Council of the Province of Canterbury, and it is expedient that effect should be given to the same:

Now therefore I, Sir George Ferguson Bowers, the Governor of New Zealand, in pursuance and in exercise of the power and authority vested in me by the said Act, do hereby approve of the Rules and Orders contained in the Schedule hereto, as adopted by the said Provincial Council of Canterbury, for regulating the proceedings in the said Council on Bills authorising the taking of land compulsorily.

WILLIAM FOX,
Presiding.

The following Rules and Orders shall be the Standing Rules and Orders for regulating the proceedings on Bills for the compulsory purchase of land under “The Provincial Compulsory Land-Taking Act, 1866.”

1. There shall be a Committee of the Council to consist of the Chairman of Committees and four other Members to be nominated by the Provincial Council each Session, whose duty shall be to consider and report respecting every Bill that shall be referred to them.

2. Every Bill, after it shall have been read a first time, shall be referred to such Committee.

3. Compliance with the Standing Orders following, numbered from 4 to 11 inclusive, shall be proved before such Committee.

4. A notice shall be given of every Bill, which shall state shortly the nature of the intended work or undertaking, and the other objects (if any) of such Bill, and shall describe the land intended to be taken by every such Bill, and shall state the names of the townships or districts from, in, through, or into which the work or undertaking is intended to be made, maintained, varied, extended, or enlarged, and shall state the time and place of deposit of the plans, sections, and books of reference respectively, at the office hereafter specified.

5. Such notice shall be published once in the Government Gazette of the Province, and once a week for three consecutive weeks in one of the local newspapers circulating within the Province; and the first of such notices shall be published not less than one, and not more than two calendar months before the commencement of the Session of the Council in which such Bill shall be introduced.

6. One calendar month at least before the commencement of the Session of the Council in which any Bill shall be introduced, application must be made to the owners or reputed owners, lessees or reputed lessees, and occupiers of all lands and houses so intended to be taken, or which may be taken, as being within the limits of deviation defined upon the plan, and such application shall be as nearly as may be in the form or to the effect set forth in the Appendix marked A.

7. Such application shall be made by delivering the same personally to every such party, or by leaving the same at his usual place of abode, or, in his absence from the Province, with his agent, before the calendar month aforesaid or by forwarding the same by post in a registered letter addressed with a sufficient direction to his usual place of abode, and posted before the time aforesaid at some Post Office in the Province, at such hours and according to such regulations as may from time to time be in force for the posting and registration of registered letters. Provided always, that if the place of abode of any such party cannot, after reasonable inquiry, be found and if it cannot, after reasonable inquiry, be found that any such party has any agent within the Province, such application may be made by leaving the same on some conspicuous part of the land proposed to be taken before the one calendar month aforesaid.

8. In all cases the written acknowledgment of the party applied to shall, in the absence of other proof, be sufficient evidence of an application having been made; and in case of an application or notice having been forwarded by post in a registered letter, the production of the Post Office receipt for such letter, duly stamped, shall be sufficient evidence of the due delivery of such letter, provided it shall appear that the same was properly and sufficiently directed, and that the same was not returned by the Post Office as undelivered.

9. Separate lists shall be made of the names of such owners, lessees, and occupiers, distinguishing those who have assented, dissented, or are neuter in respect to such application or who have returned no answer thereto; and where no written acknowledgment has been returned to an application forwarded by post, or where such application has been returned as undelivered at any time before the making up of such lists, the direction of the letter in which the same was so forwarded shall be inserted therein.

10. No notice served or application made on a Sunday, Good Friday, or Christmas Day, or before eight o’clock in the forenoon or after eight o’clock in the afternoon of any day, shall be deemed valid, except in the case of delivery of letters by post.

11. Plans, books of reference, and sections relating to the work or undertaking, and to the land proposed to be taken, shall be deposited for public inspection at the office of the Provincial Secretary one calendar month at least before the commencement of the Session in which any Bill shall be introduced. Such plans, books of reference, and sections, shall be, as nearly as may be, of the same nature and description as would be required in similar cases by the Standing Orders of the General Assembly of New Zealand relative to Private Bills.

12. All petitions for or against any such Bill shall be referred to the said Committee.