Agricultural Land (Utilisation) Act 1931

16 Power of Minister to make grants for assisting in the provision of seeds, fertilisers and equipment for unemployed persons

(1) The Minister may, in accordance with regulations made by him with the approval of the Treasury, make grants or advances to any county council or to the council of any borough, urban district or parish, or to any society having as its object or one of its objects the profitable working of allotments, for the purpose of assisting the council or society in the provision of seeds, fertilisers and equipment for unemployed persons or persons who are not in full time employment for whom allotments are provided; and the regulations made under this section may, notwithstanding anything in section twenty-one of the Land Settlement (Facilities) Act, 1919, provide for empowering any such council, where necessary, to sell seeds, fertilisers or equipment purchased with such assistance as aforesaid and to allow the use of such equipment, at a price or charge less than that sufficient to cover the cost of purchase.

(2) The Minister may constitute a committee for the purpose of advising him as to the exercise and performance of his powers and duties under this section and for the purpose of performing such other functions in connection with those powers and duties as he may direct, and the expenses of the committee (including the remuneration of any officers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries appointed to assist the committee) shall, up to such amount as may be sanctioned by the Minister with the approval of the Treasury, be defrayed as part of the expenses of the Minister under this Act.

(3) As respects any expenditure defrayed for the purposes mentioned in this section before the date of the commencement of this Act out of moneys provided by Parliament and paid into the small holdings account before that date, this section shall be deemed to have had effect as from the seventeenth day of December, nineteen hundred and thirty.