APPLE BOUNTY.

No. 21 of 1918.

An Act to provide for the Payment of a Bounty on the Export of Evaporated Apples from the Commonwealth.

[Assented to 19th June, 1918.]

Preamble.

BE it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate; and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia for the purpose of appropriating the grant originated in the House of Representatives, as follows:—

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as the Apple Bounty Act 1918.

Appropriation for payment of bounty.

2. There shall be payable out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is hereby appropriated accordingly, the sum of Twelve thousand pounds on or before the thirtieth day of June One thousand nine hundred and nineteen, for the payment of bounty in accordance with this Act.

Bounty on export of evaporated apples.

3.—(1.) The bounty under this Act shall be payable upon the export from Australia of apples grown and evaporated in Australia and sold to the Imperial Government for delivery between the first day of April and the thirty-first day of August One thousand nine hundred and eighteen.

(2.) The bounty shall be payable to the grower of the apples only.

(3.) In order to entitle a grower to bounty, the claim for bounty must be made within three months after the export of the evaporated apples in respect of which the claim is made.

(4.) The bounty shall be payable at the rate of ten per centum of the value of the evaporated apples, the value being taken for the purposes of this sub-section to be sevenpence per pound.

Conditions of bounty.

4. Bounty under this Act shall be payable only in respect of evaporated apples which—

(a) are, in the opinion of the Minister, of a merchantable quality;

(b) have been grown and evaporated subject to the prescribed conditions; and

Provided that the employment in the growing or evaporation of the apples of any aboriginal native of Australia or of any coloured person born in Australia and having one white parent shall not prejudice the claim to bounty in respect thereof.

Owner deemed employed in growing or evaporation of apples.

5. The owner occupier or lessee of any land in which the apples were grown or factory in which they were evaporated or in which they have undergone any process, shall, unless the Minister in writing otherwise directs, he deemed to be employed in the growing or evaporation of the apples.

Conditions of employment and rates of wages.

6.—(1.) The Minister may make application to the President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, or to any Judge of a Federal or State Court or to any person or persons who compose a State Industrial Authority, for a declaration as to what wages and conditions of employment are fair and reasonable for labour employed in the growing or evaporation of the apples on which bounty is claimed.

(2.) On the hearing and determination of the application, the President, Judge, person or persons shall have all the powers which under the Excise Procedure Act 1907 belong to the President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, and all witnesses and persons summoned to appear or appearing before him or them shall be entitled to the same privileges and protection, and be subject to the same liabilities and penalties, as witnesses or persons summoned to appear or appearing before the President on an application within the meaning of that Act, and the provisions of that Act shall so far as they are applicable apply accordingly, mutatis mutandis, as if the application were an application within the meaning of that Act.

(3.) Every person who claims the bounty payable under the Act shall, in making his claim, certify to the Minister the conditions of employment and the rates of wages paid to any labour employed by him, other than the labour of members of his family.

Offences against Act.

7. No person shall—

(a) obtain any bounty which is not payable;

(b) obtain payment of any bounty by means of any false or misleading statement; or

(c) present to any officer or other person doing duty in relation to this Act or the regulations, any document, or make to any such officer or person any statement, which is false in any particular.

Penalty: One hundred pounds, or imprisonment for twelve months.

Return to be laid before Parliament.

8. A return setting forth—

(a) the names of all persons to whom bounties were paid under this Act;

(b) the amounts of all such bounties;

(d) the number of persons employed in the growing and evaporation of the apples, wages paid, and hours observed in the growing and evaporation of the apples,

shall be prepared in the month of July One thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and shall be laid before both Houses of the Parliament within thirty days after its preparation if the Parliament is then sitting, and if not, then within thirty clays after the next meeting thereof.

Regulations.

9. The Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, prescribing all matters which by this Act are required or permitted to be prescribed for giving effect to this Act, and in particular for prescribing the proportion in which bounty shall be payable to claimants who have complied with the prescribed conditions in cases where there is not sufficient money available to pay the full bounty in respect of all the claims.