STATUTORY RULES.

1919. No. 119.

REGULATIONS UNDER THE WAR PRECAUTIONS ACT 1914–1918.

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the War Precautions Act 1914–1918, to come into operation forthwith.

Dated this sixteenth day of May, 1919.

R. M. FERGUSON,

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

E. J. RUSSELL,

Acting Minister of State for Defence.

Amendment of War Precautions (Coal) Regulations.

(Statutory Rules 1917, No. 195, as amended by Statutory Rules 1917, Nos. 240 and 252, and by Statutory Rules 1919, No. 103.)

After regulation 10a of the War Precautions (Coal) Regulations the following regulations are inserted:—

Price of coal sold by purchasers from Commonwealth.

“10b.—(1) The Prime Minister may by order fix the price at which any person who has purchased from the Commonwealth coal acquired by the Commonwealth in pursuance of the last preceding regulation may sell the coal, and any such person who sells any such coal at a higher price than the price fixed by the Prime Minister, which is applicable to any such sale, shall be guilty of an offence.

“(2) The price fixed by the Prime Minister in pursuance of this regulation may vary in different parts of the Commonwealth, and as regards different qualities of coal.

“(3) The price fixed by the Prime Minister in pursuance of this regulation shall have effect notwithstanding the terms of any contract relating to the sale of coal by a person who has purchased the coal from the Commonwealth, and any such contract shall by force of this regulation be deemed to be varied in respect of all coal delivered under the contract on or after the fifth day of May, 1919, and during the continuance of this regulation.

“(4) The Prime Minister may, in any order issued in pursuance of this regulation, except certain coal from the application of the order and thereupon the provisions of sub-regulation (3) of this regulation shall not apply in relation to the sale of that coal under any contract to which that sub-regulation applies.

Price of gas and coke.

“10c—(1) Where the price fixed by the Prime Minister, in pursuance of regulation 10a of these Regulations, as the selling price of coal acquired by the Commonwealth, is in excess of the price theretofore prevailing, the Prime Minister may by order declare—

(a) that any increase in the price of gas, which does not exceed the amount specified in the order, charged by any company producing gas from coal in respect of which such increased price is payable, shall not be taken to be an increase in the price of gas within the meaning of any State Act which provides for a sliding scale in the relation of the dividend payable by the company producing the gas to the price charged by it; and

(b) that any company which produces smelting coke or gas from coal in respect of which such increased price is payable may, in any then existing contracts for the sale of smelting coke or gas, increase the price contracted for by an amount not exceeding the amount specified in the order and that the contracts shall by force of the order be deemed to be varied to the extent of the amount by which the price is so increased.

“(2) Any order made in pursuance of this regulation shall be valid and effectual for all purposes.”

Printed and Published for the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia by Albert J. Mullett, Government Printer for the State of Victoria.