands, or lands used for building purposes, a lease thereof may be made for any term not exceeding fifty years.

Every such lease shall take effect in possession from the time of the execution thereof, and in every such lease an annual rent shall be reserved, payable at such times and for such periods as the Trustees think fit.

Where a lease is for a longer term than twenty-one years, the annual rent reserved by such lease for any period beyond the first twenty-one years shall be an advance at least of fifty per centum upon the annual rent payable under such lease during the last year of the expired twenty-one years.

On no lease shall any premium, fine, or foregift be taken.

Where any block of land has been set aside as an endowment for any high school under any enactment in force on or immediately before the twenty-eighth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and eighty (being the date of the coming into operation of “The High Schools Reserves Act, 1880”), with power to any Land Board to sell or deal with the same or otherwise dispose thereof, the Land Board of the district wherein the land so set aside is situate may from time to time sell or otherwise deal with and dispose of the same in like manner as Crown lands may be sold, dealt with, or disposed of.

The Receiver of Land Revenue shall, after deducting the costs of survey of the land so set aside, pay over the profits and proceeds thereof in the manner provided by any enactment regulating the application of such moneys.

The Trustees, with the sanction of the Governor, may sell and absolutely dispose of, either together or in parcels, by public sale, all or any part of the lands vested in them in respect of which no trust has been created inconsistent with the exercise of this present power; or may exchange the said lands, or any part thereof, for any other lands held in fee-simple in New Zealand; and may (out of any money in their hands applicable to such purpose) give or receive any money by way of equality of exchange, and may execute all such conveyances as are requisite for carrying out such sale or exchange.

The provisions of section twenty-nine hereof shall apply to lands vested in the Trustees.

All property so received in exchange shall be held by the Trustees in whom it becomes vested for the same purposes as the property given in exchange was held subject to.

All moneys arising from such sale, or received by the Trustees for equality of exchange as aforesaid, shall, after payment of the costs and expenses payable by the Trustees in connection with such sale or exchange, be either—

Trustees may, with consent of governors of schools, invest such proceeds. Ibid, sec. 11

Where any such moneys have been invested on mortgage as aforesaid, and the lands mortgaged become vested in the Trustees under any power of sale expressed or implied in the mortgage, the Trustees shall hold the lands so becoming vested in them on the same trusts, and subject to the same powers and conditions, as the lands from the sale of which such moneys were derived.

The Trustees of any high school may from time to time, with the sanction of the Governor, borrow money on the security of the rents and profits of the lands vested in them, or of any part thereof.

No money shall be borrowed as aforesaid at a higher rate of interest than five per centum per annum.

The lender of any money borrowed under this section shall not be concerned to see that the sanction of the Governor as aforesaid has been obtained.

The Trustees may from time to time, with the sanction of the Governor, out of such moneys as come into their hands under this Act, expend any reasonable sum in erecting suitable buildings and premises for the use of the high school or in connection therewith:

Provided that no sale or other disposal of land shall be permitted for the purpose of applying the proceeds to the construction of buildings and premises in any case where the estimated value of all buildings and premises used as a high school, or in connection therewith, will be thereby so augmented as to exceed the one-fifth part of the estimated value of all the property belonging to such school.

For every provincial district there shall be live School Commissioners of education reserves (hereinafter referred to as “the School Commissioners”) who, with their successors in office, shall be a body corporate by the name of “The School Commissioners for the Provincial District.”

The School Commissioners for each provincial district shall be appointed as follows:—

Any person may be appointed a School Commissioner for a provincial district who might be elected a member of a Board within that district, and any person who would be ineligible to be or continue such member shall also be ineligible to be or continue a School Commissioner.

All appointments of School Commissioners shall be gazetted.

The School Commissioners in any provincial district shall come into office on the gazetting of their appointment, and shall remain in office until the thirty-first day of March in the third year from their coming into office, or until the coming into office of their successors.

If a School Commissioner dies, or resigns his office, or becomes ineligible as aforesaid, the Governor or the Board, as the case may require, may appoint another person in his stead; and the person so appointed shall continue in office for the residue only of the term for which his predecessor was appointed.

The School Commissioners may from time to time make bylaws for the regulation of their affairs and the general conduct of their business, and for appointing the times and places of their meetings.

All reserves and endowments made or set apart for primary or secondary education under this or any other Act, and vested in any School Commissioners, shall, from the time of the making or setting apart thereof, vest in such School Commissioners without any grant, conveyance, or transfer.

The District Land Registrar of the district where any land becomes vested as in this Act mentioned shall, on the deposit with him by any Education Board or School Commissioners of a copy of this Act, together with any Gazette or other instrument of authority by which such lands become vested under this Act, enter the same in his register-book as a folium thereof, and such folium shall be deemed to be the title to the land so vested.

All moneys received by the School Commissioners, either as compensation or in payment for land taken from them for public works or otherwise sold by them under any special Act, shall be expended in the purchase of other lands held in fee-simple in New Zealand, to be held for the same purposes as the land for which such moneys were received.

The School Commissioners and every Board may let any lands vested in them or it respectively at such rents and on such terms and conditions as may be deemed fit, subject nevertheless to the trusts and conditions contained in any instrument by which such lands have been so vested.

Such letting shall be by public auction or public tender, of which at least one month’s public notice shall be given.

The term of the lease shall not exceed twenty-one years, except in the case of land situate within a town or city and suitable for building purposes, when the term may be any period not exceeding forty-two years; but no such lease shall contain any covenant or provision for a renewal or extension of the said term of forty-two years.

This section shall be construed subject to the provisions of “The Land Act, 1908,” relating to the leasing of educational endowments and reserves, in so far as those provisions are applicable.

In the case of any lease of any education reserve or endowment or of any part thereof granted either before or after the coining into operation of this Act by the School Commissioners in whom such reserve or endowment is vested by virtue of “The Education Reserves Act, 1877,” no transfer, sublease, or mortgage of any such lease shall be valid until and unless the written consent thereto of the said Commissioners has been obtained.

Nothing in this section shall apply to any transfer, sublease, or mortgage made or granted, or agreed to be made or granted, before the twentieth day of November, one thousand nine hundred and seven (being the date of the coming into operation of “The Land Laws Amendment Act, 1907”), or to any transfer executed by a mortgagee by virtue of a mortgage granted or agreed to be granted before that date.

All revenues derived by the School Commissioners from the reserves vested in them shall, after deduction therefrom of the expenses of the management and administration thereof, be disposed of as follows:—

1903, No. 73, sec. 17

Provided that no school shall be entitled to any grant unless it is a public school, or a school established or governed under any Act of Parliament, or a school established under the Canterbury College in the Provincial District of Canterbury.

For the purposes of this section the expenses of management and administration of reserves shall be deemed to include the whole or any part of the cost of surveying, constructing, or improving any road, bridge, ferry, or ford necessary, in the opinion of the School Commissioners, to the leasing or subdivision of any land now or hereafter vested in them, and the construction or improvement of which has been approved by the Minister; and the School Commissioners are hereby empowered to pay or contract to pay such cost in any manner they think fit.

Notwithstanding anything in this section, the School Commissioners may, if they think fit, pay over the revenue received by them from the Receiver of Goldfields Revenue, or any part thereof, to the local authority within whose district is situate any reserve in respect whereof such revenue accrued.

All revenue so paid over shall be expended by the local authority in or towards the construction or maintenance of such roads, bridges, ferries, or fords on or forming an approach to any land vested in the School Commissioners as aforesaid as may be agreed on between the said Commissioners and local authority, or, in the absence of such agreement, as the local authority thinks fit.

The School Commissioners shall keep full and true accounts of all moneys received by them under this Act, and the same shall be paid into such bank in New Zealand as they think fit.

The Governor may from time to time make regulations for the inspection and audit of the accounts of the School Commissioners, and may require from them such reports as he thinks fit on their administration of this Act.

The Governor may, in the name and on behalf of His Majesty, grant to any Trustees any Crown land or land vested in or acquired by the Crown in exchange for the whole or any portion of any endowment or reserve or any other land deemed by the Governor and the Trustees agreeing to the exchange to be of equal value with the land so granted; and the Governor and such Trustees may do or cause to be done all acts and things, and may make, sign, or execute all instruments necessary to carry out any such exchange.

All land so received in exchange shall be held by the Trustees for the objects and purposes and upon the trusts (if any) for and upon which the land so given in exchange was held.

No such exchange shall be made without the previous consent in writing of the Trustees.

For the purposes of this section—