Wheat Act 1932
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1932 c. 24 |
Wheat Act, 1932
(22 & 23 Geo. 5.) 24.
An Act to secure to growers of home-grown millable wheat a standard price and a market therefor; to make provision for imposing on millers and importers of flour obligations to make payments calculated by reference to a quota of such wheat and as to the disposal of the moneys thereby received; to provide for such millers being required to purchase unsold stocks of such wheat; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[12th May 1932]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Provisions for securing to growers of millable wheat a standard price and a market therefor.
(1) If, in apply cereal year, the ascertained average price of home-grown millable wheat is less than the standard price, every registered grower shall, subject to the provisions of this Act and of any regulations or byelaws made thereunder, be entitled to receive from the Wheat Commission in respect of every hundredweight of such wheat of his own growing sold by him in that year, not being wheat harvested before the year nineteen hundred and thirty-two, a payment (hereinafter referred to as a ‘deficiency payment’) representing, subject to the deduction to be made under the provisions of this Act relating to administrative expenses, the difference (hereinafter referred to as the ‘price deficit’) between the said average price and the standard price:
Provided that, if in any cereal year the quantity of home-grown millable wheat of their own growing sold by registered growers exceeds the anticipated supply of such wheat for that year, each registered grower shall be entitled to receive deficiency payments for that year in respect only of that number of hundredweights which bears to the number of hundredweights of such wheat of his own growing sold by him in that year the same proportion as the said anticipated supply bears to the quantity of home-grown millable wheat of their own growing sold by registered growers in that year.
(2) For the purposes of this Act wheat sold by a registered grower shall be deemed to be of his own growing if it was grown on land forming part of a farm of which he was the occupier at the date of the sale, so, however, that no wheat shall be deemed to be of his own growing if it has been removed from the farm before being despatched on delivery after the sale, otherwise than in accordance with the byelaws of the Wheat Commission.
(3) If in the month of June in any year after the year nineteen hundred and thirty-two the Wheat Commission make a representation to the Minister that it is expedient that any stocks of home-grown millable wheat then harvested, being wheat sown during the last preceding cereal year, should be bought by the Flour Millers' Corporation, the Minister may, by order made before the end of the cereal year in which the representation was made, require that corporation to buy from the registered growers to whom the order relates such part of those stocks as remains unsold by them when the order comes into force:
Provided that the orders made under this subsection in any cereal year shall not require the Flour Millers' Corporation to buy more than twelve-and-a-half per cent. of the anticipated supply for that year.
(4) Any order made under the last foregoing subsection shall specify a price, not exceeding the standard price, estimated by the Minister, after consultation with the Wheat Commission, to be, as nearly as may be, the price which would, in the area to which the order relates and at the date on which the order comes into force, be obtained by a willing seller from a willing buyer for home-grown millable wheat of fair average quality, and all wheat to be bought from a registered grower in pursuance of the requirements of any such order shall be bought at such prices as may be determined according to quality and market conditions, by reference to the price specified in the order, in accordance with the byelaws of the Wheat Commission.
Any such order shall also specify the period within which the wheat to which the order relates is to be bought by the Flour Millers' Corporation, and that corporation shall take delivery thereof within that period.
(5) If, within the period within which any wheat is required by an order made under this section to be bought, or within such further time as the Wheat Commission may, on the application of the corporation made within that period, allow, objection is made, in such manner as may be provided by the byelaws of the Wheat Commission, by or on behalf of the Flour Millers' Corporation, that any of that wheat—
(a ) is not home-grown; or
(b ) is not millable wheat; or
(c ) is not of the quality according to which the price has been so determined as aforesaid;
then, if it is determined by arbitration in accordance with the said byelaws that the wheat objected to is not home-grown millable wheat, the order shall cease to have effect as respects that wheat, or if it is so determined that the wheat objected to, though home-grown millable wheat, is of lower quality than that according to which the price has been determined, the requirements of the order shall be deemed to be complied with as respects that wheat if it is bought by the corporation at such lower price as the arbitrator may allow.
(6) If any person from whom the Flour Millers' Corporation have been required by an order made under this section to buy any stocks of wheat proves with respect to any quantity of such wheat—
(a ) that default has been made by the corporation in buying and taking delivery of that quantity within the period specified in the order or within such further time as the Minister may, on the application of the corporation made within that period, have allowed; and
(b ) either that no objection that the quantity is not a quantity of home-grown millable wheat has been duly made in accordance with the provisions of the last foregoing subsection or that the quantity has been determined in accordance with those provisions to be a quantity of home-grown millable wheat; and
(c ) that he was at all material times ready and willing to sell and deliver the quantity to the corporation at the price determined or allowed in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section;
he shall be entitled to recover as a debt due to him from the corporation a sum equal to the amount which would have been payable for the quantity if it had been bought at the price so determined as aforesaid, and upon any sum being so recovered, or becoming payable under a judgment given therefor, the wheat in respect of which the sum was recovered, or judgment given, shall be forfeited to the Wheat Commission, who may dispose of it as they think fit.
The Wheat Commission may, if they think fit, take proceedings as trustees for all or any persons entitled to take proceedings for the recovery of any sums due to them under this subsection; and, without prejudice to any other remedy, any sums recoverable under this subsection may be recovered summarily as a civil debt.
(7) Any wheat which is bought from a registered grower by the Flour Millers' Corporation in accordance with the requirements of an order made under this section, or which is forfeited to the Commission under the last foregoing subsection, shall be deemed for the purposes of subsections (1) and (2) of this section to have been sold by that grower on the date on which the order came into force.
(8) The Flour Millers' Corporation may make arrangements for the purchase by any person on their behalf of wheat required by any such order as aforesaid to be bought by the corporation, and any wheat bought in pursuance of the requirements of any such order may be sold or otherwise disposed of by the corporation in such manner as they think fit.
2 Determination of ‘ascertain average price,’ ‘standard price’ and ‘anticipated supply’ of home-grown millable wheat.
(1) As soon as practicable after the cereal year ending on the thirty-first day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-three, and after the end of every subsequent cereal year the Minister shall, after consultation with the Wheat Commission, by order prescribe the price which he determines to have been the average price obtained by registered growers throughout the United Kingdom for home-grown millable wheat of their own growing sold by them in that year; and in this Act the expression ‘ascertained average price’ means, in relation to any cereal year, the price so prescribed as respects that year.
(2) The order made under the last foregoing subsection as respects any cereal year shall also contain a certificate by the Minister certifying the quantity of home-grown millable wheat of their own growing sold by registered growers in that year, and, for the purposes of the proviso to subsection (1) of section one of this Act, that certificate shall be conclusive evidence of the quantity aforesaid.
(3) In this Act the expression ‘standard price’ means the price of ten shillings per hundredweight:
Provided that, not later than the first day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty-five, the Minister shall appoint a committee of three persons, who after considering general economic conditions and the conditions affecting the agricultural industry, shall report to the Minister as to the desirability of making any alteration in the standard price, and, if that committee make to the Minister a recommendation that the standard price should be altered, the Minister may by order substitute for the price...
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