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No. 37. Shipping and Seamen's Act Amendment Act. —This Act gives engineers the status of officers; requires that, in case of any investigation relating to a steamship casualty, one of the assessors shall be an engineer if the investigation affects the engine department or any person employed therein ; prescribes the qualifications for engineers' certificates, and the number of engineers to be carried in intercolonial and home-trade steamships; requires all intercolonial and home-trade steamships registered more than six months after the coming into operation of the Act to provide adequate ventilation for engineers' rooms; provides that seamen employed in the colony shall be paid current wages, and that their engagement may be determined by twenty-four hours' notice after arrival at final port of discharge in the colony consequent on completion of round voyage, and that seamen discharged in the colony before completing full term of engagement shall be paid full amount of wages due up to date of discharge; requires accidents to sailing-ships to be reported ; prescribes fees for surveying load-line, and for license as to deck cargo ; directs that where seaman in prison when ship leaves colony he may be put aboard at cost of ship ; and makes further provision for the carrying of boys and apprentices. No. 38. Tauranga Educational Endowment Eeserves Act.—This Act disposes of certain lands as educational reserves. No. 39. Eiver Boards Act Amendment Act. —This Act provides that cheques shall be signed by the treasurer and countersigned by any member of the Board. No. 40. Eating Act Amendment Act.—This Act simplifies the procedure for recovering rates on Native lands where the number of Native owners or occupiers exceeds four, and provides for the leasing of such lands, in lieu of the sale thereof, in satisfaction of rates in arrear. It also exempts machinery from rates, and otherwise amends the principal Act. No. 41. Native Eeserves Act Amendment Act.—This Act vests certain reserves in the Public Trustee, and directs how the rents and proceeds are to be applied for the benefit of the Natives entitled. It also makes provision respecting a burial-ground for the Ngatitoa Natives, and amends in various respects the principal Act. No. 42. Government Eailways Classification Act.—This Act classifies all persons employed in the Government Eailways Department, fixes their minimum and maximum rates of pay, and establishes a Board of Appeal. No. 43. Public Bodies' Powers Act Amendment Act.—This Act extends the definition of " leasing authority " to include the trustees of any property held for charitable, educational, or scientific trust purposes. No. 44. Government Valuation of Land Act.—This Act provides for the periodical valuation of all landed properties in the colony by valuers appointed by the Governor, and directs that the valuations so obtained shall be used for the lending and other purposes of the various public offices and departments mentioned or that may be brought under the Act, and for the rating purposes of all local authorities. No. 45. Orchard and Garden Pests Act.—This Act makes provision for the prevention and eradication of phylloxera and other diseases affecting gardens and orchards. No. 46. Canterbury College and Canterbury Agricultural College Act.—This Act separates Canterbury College proper from the college heretofore known as the Lincoln Agricultural College, and establishes the constitution of their respective governing bodies on a popular basis by widening the franchise and limiting the tenure of office. No. 47. Electrical Motive-power Act. —This Act makes it unlawful for any local authority to grant concessions for the purpose of generating or using electricity as a motive-power without the previous consent of the Governor in Council. It also empowers the Governor in Council to cause inquiries to be made in order to ascertain the feasibility of utilising the waterways of the colony for the purpose of supplying electrical motive-power for use on the goldfields. No. 48. Fencing Act Amendment Act.—This Act prescribes a sufficient non-rabbit-proof fence within the County of Westland, and modifies the law of impounding on unfenced land within that county. No. 49. Electoral Act Amendment Act. —This Act abolishes the non-residential qualification of electors, save as to persons at present on the roll by virtue of that qualification. It also gives to seamen further facilities for obtaining electoral rights, and makes various technical amendments of the principal Act. No. 50. Naval and Military Claims Settlement and Extinguishment Act.—This Act provides for the appointment of a special Commissioner to investigate and report on all existing claims, with a view to their equitable settlement on the merits, and irrespective of technicalities. No. 51. Mining Act Amendment Act. —This Act makes special provision for prospecting on and resumption of lands alienated from the Crown prior to 1873, or (if Native lands) alienated from the Native owners to any person other than the Crown prior to 1888, and situate within any nowexisting mining district. The consent of the owner is not necessary save as to land under cultivation, or forming the site of buildings, &c, or being prospected or mined by the owner. Compensation for damage is payable in the case of prospecting, and for the value of the land in the case of resumption, and, in addition thereto, he has a prior right to mark out a claim. The right is reserved to any person to assert by suit his title to the Eoyal metals, and if he succeeds he receives compensation for them if the land is resumed. The Act also provides for the surrender of certain classes of Native leases, the appointment of provisional mine-managers without certificates of competency, the protection of mines at the Thames Goldfield from flooding, the prevention of injury to the surface of land in every case where a mining license is granted, and various other amendments of the existing law. No. 52. Public Eeserves Vesting and Sale Amendment Act.—This Act empowers an alleged owner of a section of land in Dunedin to assert his title by suit, and directs that, if he succeeds, the Corporation of Dunedin (in which the section was vested by statute) shall execute a transfer thereof in his favour.

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