This Act may be cited as the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Amendment Act, 1919, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act, 1915 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

For the purpose of providing land for the settlement of discharged soldiers the Governor-General may, by Proclamation, resume possession of the whole or any portion of any Crown land, settlement land, or other land administered by a Land Board, and held under lease or license.

On the issue of any such Proclamation, or on such other date as may be specified therein, the lease or license shall be determined in so far as it relates to the land of which possession is so resumed.

Upon resumption under this section of part of the land comprised in any lease or license the rent payable by the lessee or licensee under the lease or license shall be reduced by a proportion equal to the proportion which the value of the land so resumed bears to the total value of the land comprised in the lease or license. In the event of any dispute as to such values the matter shall be referred to the Valuer-General, whose decision shall be subject to an appeal to a Board of Appeal consisting of a Stipendiary Magistrate and two assessors, of whom one shall be appointed by the Minister of Lands and one by the lessee or licensee. In any such case the decision of the Board of Appeal shall be final.

Upon resumption under this section of the whole or any portion of the land comprised in any lease or license the lessee or licensee shall be entitled to be paid compensation, to be assessed by arbitration in the manner prescribed by the Land Act, 1908, for any substantial improvements of a permanent character then in existence on the land which has been so resumed, and also for the value of his interest in the unexpired term of his lease or license so far as it applies to the land so resumed.

All moneys payable by way of compensation under this section shall be paid out of moneys in the Land for Settlements Account available for the acquisition of land for discharged soldiers.

Any Proclamation under section four of the principal Act may in like manner be at any time revoked in so far as it relates to any land that is not required for the purpose for which it was set apart.

If any person dies to whom financial assistance has been granted by way of loan under the principal Act or any amendment thereof and his beneficial interest in the land in respect whereof such assistance was granted is acquired by his widow, or by any of his children, or by his father or mother, further financial assistance in respect of that land may be granted to his successor in the same manner in all respects as if his successor were a discharged soldier entitled to all the benefits of the principal Act.

Section four of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Amendment Act, 1916, is hereby amended by omitting the words “administered by a Land Board and acquired by the lessee or licensee otherwise than pursuant to section four of the principal Act.”

Section two of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Amendment Act, 1917, is hereby amended as follows:—

No advance shall be made under the said section two as amended by this section for the acquisition of the fee-simple of any land held under a license to occupy with right of purchase, except within two years of the due date of the expiry of that license, and unless a loan under the principal Act or its amendments has been made on the security of that license and has not been discharged.

Section six of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection three thereof the words “a first.”

All persons who have served beyond the seas as members of an Expeditionary Force, and who, having returned to New Zealand, have for any reason not been discharged from that Force, shall be entitled as if they were discharged soldiers within the meaning of the principal Act to the benefits provided by section two and section three of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Amendment Act, 1917.

The widow of any person who has served beyond the seas as a member of an Expeditionary Force under the Expeditionary Forces Act, 1915, or of any person who, being a resident of New Zealand, has served as a member of any other of His Majesty’s Military or Naval Forces, shall be entitled to the benefits conferred on discharged soldiers by section two and section three of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Amendment Act, 1917.

For the purposes of the principal Act and the Repatriation Act, 1918, the term “discharged soldier” shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be deemed to include any member of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service who has served beyond the seas with an Expeditionary Force and has been discharged from service, and also any person who has been retained in New Zealand as an instructor at a camp of military training conducted for the purposes of an Expeditionary Force.

For the purposes of the Repatriation Act, 1918, the widowed mother of a deceased soldier shall be entitled to the same privileges and benefits as if she were a soldier’s widow within the meaning of that Act.

Section eighteen of the Repatriation Act, 1918, is hereby amended by adding thereto the following words: “and also all discharged members of an Expeditionary Force who, having been classed absolutely as medically fit for service beyond the seas, have served as members of that Force in a camp of military training in New Zealand, and have, through no fault of their own, been discharged from that Force.”

Where any land has been mortgaged or has been conveyed by way of mortgage as security for a loan under the principal Act or its amendments or under the Repatriation Act, 1918, any Commissioner of Crown Lands appointed under the Land Act, 1908, may sign, for and on behalf of His Majesty the King, all deeds or other instruments required for the discharge or assignment of the mortgage debt or for the reconveyance of the mortgaged land to the mortgagor or other person entitled thereto.

For the purposes of the administration of the principal Act there may from time to time be appointed such officers of the Public Service, to be called Supervisors of Settlements, as may be deemed necessary.

All persons so appointed shall have the same powers as if they had been appointed Rangers of Crown lands pursuant to the provisions of the Land Act, 1908, in that behalf.