D. 1901.]
RATING.
Page 861
[No. 6.
Payment and Recovery of Rates.
82. The above rates shall be paid quarterly in advance at the Colonial Treasury within the first month of each quarter, and the times appointed for such payment shall be notified quarterly by the Colonial Treasurer in The Gazette.
83.(1.) The owners and occupiers of all tenements shall be liable to the Crown for payment of the rates assessed thereon, but the same shall be deemed an occupier's rate, and, as between the owner and occupier of tenement, shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be borne by the occupier; and the amount thereof, if paid by the owner, may be recovered by him from the occupier in an action for money paid to his use or, if he is still in occupation of the tenement, by distress in the same manner as for rent.
(2.) The provisions of this section shall equally apply to the recovery of rates paid by one owner on account of another under section 5(2).
34. If any person fails to pay any rates for which he is liable, within one month after the day notified in The Gazette as the last day for payment, the Colonial Treasurer may recover the same by action in the Supreme Court in its Summary Jurisdiction, together with interest at the rate of eight per cent. per annum from the day when such rates ought to have been paid until the day of payment.
Refund of Rates.
35. Refund of rates may be made subject to the following rule, namely, whenever any tenement is unoccupied during one or entire months of any quarter in respect of which the rates upon such tenement were paid in advance within the first month of such quarter; the Colonial Treasurer shall, subject to the provisions of section 36, refund the rates for such months: Provided that no refund of rates shall be made in respect of the non-occupation of any portion less than the whole of any land or building which may have been assessed as a separate tenement.
36. A refund may be obtained in the following manner:-
(1.) The owner of any tenement may give notice to the Colonial Treasurer that such tenement is vacant not later than the fifteenth day of any month from the first day of which it is intended to claim such refund.
(2.) So long as such tenement remains continuously unoccupied, no further notice shall be required, but after the re-occupation of such