This Act may be cited as the National Development Loans Act, 1941, and shall come into force on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-two.

There is hereby established an account within the Public Account to be called the National Development Loans Account.

Section twenty-seven of the Public Revenues Act, 1926, is hereby amended by repealing paragraph (b), and substituting the following paragraph:—

The Minister of Finance is hereby empowered to borrow, on the security of and charged upon the public revenues of New Zealand, such sums of money as he thinks fit, not exceeding in any financial year the aggregate of the sums that are authorized by the Appropriation Act passed in that year, or by this Act, or by any other Act to be transferred during that year from the National Development Loans Account to any other funds or accounts.

The sums so borrowed shall bear interest at such rate as the Minister of Finance prescribes.

All moneys borrowed under the authority of this section shall, as and when borrowed, be paid into the Public Account to the credit of the National Development Loans Account.

This section shall be deemed to be an authorizing Act within the meaning of the New Zealand Loans Act, 1932, and the moneys hereby authorized to be borrowed shall be borrowed under and subject to the provisions of that Act accordingly.

Section two of the Repayment of the Public Debt Act, 1925, is hereby amended by inserting, in paragraph (c) of the definition of the term “public debt”, after the words “Westport Harbour Account”, the words “or transferred to any of those accounts from the National Development Loans Account”.

For the purposes of any enactments relating to sinking funds or to the repayment of any loan-moneys, all moneys transferred from the National Development Loans Account to any fund or account shall be deemed to have been raised or borrowed for the purposes of that fund or account.

Where the Appropriation Act passed in any financial year has authorized the transfer from the National Development Loans Account to any fund or account of any amount (hereinafter in this section referred to as the authorized amount), there may from time to time during the first three months of the next succeeding financial year, without further authority than this section, be transferred from the National Development Loans Account to that fund or account such sums as the Minister of Finance may direct, not exceeding in the aggregate so much of the authorized amount as has not been transferred during the year in which the Appropriation Act was passed, together with a further amount equal to one-fourth of the authorized amount.

During the first three months of the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and forty-three, there may from time to time, without further authority than this section, be transferred from the National Development Loans Account to the respective funds and accounts mentioned in the Schedule to this Act such sums as the Minister of Finance may direct, not exceeding in the aggregate the sum of four million pounds.

All sums transferred under the authority of this section in any financial year shall be included in the amounts to be authorized to be transferred from the National Development Loans Account by the Appropriation Act passed in that year.

If in the opinion of the Minister of Finance the amount authorized by the Appropriation Act passed in any financial year to be transferred from the National Development Loans Account to any fund or account is not sufficient for the purposes of that fund or account, there may from time to time during that year, without further authority than this section, be transferred from the National Development Loans Account to that fund or account, in addition to the amount so authorized, such further sums as the Minister may direct:

Provided that the sums transferred from the National Development Loans Account under the authority of this section in any financial year shall not exceed in the aggregate ten per centum of the total amount authorized by the Appropriation Act passed in that year to be transferred from that account.

A statement showing the sums transferred under the authority of this section in any financial year and the funds or accounts to which they have respectively been transferred, certified by the Audit Office, shall be laid before Parliament by the Minister of Finance within ten days after the commencement of the first session of Parliament in the next succeeding financial year.

All moneys transferred from the National Development Loans Account to any fund or account other than the Consolidated Fund, whether under the authority of this Act or of any other Act, shall, until they are repaid, constitute a capital liability of the appropriate fund or account to the Consolidated Fund.

All moneys heretofore borrowed by the Minister of Finance and paid into any fund or account other than the Consolidated Fund or the War Expenses Account (whether within or outside the Public Account) and not repaid out of the appropriate fund or account shall, from the commencement of this Act, constitute a capital liability of the appropriate fund or account to the Consolidated Fund.

All other moneys advanced by way of loan from the Consolidated Fund to any other fund or account and not repaid shall, on and from the date of the commencement of this Act or on and from the date of the advance, whichever is the later, constitute a capital liability of the appropriate fund or account to the Consolidated Fund.

If any question arises as to which is the appropriate fund or account to bear any capital liability under this section it shall be determined by the Minister of Finance, and his decision shall be final.

Interest on the amount of the capital liability of any fund or account under this section shall, without further authority than this section, be paid out of that fund or account to the Consolidated Fund at such rate or rates and at such times as the Minister of Finance from time to time prescribes. Different rates may be prescribed in respect of different funds or accounts or in respect of different moneys transferred or advanced to the same fund or account.

If the Minister of Finance is satisfied at any time that there are available in any fund or account which has a capital liability under the last preceding section moneys in excess of the amounts reasonably required for the purposes of that fund or account, he may direct that the whole or any part of the excess be transferred from that fund or account to the Loans Redemption Account, and the amount so directed shall, without further authority than this section, be transferred accordingly, and be utilized for the redemption of such securities charged on the public revenues of New Zealand as the Minister of Finance may determine.

All moneys transferred from any fund or account under the authority of this section shall be deemed to be repaid in reduction of the capital liability of that fund or account to the Consolidated Fund.