This Act may be cited as the Repatriation Act, 1918.

In this Act—

For the purposes of the foregoing definition of the term “discharged soldier” a member of an Expeditionary Force shall be deemed to have been discharged from that Force so soon as he has received from the proper officer a notice of his discharge therefrom, even though such notice has not yet taken effect.

For the purposes of the repatriation of discharged soldiers there is hereby established a Department of State to be called “The Repatriation Department.”

The Department shall be administered by a Board, to be called “The Repatriation Board,” which shall consist of such members of the Executive Council as may be appointed to the Board by the Governor-General to hold office as members of the Board during his pleasure.

The chief administrative officer of the Department shall be called the Director of Repatriation, and shall be appointed by the Board, and shall hold office during its pleasure.

The Board may, on the recommendation of the Director of Repatriation, appoint such other officers of the Department as the Board thinks necessary for the purposes of this Act, and all officers so appointed shall hold office during the pleasure of the Board.

The officers of the Department shall not be deemed as such to be permanent officers of the Public Service or Government Service within the meaning of any Act or to be subject to the Public Service Act, 1912.

The officers of the Department shall be paid such salaries and allowances as the Governor-General in Council thinks fit.

Any officer holding office under the Public Service Act, 1912, may, with the consent of the Commissioner under that Act and of the Minister in Charge of the Department to which that officer belongs, be appointed by the Board as an officer of the. Repatriation Department, and shall thereupon hold both offices concurrently; but shall be deemed, so long as he remains an officer of the Repatriation Department, to be on leave without pay from his office under the Public Service Act, 1912, without prejudice, however, to his rights of promotion and advancement in respect of that office.

This section shall extend and apply, mutatis mutandis, to any officer in the service of the Crown who is not subject to the Public Service Act, 1912, save that the consent of the Commissioner under that Act shall not be required.

For the purpose of decentralizing, so far as may be deemed expedient, the work of the Department, the Repatriation Board may establish such district or local Boards and Committees as it thinks fit and appoint the members thereof.

Such Boards and Committees shall possess and exercise such advisory or consultative functions in respect of this Act as the Repatriation Board thinks fit to confer upon them, and also such of the administrative powers and functions of the Repatriation Board as that Board thinks fit to delegate to them.

The members of such Boards and Committees may be paid such allowances as the Repatriation Board thinks fit.

All moneys required for the purposes of this Act may be paid by the Minister of Defence, without further appropriation than this Act, out of the War Expenses Account.

It shall be the function and duty of the Repatriation Board to make all such provisions as it may deem necessary for the restoration of discharged soldiers to civil life, and for the establishment of discharged soldiers or soldiers’ widows in civil employment or occupation.

In particular, and without limiting the generality of the last preceding section, the Board may establish and carry on schemes or institutions for the educational, industrial, and vocational training of discharged soldiers, and for the care and maintenance of discharged soldiers who by reason of wounds or disease incurred in military service are wholly or partially disabled.

The Board may also, subject to any regulations which may be made by the Governor-General in Council under this Act, grant financial assistance to discharged soldiers or soldiers’ widows by way of loans, secured or unsecured, not exceeding in any case the sum of three hundred pounds, for the purpose of enabling such soldiers or soldiers’ widows to establish themselves in civil employment or occupation.

The Governor-General in Council may make regulations under this Act with respect to the matters following:—

Regulations under this Act may prescribe for the breach of any such regulation a penalty by way of imprisonment for any term not exceeding three months or by way of a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.

If, on complaint laid under the Justices of the Peace Act, 1908, before a Stipendiary Magistrate by the Director of Repatriation or by any other person thereunto authorized by the Director, the Magistrate is satisfied that a soldier who, whether before or after the passing of this Act, has been discharged from an Expeditionary Force after service in that Force beyond the seas or in a camp of military training in New Zealand is by reason of habitual drunkenness, idleness, or misconduct unfit for immediate and effective restoration to civil life, employment, or occupation, and that for the protection of that soldier or otherwise in his interest it is advisable to cancel his discharge, the Magistrate may, by order at any time before the disbanding of that Expeditionary Force, cancel the discharge of that soldier, who shall thereupon again become a member of that Force as if he had never been discharged therefrom and as if he had been originally called up for service under the Military Service Act, 1916.

Save as hereinafter expressly provided, nothing in this Act shall in any manner affect the operation of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act, 1915, and its amendments.

In addition to the persons referred to in section two of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act, 1915, the following persons shall be deemed to be discharged soldiers within the meaning and for the purposes of sections two and three of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Amendment Act, 1917—namely, all discharged members of an Expeditionary Force who, having been classed as medically fit (whether absolutely or contingently) for service beyond the seas, have served as members of that Force in a camp of military training and remained attached to that camp on the twelfth day of November, nineteen hundred and eighteen, being the date of the cessation of hostilities with Germany.