The inhabitants of the City of Mount Holly, in Gaston County, shall continue to be a body politic and corporate by the name of the “City of Mount Holly”. Under that name the City continues to be vested with all the property and rights of property which now belong to the corporation; shall have perpetual succession; may use a corporate seal; may acquire and hold such estates in lands and property as may be devised, bequeathed, sold to, or in any manner conveyed to it or acquired by it, and may from time to time, under the general law governing municipal corporations, invest, sell or dispose of any such lands or property, including lands and property held for municipal purposes; may contract and be contracted with; may sue and be sued; and shall have all the powers, rights and privileges now or hereafter conferred upon municipal corporations by the general law of the State, including powers, rights and privileges necessary or belonging to, or usually appertaining to, municipal corporations, or appropriate to the exercise of the powers now or hereafter conferred on municipal corporations by the general law of the state.