The purpose of this Part of this Act is to make provision for the settlement of unemployed workers and their families on areas of cultivable land, and to alleviate the distress resulting from unemployment by affording to such persons an opportunity by the cultivation of the land to provide in part for their own sustenance.

In so far as persons settled on the land in accordance with this Part of this Act are not able to provide adequate sustenance for themselves and their families they may receive sustenance allowances out of the Unemployment Fund in accordance with the provisions of section twenty of the principal Act, or may be supplied with necessities in accordance with the provisions of section fourteen of this Act.

The Minister for the time being charged with the administration of the principal Act (hereinafter in this Part referred to as the Minister) may enter into agreements with the owners or occupiers or other persons charged with the administration of or exercising control over areas of suitable land for the occupation and cultivation of such land by unemployed workers and their families in accordance with this Part of this Act.

Any such agreement may provide for the occupation of such land by any person or persons approved for the purpose by the Unemployment Board, either with or without a formal license to occupy, and for the erection on such land in accordance with this Part of this Act of any dwellings or other improvements.

The lands to which this section refers include private lands, and also all lands vested in or administered by any Minister of the Crown or any Department of State, or vested in or administered by any local authority or public body, and not, in any such case, being lands that are immediately required for any purpose inconsistent with the purposes of this Part of this Act.

Where in any case the Minister is unable to enter into an agreement as aforesaid for the occupation in accordance with the last preceding section of any suitable land, such land may be acquired by the Crown for the purposes of this Part of this Act as for a public work under the Public Works Act, 1928, or any such land may be acquired in the manner provided by the Land for Settlements Act, 1925:

Provided that all moneys payable in respect of the acquisition of land under and for the purposes of this Part of this Act shall be paid out of moneys available for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

For the purpose of making any lands available for occupation in accordance with this Part of this Act, the Minister may cause to be undertaken and carried out in connection therewith such works as he thinks fit, including the erection of buildings and the provision of water, light, drainage, and other necessities.

Any buildings or other improvements erected on any land pursuant to this section may be at any time removed by the Minister, without liability for payment of compensation to the owner of the land or any other person, notwithstanding that such buildings or other improvements may have been so attached to the land as to form part thereof.

All moneys required for the purposes of this Part of this Act, to an amount not exceeding in the aggregate the sum of five hundred thousand pounds, may, without further appropriation than this section, be paid out of the Public Account.

Except as provided in the last preceding subsection, the moneys required for the purposes of this Part of this Act shall be paid out of moneys to be from time to time appropriated by Parliament for the purpose.

Section three of the principal Act, as amended by section two of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931. is hereby amended as follows:—

Section four of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, is hereby amended as from the first day of May, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, by omitting from paragraph (b) of subsection two the words “six shillings” and substituting the words “one shilling”.

The Governor-General may, at any time, by Order in Council published in the Gazette, reduce the rate of the emergency unemployment charge prescribed by section four of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, as amended by the last preceding subsection, if he is satisfied that the proceeds of such charge are more than sufficient to meet the reasonable requirements of the Unemployment Fund.

Any Order in Council under the last preceding subsection may be at any time in like manner revoked or varied, but so that the rate prescribed by any Order in Council shall not exceed the rate of one penny for every amount of one shilling and eightpence in respect of which the charge is imposed. If any such Order in Council is revoked and no rate is expressly substituted for the rate prescribed thereby, the rate fixed in accordance with subsection one hereof shall be the rate as from the date on which the revocation takes effect.

Section twelve of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, is hereby amended by inserting after the words “shall apply to the wages received by” in the proviso to subsection one the words “any person under the age of sixteen years, or to the wages received by”.

Section four of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, is hereby amended by repealing subsection four thereof.

Subsection two of section thirteen of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, is hereby amended as follows:—

Section sixteen of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, is hereby amended by repealing subsection two, and substituting the following subsection:—

Every woman ordinarily resident in New Zealand who for the year ending the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, or the corresponding date in any year thereafter, has derived income from any source other than salary or wages (whether such income is derived from New Zealand or elsewhere) shall be liable in respect of so much of that income as exceeds twenty pounds for the emergency unemployment charge at the rate prescribed by section four of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, as amended by section eight of this Act.

For the purposes of this section the question with reference to any woman as to whether or not she is ordinarily resident in New Zealand shall be determined as the like question is determinable in the case of men.

Every woman to whom this section applies shall, as and when required by the Commissioner of Taxes, make such returns under the Land and Income Tax Act, 1923, as may be required for the purpose of ascertaining her liability to the emergency unemployment charge.

Section fifteen of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, is hereby repealed.

Any person who, not being liable to the emergency unemployment charge on the passing of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, has thereafter become or hereafter becomes so liable, shall not be liable or be deemed heretofore to have been liable to any instalment of such charge due before the date of his becoming liable for such charge.

The Board shall have the same power to exempt on the grounds of hardship any person from his liability to pay the emergency unemployment charge or any part thereof or to pay any penalty imposed by section seventeen of the Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, as it has under section ten of that Act in respect of the general unemployment levy.

Any moneys belonging to the Unemployment Fund may, if the Unemployment Board so determines, be used for the purchase of food, clothing, or other necessities or otherwise for the benefit of persons qualified to receive a sustenance allowance in accordance with section twenty of the principal Act or for the benefit of persons employed on relief works carried out in accordance with that Act, or for the benefit of the families or other dependants of any such persons.

The Board may, if it thinks fit, purchase supplies of food, clothing, or other necessities as aforesaid and arrange for the distribution thereof among persons qualified to receive the same, or may arrange for the issue of dockets to such persons, to be exchangeable in accordance with prescribed conditions for any such necessities and to be redeemable by the Board by payment out of the Unemployment Fund.