This Act may be cited as the Commercial Gardens Registration Act, 1943, and shall come into force on the first day of May, nineteen hundred and forty-three.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

Two or more commercial gardens occupied and used as such by the same occupier shall be deemed to be one commercial garden for the purposes of this Act.

For the purposes of this Act, vegetables which are sold to any person who proposes to subject them to any manufacturing process shall be deemed to have been sold for human consumption if the product of the manufacturing process is intended for human consumption.

The Governor-General may at any time, by Warrant under his hand, extend the definition of the term “vegetables” by declaring any crop that is not specified in the First Schedule to this Act to be vegetables.

The Governor-General may at any time, by Warrant under his hand, declare that any class of land therein described shall be exempt from the provisions of this Act, notwithstanding that it may be used wholly or partly for the growing and production of vegetables for sale for human consumption.

Any Warrant under this section may be at any time in like manner amended or revoked.

In computing the area of land for the purposes of this Act, two thousand five hundred square feet of land enclosed in a glasshouse shall be deemed to be equivalent to one-half of an acre of land not so enclosed.

Every commercial garden existing at the commencement of any registration year or established during a registration year which has a total area equivalent to not less than one-half of an acre is hereby required to be registered for that year in accordance with the provisions of this Act and of regulations thereunder.

Application for the registration of a commercial garden shall be made by the occupier thereof in the prescribed form to such person or persons as may be prescribed, and every such application shall be accompanied by the appropriate fee specified in the Second Schedule to this Act.

If the occupier of any commercial garden fails to make application for the registration thereof and to pay the appropriate fee within one month after the commencement of the registration year or, in the case of a commercial garden established during a registration year, within one month after its establishment, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of five pounds, and to a further fine of ten shillings for every week that elapses after the said period of one month has expired and before application for registration is duly made and the appropriate fee is paid.

If any person becomes the occupier of an unregistered commercial garden in any registration year he shall make application for the registration thereof, and shall pay the appropriate fee, within the period prescribed by the last preceding subsection or within fourteen days after he has become the occupier (whichever period is the later to expire), and if he fails so to do he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of five pounds, and to a further fine of ten shillings for every week that elapses after the said period and before application for registration is duly made and the appropriate fee is paid.

The Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council, alter any fees specified in the Second Schedule to this Act:

Provided that he may not alter any fee so that it exceeds the amount specified in that Schedule by more than fifty per centum thereof.

All moneys received by way of registration fees pursuant to this Act shall be paid into the Public Account to the credit of a Deposit Account.

The expenses of collection and of administration as determined by the Minister shall be deducted from the proceeds thereof, and shall, without further appropriation than this section, be paid to the credit of the appropriate fund or account.

The residue of the proceeds shall, on the recommendation of the Minister and without further appropriation than this section, be paid to the Dominion Council of Commercial Gardeners, Limited (being a society incorporated under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act, 1908), to be expended by it for such purposes in furtherance of the interests of commercial gardeners as may be approved in accordance with regulations under this Act.

The Governor-General may from time to time by Order in Council make all such regulations as may in his opinion be necessary or expedient for giving full effect to the provisions of this Act and for the due administration thereof.

Without limiting the general power hereinbefore conferred, it is hereby declared that regulations may be made under this section for all or any of the following purposes:—