This Act may be cited as the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Amendment Act, 1917, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act, 1915 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

In addition to the powers conferred by section six of the principal Act, as extended by section four of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Amendment Act, 1916, the Minister of Lands may, on the recommendation of the Land Board, make advances, out of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Account, for the purpose of assisting discharged soldiers with respect to any one or more of the following matters:—

Subsection three of section six of the principal Act shall apply to advances made under this section.

Any discharged soldier, or any two or more discharged soldiers, may make application to the Land Board with a view to the acquisition by the Crown on his or their behalf of any private land.

No such application shall be considered by the Land Board until an offer for the sale of the land to the Crown by the owner or owners thereof has been submitted in writing to the Board.

The Board shall forthwith consider such application and offer, with reference to the settlement on that land of the applicant or applicants, and shall as soon as practicable forward the application and offer to the Minister of Lands, with such recommendations as it thinks proper.

The Minister may thereupon refer such offer to the Board of Land Purchase Commissioners for consideration, with a view to the purchase of the land under the provisions of the Land for Settlements Act, 1908.

If the land or any part thereof is, consequent on such offer, acquired by the Crown, it shall be forthwith set apart under section three or section four of the principal Act, and shall, if the Minister so directs, be thereupon disposed of under that Act to the applicant or applicants.

The Minister may direct that any land acquired or set apart for the purposes of the principal Act shall be specially set apart for the purpose of providing soldiers’ dwellings.

On any land so specially set apart the Minister may cause to be erected buildings suitable for soldiers’ dwellings.

Such land and the dwellings thereon may be disposed of to discharged soldiers in the same manner generally as is provided for in the case of workers by the Workers’ Dwellings Act, 1910.

For the purposes of this section the Minister shall have and may exercise all the powers conferred by the last-mentioned Act upon the Minister of Labour, or the Superintendent of Workers’ Dwellings, or the Workers’ Dwellings Board.

The Governor-General in Council may by regulations direct that any provisions of the Workers’ Dwellings Act, 1910, shall not be applicable in the case of soldiers’ dwellings, and may substitute or add any other provisions, conditions, and terms for the disposal of soldiers’ dwellings.

All contracts entered into by discharged soldiers under any of the provisions of this Act or the principal Act or the regulations thereunder, including contracts for the repayment of money advanced or expended by the Minister pursuant to the powers thereby conferred, shall be valid and enforceable notwithstanding that any such discharged soldier may not be of the full age of twenty-one years.

This section shall be deemed to have been in force as from the passing of the principal Act.

Notwithstanding anything in the Kauri-gum Industry Act, 1908, it shall not be lawful for any person without the written authority of the Minister of Lands to dig for kauri-gum upon any land in any kauri-gum district that may for the time being be set apart for selection by discharged soldiers under section three or section four of the principal Act and not disposed of under that Act.

Any moneys set aside under section sixty-three of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1913, may, with the authority of the Minister of Lands, be expended, without further appropriation than this section, for the purpose of clearing, grassing, fencing, and otherwise preparing for settlement any lands set apart for selection by discharged soldiers under section three or section four of the principal Act.