An Act to indemnify the Councillors of various Municipalities for Borrowing Moneys by Overdrafts on Bankers for the purposes of their Municipalities contrary to the provisions of the Local Government Act 1890.

WHE

[23rd December, 1901.]

HEREAS the councils of various municipalities have during the Preamble.
past year been unable to comply with certain of the provisions

of the Local Government Act 1890 relating to overdrafts and it is No. 1112.
desirable to legalize for the period hereinafter mentioned and no longer
the payment of certain moneys by such councils, and to indemnify
councillors from penalties: Be it therefore enacted by the King's
Most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the
Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly of Victoria in this
present Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same as
follows (that is to say) :-

commencement.

1. This Act may be cited as the Municipal Overdrafts (Indemnity) Short title and Act 1901, and shall be deemed and taken to have come into operation on the twenty-ninth day of September One thousand nine hundred

and one.

2. (1) Where

Indemnity to

councillors of a

municipality incurring or neglecting to pay off an overdraft in contravention of the Local Govern

ment Act 1890.

No. 1112.

Municipal councils to liquidate September 1902.

2. (1) Where any council of a municipality has before the commencement of this Act obtained advances as on the credit of the municipality from any bank by overdraft of its current account, and— such overdraft exceeded one-half the prior year's income, or such overdraft was not liquidated before the conclusion of the financial year, or

such overdraft was liquidated by moneys advanced by any persons (whether councillors or not) and such persons have been themselves subsequently repaid out of the moneys of the municipality or by means of another such overdraftnotwithstanding anything contained in sections three hundred and forty-seven, three hundred and fifty, and five hundred and forty of the Local Government Act 1890 or any of them the amount of every such overdraft unpaid at the commencement of this Act shall be payable out of the municipal fund, and shall be recoverable from the municipality as if it had been legally borrowed; and every past and present councillor of any municipality shall be and is hereby indemnified freed and discharged from every penalty or forfeiture heretofore incurred by him under the said sections or any of them or from any liability imposed by the said sections or any of them to repay any such overdraft or any interest thereon or any part thereof.

(2) Every action suit or other proceeding pending at the time of the commencement of this Act for the enforcement of any liability against which any person is hereby indemnified shall cease and abate. Provided that nothing herein contained shall extend to indemnify any person against a verdict or a judgment given or entered before the commencement of this Act, and all the proceedings consequent on or arising out of any such verdict or judgment, whether by or against any party thereto or any other person, shall be had and taken as if this Act had not been passed.

3. Notwithstanding anything contained in section three hundred overdrafts by 30th and forty-seven of the Local Government Act 1890 the council of any municipality shall not be deemed to have been under any obligation to liquidate any overdraft existing at the commencement of this Act on or before the conclusion of the financial year ending the thirtieth day of September One thousand nine hundred and one; but every such overdraft shall be liquidated out of the municipal fund of the municipality on or before the thirtieth day of September in the year One thousand nine hundred and two.

This Act to apply to money bona fide used for municipal purposes.

No. 1112.

4. Nothing in this Act shall apply to any money obtained as advances by overdraft on current account as aforesaid unless such money was used bona fide for the purposes of the municipality, and was money which the municipality would before the commencement of this Act have been legally bound to repay if the same had not been obtained by overdraft in excess of the amount prescribed by the Local Government Act 1890 or had been liquidated before the conclusion of the financial year in accordance with the provisions of the said Act.

5. Notwithstanding

5. Notwithstanding anything contained in any Act it shall be deemed and taken to be lawful for the council of any municipal district (including the city of Melbourne and the town of Geelong) to apply out of the municipal or town fund of such municipal district any sum or sums of money approved by the council towards defraying the costs incurred by the council of the city of Fitzroy in the matter of the appeals in any Court during the years One thousand eight hundred and ninety-six to One thousand nine hundred inclusive against the municipal rating of any property of the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Company Limited.

Power to expend

fund toward costs

of rating appeal

case.

MELBOURNE:

By Authority: ROBT. S. BRAIN, Government Printer.