This Act may be cited as the Meat Export Prices Act 1955.

This Act shall be deemed to have come into force on the first day of October, nineteen hundred and fifty-five.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

There is hereby established a Committee to be called the Meat Export Prices Committee.

The Committee shall consist of—

Except as otherwise provided in this Act, every appointed member of the Committee shall hold office for a term of three years, but may from time to time be reappointed.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Act, every member of the Committee, unless he sooner vacates his office under section five of this Act, shall continue to hold office until his successor comes into office.

Any appointed member of the Committee may at any time be removed from office by the Governor-General for disability, bankruptcy, neglect of duty, or misconduct proved to the satisfaction of the Governor-General, or may at any time resign his office by writing addressed to the Minister.

If any appointed member of the Committee dies, or resigns, or is removed from office, or (having been nominated by the Meat Board) ceases to be a member of that Board, his office shall become vacant and the vacancy shall be deemed to be an extraordinary vacancy.

In the case of any extraordinary vacancy the Governor-General may appoint some qualified person to fill the vacancy. Any such appointment shall be made in the same manner as the appointment of the vacating member.

Any member appointed to fill an extraordinary vacancy shall hold office for the residue of the term for which the vacating member was appointed.

The powers of the Committee shall not be affected by any vacancy in the membership thereof.

In the absence from any meeting of the Committee of the Secretary to the Treasury or the Director-General of Agriculture, any officer of his Department authorized by him in that behalf may attend the meeting in his stead, and while so attending, shall be deemed to be a member of the Committee.

In the absence from any meeting of the Committee of any member appointed on the nomination of the Meat Board, any other member of that Board authorized by that Board in that behalf may attend the meeting in his stead, and while so attending shall be deemed to be a member of the Committee.

No such appointment of a deputy, and no acts done by a deputy as such, and no acts done by the Committee while any deputy is acting as such, shall in any proceedings be questioned on the ground that the occasion for his appointment had not arisen or had ceased.

The first meeting of the Committee shall be held on a day to be appointed in that behalf by the Minister.

Subsequent meetings of the Committee shall be held at such times and places as the Committee from time to time appoints.

The Chairman of the Committee or any two members thereof may at any time call a special meeting of the Committee.

At all meetings of the Committee three members shall form a quorum.

All questions before the Committee shall be decided by a majority of the valid votes recorded thereon.

Subject to the provisions of this Act and of any regulations made thereunder, the Committee may regulate its procedure in such manner as it thinks fit.

The Chairman shall preside at all meetings of the Committee at which he is present.

If at any meeting of the Committee the Chairman for the time being is not present or there is no Chairman, the members present shall appoint one of their number to preside at that meeting.

At any meeting of the Committee the Chairman or other person presiding shall have a deliberative vote, and in the case of an equality of votes shall also have a casting vote.

The Committee may from time to time appoint a subcommittee or subcommittees in accordance with this section, and may from time to time, with the consent of the Minister, delegate in writing to any such subcommittee any of the powers or functions of the Committee, other than the power to prepare a table of minimum prices for meat exported from New Zealand.

Every such subcommittee shall consist of two or more persons.

Any person may be appointed to be a member of a subcommittee under this section, notwithstanding that he is not a member of the Committee.

There shall be paid to members of the Committee and to members of any subcommittee appointed by the Committee such remuneration by way of fees or allowances as the Minister of Finance from time to time approves, either generally or in any particular case.

The members of the Committee or of any subcommittee appointed by the Committee shall be paid such travelling expenses and allowances as may from time to time be prescribed by regulations made under this Act or as may be approved by the Minister of Finance in any case to which no such regulations apply.

All such payments shall be made without further appropriation than this section out of the Meat Industry Account, and shall be debited to the Meat Industry Reserve Account.

The principal function of the Committee shall be to determine minimum prices, in accordance with the plan hereinafter set out, for meat exported from New Zealand.

The Committee shall have all such other functions as are conferred on it by this Act, and all powers and authorities necessary, conducive, or incidental to the performance of its duties and functions.

The Committee shall, before the thirtieth day of September in the year nineteen hundred and fifty-six, and before that day in each year thereafter, prepare and publish in the Gazette a table of minimum prices payable in the following year ending with that day to the owner for all the classes of meat exported from New Zealand which are set out in the Schedule to this Act, or such other classes of meat exported from New Zealand as the Committee from time to time determines. Every such table shall show, in respect of each class of meat, the grade of meat of that class by reference to which the deficiency payment for meat of that class is to be determined under subsection three of section thirteen of this Act.

In preparing any such table of minimum prices the Committee shall have regard to—

In addition to the matters referred to in subsection two of this section, in preparing any such table of minimum prices the Committee may have regard to—

The minimum prices payable to the owner for the year ending with the thirtieth day of September, nineteen hundred and fifty-six in respect of the several classes of meat exported from New Zealand which are specified in the Schedule to this Act shall be those set out in the said Schedule.

The Committee shall prepare and notify in the Gazette a weekly schedule of the deficiency payments which may be made to the owner in accordance with this Act for the classes of meat specified in the schedule.

Each schedule prepared under this section shall include every class of meat (being a class to which the annual table of minimum prices current at the beginning of the week relates) for which the amount of the free on board value in the week to which the schedule relates, as determined by the Committee, is less than the amount of the minimum price, as shown in the said annual table of minimum prices.

The deficiency payment to be shown in each schedule prepared under this section in respect of each class of meat required to be included in the schedule as aforesaid shall be an amount equal to the difference between the amount of the minimum price for that class of meat shown in the annual table of minimum prices current at the beginning of the week and the amount, as determined by the Committee, of the free on board value in the week to which the schedule relates of meat of that class which is of the grade specified in respect of that class of meat in the said table of minimum prices.

Any such deficiency payment shall relate to all grades of meat within any class of meat required to be included in the schedule as aforesaid.

Where the schedule for any week shows that a deficiency payment should be made for any class of meat, that payment shall be made in respect of all meat of that class which is included in any return supplied to the Meat Board of—

All deficiency payments payable under this section shall be made without further appropriation than this section out of the Meat Industry Account, and shall be debited to the Meat Industry Reserve Account.

Where a deficiency payment has been made to an owner in respect of any meat included in any such return and the meat is subsequently withdrawn for consumption in New Zealand, the person who withdraws the meat for consumption in New Zealand shall refund to the Meat Industry Account the amount of the deficiency payment which has been made in respect of that meat, and that amount shall be credited to the Meat Industry Reserve Account and shall be recoverable as a debt by the Committee:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply to any such meat which is withdrawn for canning.

The Meat Board shall have the functions of making arrangements for the payment of the deficiency payments and of the collection of refunds in respect thereof, and generally of administering the minimum prices plan on behalf of the Committee.

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 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: