This Act may be cited as the Public Debt Extinction Act, 1910.

In this Act, unless a different intention appears,—

There shall be a Board consisting of the Commissioners of the Public Debts Sinking Funds established by section forty-seven of the New Zealand Loans Act, 1908, with the addition of the Superintendent.

In the absence of the Minister from any meeting of the Board, any other Minister (being a member of the Executive Council) may attend such meeting in his stead and as the substitute of the Minister, and while so attending shall be deemed to be a member of the Board.

In the absence of any other member of the Board, the officer of his Department who is authorized to act in his place during his absence (if any) may attend such meeting in his stead and as his substitute, and while so attending shall be deemed to be a member of the Board.

The fact that any such substitute so attends and acts at any such meeting shall be conclusive proof of his authority so to do.

The Minister shall be Chairman of the Board.

In the absence of the Chairman from any meeting of the Board, the members present shall appoint one of their number to be chairman of that meeting.

Three members shall form a quorum at any meeting of the Board.

The Chairman shall have a deliberative and also a casting vote.

The Board shall at all times cause proper minute-books to be kept, in which shall be entered full and faithful minutes of all proceedings at each Board meeting.

The Board may from time to time make rules regulating the conduct of its business and proceedings.

A resolution of the Board shall bind the Superintendent.

Within thirty days after the end of each financial year the Controller and Auditor-General shall furnish the Minister with a certificate showing—

In calculating such sum the portion of one million in excess of the last whole million of the public debt shall be reckoned as one million.

After the end of the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifteen, the interest, instead of being calculated at four pounds per centum per annum, shall be the actual average net interest earned by the funds invested under this Act during the previous three years.

The Minister shall, without further appropriation than this Act, pay out of the Consolidated Fund such sum as aforesaid to the Superintendent, to be invested as hereinafter directed. Payment to the Superintendent shall be in such sums and at such times during the financial year as may be required by the Superintendent. The Board shall be notified by the Minister of all such payments to the Superintendent immediately after the same have been made.

The payments out of the Consolidated Fund to the Public Trustee under section fifty-four of the New Zealand Loans Act, 1908, and under section eighty-eight of the Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1908, shall cease on the coming into operation of this Act.

The interest on the capital funds now in the hands of the Public Trustee arising out of such payments shall hereafter, until the public debt is wholly extinguished, be paid into the Consolidated Fund at such times during each financial year as the Minister and the Public Trustee may arrange, instead of being accumulated by the Public Trustee.

When the public debt is entirely repaid, the capital funds aforesaid shall be paid by the Public Trustee into the Public Account at such times and in such amounts as the Minister may direct.

Section fifty-four of the New Zealand Loans Act, 1908, and section eighty-eight of the Local Bodies’ Loans Act, 1908, are hereby repealed.

The loans referred to in the sections hereby repealed shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be portions of the public debt.

The sums paid to the Superintendent under section eleven of this Act shall be invested by the New Zealand State-guaranteed Advances Office Board in loans to settlers, to workers, and to local authorities under the provisions of the New Zealand State-guaranteed Advances Act, 1909.

Such loans may be fixed loans granted for any period not exceeding ten years in the case of loans to settlers or workers, or forty years in the case of local authorities; or may be granted on the instalment system, repayable in any term not exceeding thirty-six and one-half years.

No part of such moneys shall at any time be invested in New Zealand Government securities.

All moneys paid to the Superintendent, and all accumulations thereon, shall be held on trust for the repayment of the public debt, and for no other purpose whatever.

Such moneys shall be applied towards the repayment of the loans comprising the public debt, either wholly or in part, as the Board from time to time directs.

In the investment of such funds repayable either by instalments or in one sum the Superintendent shall be subject to the directions of the Board, and in giving such directions the Board shall have regard to the dates when the principal moneys so invested shall be so required for the whole or partial repayment of any portion of the public debt.

If the Superintendent shall be unable to invest the whole of the moneys paid to him in securities authorized by the New Zealand State-guaranteed Advances Act, 1909, he shall report his inability to do so to the Board, which shall direct him to invest the same in such securities not forbidden by this Act as may be authorized by the Governor in Council.

Such surplus sums may, under the direction of the Board, be applied to the purchase at or below par for cancellation of any stock or debentures being part of the public debt.

On the repayment, either by the purchase and cancellation of debentures or otherwise, out of the funds of any portion of the present public debt before the expiration of seventy-five years from the date of the coming into operation of this Act, or, in the case of loans hereafter raised the repayment of which is charged upon the consolidated revenue, as being part of the public debt, within seventy-five years after the date of raising such loans, the Controller and Auditor-General shall within thirty days after such repayment notify the Minister thereof by a certificate under his hand. The certificate shall state—

In determining such amount the interest earned by the fund shall be ascertained in the manner provided by section ten of this Act.

The Minister shall thereafter, without further appropriation than this Act, pay annually to the Superintendent out of the Consolidated Fund the amount so required in addition to the annual contributions to the fund provided for by section eleven of this Act.

The Board is hereby authorized to appoint and employ such agents, whether in New Zealand, England, or elsewhere, and such clerks and other officers, as may be necessary for carrying out the objects of this Act.

The Minister is hereby authorized to pay out of the Consolidated Fund, without further appropriation than this Act, all such expenses as necessarily attend the administration of this Act, in such manner as he thinks fit.

An account of the proceedings of the Board, and of the moneys invested by the Superintendent and the securities held by him, the rate of interest earned by them, the amount of the public debt repaid during the year, the expenses of administering the Act, and such other particulars as may be prescribed by regulations, shall be made up to the last day of each financial year, and shall, together with the Controller and Auditor-General’s certificate, be laid upon the table of both Houses of Parliament within twenty-eight days after the commencement of the then next session.

The funds shall be kept apart from the other moneys of the State-guaranteed Advances Office, and shall be managed by a branch of that office to be called the Public Debt Sinking Funds Branch.

Any portion of the funds, until required for the purposes of this Act, may be temporarily invested from time to time as the Minister directs in advances to other branches of the State-guaranteed Advances Office.

The Superintendent shall cause to be kept full and accurate accounts of the fund, showing the capital funds, the advances made, the interest received, all receipts and expenses, and such other particulars as the Board may from time to time require.

The Governor may from time to time, by Order in Council gazetted, make regulations for all or any of the following purposes:—