This Act may be cited as the Primary Products Marketing Amendment Act, 1937, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Primary Products Marketing Act, 1936 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

The Primary Products Marketing Department established under the principal Act shall be divided into separate Divisions as follows:—

In so far as the functions of the Department are concerned with dairy-produce exported or intended for export from New Zealand they shall be exercised by the Dairy-produce Export Division.

Except as provided in the last preceding subsection, the functions of the Department shall, unless and until another Division of the Department is duly constituted, be exercised by the Internal Marketing Division.

Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this section, any of the functions of the Department may, by direction of the Minister, be exercised by any Division of the Department.

There may from time to time be appointed a fit and proper person, to be called the Director of the Dairy-produce Export Division, who, under the direction of the Minister, shall be in charge of that Division.

There may from time to time be appointed a fit and proper person, to be called the Director of the Internal Marketing Division, who, under the direction of the Minister, shall be in charge of the Internal Marketing Division.

There may from time to time be appointed a fit and proper person to be the Director of any other Division of the Department that may hereafter be constituted.

The person holding office as the Assistant Director of Marketing at the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to have been appointed as the Director of the Dairy-produce Export Division, and the person holding office as the Director of Internal Marketing at the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to have been appointed as the Director of the Internal Marketing Division.

On the occurrence from any cause of a vacancy in the office of the Director of any Division of the Department (whether by reason of death, or resignation, or otherwise), and in case of the absence from duty of any Director (from whatever cause arising), the powers, duties, and functions of such Director may be exercised and performed by any person authorized in that behalf by the Minister.

The fact that any person exercises or performs any power, duty, or function of a Director with the concurrence of the Minister shall be conclusive evidence of his authority so to do.

For the purposes of this section the powers, duties, and functions of a Director shall be deemed to include such of the powers of the Minister as may be duly delegated to that Director.

The Minister may from time to time, by writing under his hand, delegate to the Director of any Division or to any other person such of his powers under the principal Act as he thinks fit.

Every such delegation shall be revocable at will, and no such delegation shall prevent the exercise of any power by the Minister in person.

Any such delegation may be made subject to such conditions and restrictions (if any) as the Minister thinks fit, and may be made either generally or in relation to any particular matter.

Unless and until any such delegation is revoked it shall continue in force according to its tenor. In the event of the Minister by whom any such delegation has been made ceasing to hold office it shall continue to have effect as if made by the person for the time being holding office as Minister and, in the event of the Director of any Division to whom any such delegation has been made ceasing to hold office, it shall continue to have effect as if made to the person for the time being holding office as Director of that Division.

The fact that any person, purporting to act under a power delegated by the Minister under this section, exercises any power of the Minister shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be sufficient evidence of his authority so to do.

Section seven of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing subsections two to six thereof.

The reference in subsection four of section eight of the principal Act to section seven of that Act shall hereafter be read as a reference to this section.

This section applies with respect to dairy-produce, fruit, honey, and eggs, and shall also apply to such other foodstuffs (if any) as the Governor-General may by Order in Council from time to time declare to be subject to the provisions of this section.

The Department may from time to time, in respect of any defined district or locality or for the whole of New Zealand, fix the wholesale or retail prices at which any foodstuffs to which this section applies may be bought or sold, or may fix margins within which any such foodstuffs may be bought or sold, and may also fix general conditions subject to which sales of such foodstuffs shall be made. Such margins may be fixed as maximum prices and minimum prices, or may be fixed by reference to the amounts or percentages by which selling-prices may exceed buying-prices.

Notice of any prices, margins, or conditions of sale fixed by the Department in accordance with this section shall be given to persons directly affected thereby by public notice or in such other manner as the Department thinks fit.

The provisions of section twenty-five of the principal Act (as to offences in respect of the sale of dairy-produce) shall, with the necessary modifications, apply in respect of the sale of any foodstuffs in respect of which prices or margins have been fixed in accordance with this section:

Provided that no person shall be convicted of any offence under this subsection in respect of any foodstuffs if he satisfies the Court that he did not know and had no reasonable opportunity of knowing, when the offence was committed, that prices or margins had been fixed in respect thereof or the prices or margins that had in fact been fixed.

If, in order to secure the economic and orderly marketing in New Zealand of any foodstuffs to which the last preceding section applies, it is at any time in the opinion of the Governor-General in Council necessary so to do, he may, by Order in Council, make regulations—

The Minister may from time to time, as he thinks fit, appoint an Advisory Committee or Advisory Committees to assist the Department in the conduct of any business carried on by it.

For the purposes of the Internal Marketing Division of the Department there shall be established at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand an account, to be known as the Internal Marketing Account.

Part X of the Public Revenues Act, 1926, shall apply with respect to the Internal Marketing Account in the same manner as it applies to the several accounts mentioned therein.

The Internal Marketing Account shall be operated on only by cheque signed by or on behalf of the Director of the Internal Marketing Division and countersigned by the Audit Office. For the purposes of this section the Minister of Finance may from time to time authorize any officer of the Internal Marketing Division to sign cheques on behalf of the Director of that Division.

No limits imposed by any Act upon the borrowing-powers of the Government of New Zealand or of any person on behalf of that Government shall operate to limit the authority conferred on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand by paragraph (gg) of section thirteen of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act, 1933, as amended by section twelve of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Act, 1936, and the said paragraph shall be construed as an authority for the Bank to grant and for the Government to receive accommodation by way of overdraft in aid of the Internal Marketing Account, and the said account may be overdrawn accordingly.

This section shall be deemed to have come into force on the sixteenth day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-seven.

For the purposes of the Internal Marketing Account there may be opened at the Reserve Bank or at any other bank, in New Zealand or elsewhere, such imprest or other subsidiary accounts as may from time to time be authorized in accordance with the Public Revenues Act, 1926.

There shall from time to time be paid into the Internal Marketing Account all moneys derived from the operations of the Internal Marketing Division of the Department, and any other moneys that may be lawfully payable to that Account.

There shall from time to time, without further appropriation than this section, be paid out of the said account—

There shall also from time to time be paid out of the said account, in accordance with the appropriation of Parliament, the salaries and allowances of officers of the Internal Marketing Division and all other expenditure incurred in the administration of that Division.

There may from time to time, without further appropriation than this section, be paid out of the Dairy Industry Account or the Internal Marketing Account, as the case may be, such sums as the Minister may approve for the purpose of equalizing, as far as practicable, the net returns received or payable in respect of dairy-produce or in respect of any other foodstuffs to which section six of this Act applies, in any case where—

Any sums payable in accordance with this section may be paid to such persons as, in the opinion of the Minister, are equitably entitled thereto.

Payments in accordance with this section may be made in respect of any dairy-produce or other foodstuffs that have been manufactured or produced or have been acquired by the Department at any time after the commencement of the principal Act.

Notwithstanding anything in section twelve of the principal Act or in section eleven or section fifteen of this Act, the Minister of Finance may from time to time authorize the making of any adjustments between the Dairy Industry Account and the Internal Marketing Account if in his opinion any moneys payable into or out of either of the said accounts should more appropriately be paid into or out of the other of the said accounts.

The Minister of Finance may also from time to time authorize the transfer from any one to the other of the said accounts of such amounts as he deems proper in respect of services rendered by one Division of the Department for the purposes of another Division, or in respect of any commodities acquired by one Division for marketing or other disposal by another Division.

The Dairy Industry Account shall be operated on only by cheque signed by or on behalf of the Director of the Dairy-produce Export Division and countersigned by the Audit Office. For the purposes of this section the Minister of Finance may from time to time authorize any officer of the said Division to sign cheques on behalf of the Director.

Subsection three of section ten of the principal Act is hereby repealed.

There shall from time to time, without further appropriation than this section, be paid out of the Dairy Industry Account—

All payments heretofore made out of the Dairy Industry Account shall be deemed to have been as validly made as if the last preceding subsection had been in force when such payments were made and as if the Dairy-produce Export Division of the Department had then been duly constituted.

Section twelve of the principal Act is hereby consequentially amended by repealing subsection two thereof.

Any dairy-produce that has become the property of the Crown in accordance with section eighteen of the principal Act may be withheld from export if the Minister determines that it is required for consumption in New Zealand.

Where by Order in Council under section twenty of the principal Act prices are fixed in respect of dairy-produce exported from New Zealand, such prices shall apply with respect to all dairy-produce that becomes the property of the Crown, in accordance with section eighteen of the principal Act, at any time within the period to which such Order in Council relates, and payment shall be made therefor in accordance with section nineteen of that Act notwithstanding that such dairy-produce has not at the time of payment been exported, or notwithstanding that any such dairy-produce may have been withheld from export in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section.

Section eighteen of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from the proviso thereto the words “published in the Gazette”, and substituting the words “in writing given to the owner of such dairy-produce”.

The prices fixed by any Order in Council under section twenty or section twenty-two of the principal Act may, in accordance with this section, be at any time in like manner varied.

Any variation increasing the price to be paid for any dairy-produce may be made to operate retrospectively in so far as it relates to prices to be paid by the Department, but shall not be retrospective with respect to prices to be paid by any other person.

No variation reducing the price to be paid for any dairy-produce shall apply with respect to any dairy-produce in respect of which a higher price has been paid or in respect of which a right to receive or an obligation to pay a higher price has accrued before the making of the variation.

Section twenty-nine of the principal Act is hereby amended, as from the commencement of that Act, by inserting, after the words “registered in the United Kingdom” in subsection five thereof, the words “or elsewhere”.

Without in any way limiting the power to make regulations conferred on the Governor-General in Council by section fifteen of the principal Act, it is hereby declared that regulations may be made under that section for the purpose of preventing damage to or the deterioration of any foodstuffs by reason of the improper packing or handling thereof in their course of transit from the producer to the consumer.

The principal Act is hereby consequentially amended in the manner indicated in the Schedule hereto.