Presbyterian Church Act 1908

Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, or in any deed, declaration, or statement of trust, all lands, tenements, hereditaments, personal property, estates, and temporal privileges, and all equitable rights belonging to the said Church and the congregations thereof, or held by or in trust for or on behalf of, or in connection with the said Church and congregations, missions or institutions connected therewith, whether or not any of those missions or institutions is separately incorporated as provided in section 21 (in this section called properties of the said Church), shall be held subject to the provisions of the Scheme of Union set forth in the Schedule to the Presbyterian Church of Australia Act 1901, and all decisions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia or the Judicial Commission thereof, given or come to in accordance with the said Scheme of Union shall be binding on all properties of the said Church.

[Section 20 amended: No. 19 of 1964 s. 7.]

21. Mission or institution of Church may be separately incorporated etc.

The General Assembly may resolve that any mission or institution of the Church shall be separately incorporated according to law in such manner and subject to such conditions, restrictions, limitations and provisions as the General Assembly may by resolution determine.

Subject to this Act, on the date on which a mission or institution becomes so separately incorporated —

the whole of the real and personal property that immediately before that date was exclusively used in the work and activities of the mission or institution, including all such real and personal property as was then held by the Commissioners upon trust for that mission or institution, and all contractual rights and benefits then existing that relate to the mission or institution, are hereby vested in the mission or institution in its corporate name, subject to all easements, encumbrances, rights, trusts and equities, affecting the same; and

all debts, liabilities and obligations of every class or kind existing at that date that relate to the mission or institution by force of this section and without any transfer or assignment, shall be taken over by the mission or institution as so incorporated, and the mission or institution shall indemnify and at all times after that date keep indemnified the Commissioners and all persons who prior to that date were liable for those debts, liabilities and obligations.

Subject to this Act and to all easements, encumbrances, trusts and equities affecting the same, each mission or institution incorporated as provided in this section, shall hold in its corporate name —

all real and personal property, rights and benefits that are acquired by it after it so incorporated; and

all real and personal property given to the Commissioners in trust for the mission or institution after it is so incorporated.

Notwithstanding the operation and effect of the foregoing provisions of this section on any mission or institution, any mission or institution incorporated as therein provided, shall continue to be a mission or institution of the said Church and shall be subject to the provisions of section 20 of the Presbyterian Church Act 1908.

Every transfer, conveyance, assignment, application, deed and instrument that may be necessary for the purpose of effectually vesting the real and personal property, rights and benefits referred to in subsection (2) in the corporate name of a mission or institution incorporated as provided in this section shall be free from all —

duty imposed by the Duties Act 2008; and

fees that, but for this subsection, would be payable in respect thereof under the Transfer of Land Act 1893.

Where an institution is separately incorporated pursuant to this section, if the institution is a school or college all vacant land held by the institution and all land so held that is used exclusively or mainly for the purposes of the school or college is not rateable land under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1995, is not subject to statutory water service charges under the Water Services Act 2012 unless the land is connected to water service works as defined in section 3(1) of that Act, and is exempt from land tax imposed by the Land Tax Act 2002.

[Section 21 inserted: No. 19 of 1964 s. 8; amended: No. 14 of 1996 s. 4; No. 45 of 2002 s. 20; No. 12 of 2008 Sch. 1 cl. 31; No. 25 of 2012 s. 223.]