PURCHASE TELEPHONE LINES ACQUISITION.
No. 9 of 1911.
An Act to provide for the Acquisition of Purchase Telephone Lines.
[Assented to 12th December, 1911.]
BE it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—
Short title.
1. This Act may be cited as the Purchase Telephone Lines Acquisition Act 1911.
Resumption of purchase telephone lines after notice.
2.—(1.) The Postmaster-General may, after giving three months’ notice to the owner, acquire any purchase telephone line which was erected by the Department of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones of any State at the expense of the owner or his predecessor in title or constructed prior to the year 1883 by the owner or his predecessor in title, and in respect of which the owner pays an annual maintenance fee.
(2.) On the expiration of the time specified in sub-section (1.) of this section, the purchase telephone line specified in the notice shall become the property of the Commonwealth and vest in the Postmaster-General.
(3.) The compensation, if the amount cannot be agreed upon, shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the laws relating to arbitration of the State in which the line is situated.