Presbyterian Church Act 1908 An Act to amend the Presbyterian Church Act 1896 [Royal Assent 14 December 1908] Whereas the members of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania are desirous of having the trustees of the property of the said Church incorporated as a body corporate, having perpetual succession and a common seal, capable in their corporate name of suing and being sued, and of acquiring, holding, and alienating real and personal property of every kind: And whereas it is expedient to amend the Presbyterian Church Act 1896 : Be it therefore enacted by His Excellency the Governor of Tasmania, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, in Parliament assembled, as follows: 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Presbyterian Church Act 1908 . 2. Definition clause In this Act property, unless a contrary intention appears, shall extend to and include real and personal property, and any estate or interest in any property, real or personal, and any mortgage or other debt, and all securities for money, and anything in action, and all messuages, tenements, and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, of every kind and description (whatever may be the estate or interest therein), together with all paths, passages, ways, waters, watercourses, liberties, privileges, easements, plantations, gardens, mines, minerals, and quarries, and all trees and timber thereon or thereunder lying or being, unless the same are specially excepted. 3. Trustees a body corporate, &c. The trustees of the property of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania shall be, and they are hereby created, a body corporate, having a perpetual succession and a common seal, and shall have and exercise all legal rights, powers, privileges, and authorities appendant and incidental to a body corporate; and shall, under their corporate name, be capable in law of suing and being sued, and of purchasing, acquiring, holding, and alienating property, and of doing and suffering all such other acts and things as bodies corporate may by law do and suffer. 4. Corporate name The corporate name or title of the said trustees shall be "The Trustees of the Property of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania", and such body corporate shall have and exercise all the rights, powers, privileges, duties, and authorities of trustees appointed in pursuance of the provisions of the Presbyterian Church Act 1896 . The provisions of this section shall be in addition to, and not in abridgement or limitation of, the provisions of section three hereof. 5. Members of Board of Finance to be the trustees constituting the body corporate The persons for the time being composing the Board of Investment and Finance of the said Church, except ex officio members of the said board, shall be the trustees for the time being of the property of the said Church constituting the said body corporate: Provided always that there shall not at any time be more than ten nor less than five trustees of the property of the said Church forming the said body corporate. Should the number of persons for the time being composing the Board of Investment and Finance of the said Church at any time be less than five, the Governing Authority shall forthwith take the necessary steps to increase the number of such persons to five at the least. 6. Use of seal The power and authority to use the said seal of the said body corporate hereby created for all purposes for which the use of such seal is required shall vest in the majority of the trustees for the time being of the property of the said Church constituting the said body corporate who shall be present at any meeting of such trustees. Such seal shall only be affixed by virtue of a resolution of the said majority passed at such meeting, and in the presence of any two of the trustees of the property of the said Church. And the said two trustees shall sign their names to the document to which the seal has been affixed. At any such meeting as is provided for in this section, five shall form a quorum. The seal, when once affixed in accordance with the provisions of this section, shall be prima facie evidence without further proof that the meeting at which the said resolution was passed was properly convened and held, and that the said resolution was duly and properly passed. 7. Validation of acts, &c., of trustees of Church property All acts, deeds, matters, and things done by the trustees of the property of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania as such body corporate as aforesaid, notwithstanding that there was some defect in the election or appointment of any one or more of the persons constituting the said body corporate, or that any one or more of such last-mentioned persons was or were not eligible or competent, whether under the rules and regulations of the said Presbyterian Church of Tasmania or otherwise howsoever, for such election or appointment, or was or were not eligible or competent to act in the office in respect or by virtue of which he or they shall have become a member or members of the said body corporate, shall be as valid and effectual in all respects whatsoever as if every such person had been duly elected, and were and always had been eligible or competent, as aforesaid. 8. Certificate of Clerk of Governing Authority prima facie evidence of appointment of trustee In all courts and all legal proceedings instituted by or against the trustees of the property of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania, the production of the certificate of the Clerk of the said Governing Authority of the appointment of the said trustees, or any one or more of them, as members or a member respectively of the Board of Investment and Finance shall, on production only, be deemed sufficient prima facie evidence without further proof that such trustees, or any one or more of them, as such members or member as aforesaid have been duly appointed according to law, and the onus of proof to the contrary shall rest on the person or persons challenging the validity of such appointment. 9. Vesting of property in trustees of Church property All property now vested in or held by any trustee or trustees of the property of the said Church, and all property now vested in or held by any person or persons other than such trustee or trustees as last aforesaid, upon trust for the said Church, and whether subject to the provisions of the Real Property Act 1862 or held under the general law, shall from and after the passing of this Act be and the same is hereby vested in the said body corporate for all the estate and interest therein respectively of such trustee or trustees, or such person or persons as aforesaid, as fully and effectually as if valid assurances in the law thereof had been made and executed by him or them respectively to such body corporate, subject to the special trusts (if any) affecting the same, or any part or parts thereof respectively; and such body corporate shall thenceforth be deemed the registered proprietor of such portions of the said property as shall be under the Real Property Act 1862 subject to the provisions of the said Act. 10. One thousand pounds vested in governing body of Free Church of Scotland to be transferred to incorporated body on the trusts of James Wilson's will The sum of one thousand pounds now vested in the governing body of the Free Church of Scotland in Tasmania under the provisions of the will dated the twenty-sixth day of March 1877, of the late James Wilson (the income of which sum is by the said will directed to be applied for the benefit of the minister for the time being of the Campbell Free Church, Oatlands, in Tasmania) shall, together with all securities therefor, be forthwith transferred by the said governing body to the said body corporate, to be held by the said body corporate upon the special trusts declared by the said will of the said James Wilson in respect of the said sum. 11. Recorder of Titles to register new trustees The Recorder of Titles, upon the application in writing under the seal of the said body corporate, and upon proof to his satisfaction of the identity of any property affected under the Land Titles Act 1980 , shall issue to the applicant such instrument or instruments of title as are by the said Act provided for. 12. Gifts to Church before incorporation to have same effect afterwards After the incorporation of the said body corporate, every donation, gift, and disposition of property, real or personal, theretofore lawfully made (but not having actually taken effect) or thereafter lawfully made by deed, will, or otherwise, to or in favour of such Church generally, or the trustees of the property of the said Church, or any person or persons for or on behalf of the said Church generally, shall take effect as if the same had been made to or in favour of the said body corporate. 13. When trustees in previous Acts mentioned, same shall be construed as trustees mentioned in this Act In the Presbyterian Church Act 1896 , and in all laws, rules, regulations, acts, and resolutions of the Governing Authority referring to the trustees of the property of the said Church, the expression The Trustees of the Property of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania, or the trustees of the property of the said Church, shall henceforth be read and construed as meaning and referring to the trustees by this Act created a body corporate, as if such body corporate had been expressly named in the Presbyterian Church Act 1896 , and in all laws, rules, regulations, acts, and resolutions as aforesaid. And every deed, declaration of trust, or document required by the Presbyterian Church Act 1896 , or by any such laws, rules, regulations, acts, and resolutions as aforesaid, or by any form thereby prescribed, to be executed or signed by the trustees of the property of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania, may be sealed by the said body corporate in the manner hereinbefore prescribed; and in such case the same shall be as valid and effectual as if the same had been executed or signed by the aforesaid trustees. Such part or parts respectively of every such deed, declaration of trust, or document as is, are, or may be inapplicable to a body corporate is and are hereby respectively repealed. 14. Power of trustees to make rules The said trustees shall have power to make such rules and regulations as they may deem necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Act. Such rules and regulations shall be laid before the Governing Authority at its next session, but shall be in force until disallowed by the said Governing Authority. 15. 16.