BOUNTIES.

No. 34 of 1912.

An Act to amend the Bounties Act 1907.

[Assented to 24th December, 1912.]

Preamble.

BE it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, for the purpose of appropriating the grant originated in the House of Representatives, as follows:—

Short title and citation.

1.—(1.) This Act may be cited as the Bounties Act 1912.

(2.) The Bounties Act 1907, as amended by this Act, may be cited as the Bounties Act 1907–1912.

Amendment of s. 2.

2. Section two of the Bounties Act 1907 is amended by omitting therefrom the word “thirty-nine” and inserting in its stead the word “fifty-nine.”

3. Section six of the Bounties Act 1907 is repealed and the following section inserted in its stead:—

Conditions of employment and rates of wages.

“6.—(1.) The Minister may make application to the President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, or to any Judge of a Federal or State Court or to any person or persons who compose a State Industrial Authority, for a declaration as to what wages and conditions of employment are fair and reasonable for labour employed in the production and manufacture of the goods on which bounty is claimed.

“(2.) On the hearing and determination of the application, the President, Judge, person or persons shall have all the powers which under the Excise Procedure Act 1907 belong to the President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, and all witnesses and persons summoned to appear or appearing before him or them shall be entitled to the same privileges and protection, and be subject to the same liabilities and penalties, as witnesses or persons summoned to appear or appearing before the President on an application within the meaning of that Act, and the provisions of that Act shall, so far as they are applicable apply accordingly, mutatis mutandis, as if the application were an application within the meaning of that Act.

“(3.) Every person who claims the bounty payable under the Act shall, in making his claim, certify to the Minister the conditions of employment and the rates of wages paid to any labour employed by him, other than the labour of members of his family.

“(4.) If the Minister finds that the rates of wages and conditions of employment, or any of them—

(a) are below the standard rates and conditions of employment prescribed by any Commonwealth or State Industrial Authority, or

(b) are below the standard rates and conditions applicable to the locality and agreed upon between representatives of associations of employers and employees registered under any Commonwealth or State Act, or

(c) are below the rates and conditions declared, as in the first sub-section of this section mentioned, to be fair and reasonable,

the Minister may withhold the whole or any part of the bounty payable.”

Return to be laid before Parliament.

4. After section eight of the Bounties Act 1907 the following section is inserted:—

“8a. A return setting forth—

(a) the names of all persons to whom bounties were paid during the preceding financial year;

(b) the amounts of all such bounties;

(c) the goods in respect of which the bounties were paid;

(d) the names of the places and States in which the goods were manufactured;

(e) the number of persons employed in each of the works, wages paid, and hours observed in the production of the goods,

shall be prepared in the month of July in each year, and shall be laid before both Houses of the Parliament within thirty days after its preparation if the Parliament is then sitting, and if not, then within thirty days after the next meeting thereof.”

Amendment of First Schedule.

5. The First Schedule to the Bounties Act 1907 is amended—

(a) by omitting from the second column the words “five years” wherever those words occur and inserting in their stead the words “ten years”;

(b) by inserting in the second column, in relation to combed wool or tops exported, the words “two years commencing from first January, One thousand nine hundred and fourteen”; and

(c) by inserting in the third column, in relation to combed wool or tops exported, the words “1d. per lb. for the first 1,000,000 lbs. made by any one manufacturer, and ¾d. per lb. for each lb. in excess of 1,000,000 lbs. made by any one manufacturer.”

Amendment of Second Schedule.

6. The Second Schedule is amended by omitting from the second column the following amounts:—“297,500, 311,500, 319,000, 326,500, 329,000, 331,500, 334,000, 336,500, 339,000” and inserting in their stead the following amounts “302,500, 326,500, 339,000, 346,500, 349,000, 351,500, 354,000, 356,500, 359,000.”