and every change of address, and answer all questions by the inspector as to his employer and the rates or prices paid (s. 12).

To facilitate the working of the Act and to fix minimum prices and rates for particular trades, the Governor may direct the election of Boards of not less than four or more than ten members, of whom one-half may be elected by and shall consist of registered employers, and the other half by and consist of registered employés, presided over as chairman by a judge or special magistrate appointed by the Governor, members to hold office for twelve months only, a majority to constitute a quorum, and the chairman to have a casting vote (s. 13). The Board shall, as regards the particular business in respect of which it is appointed, fix the minimum price or rate of payment payable to any persons or classes of persons (s. 15), and a copy of such rates shall be furnished to every employé by his employer (s. 16). For outside work the Board shall fix a piecework rate or price only, but for all other work may fix piecework price or rate or a wages price or rate, or both, and shall fix a wages rate for operating at a machine in any factory (s. 17). Rates fixed by a Board are to commence at a date fixed by the Board not earlier than within fourteen days, and to remain in force till altered or revoked by the Board (s. 18). A Board shall also fix the proportionate number of, and lowest rates of pay for, apprentices and improvers (s. 19), and may permit the employment at special rates of old and physically infirm persons (s. 20). Employment at piecework rates or wages below the minimum fixed by the Board, or for longer or different hours, or of an excess of apprentices or improvers, is a breach of the Act punishable by progressive fines and by cancellation of registration on the third conviction, with power to the Board to annul the cancellation—and subject to provisoes in cases of illness and slackness of trade, the allowance of overtime in cases of urgent necessity or breakdown of machinery (s. 21). When the Board fixes a wages rate only, employment at piecework rate is not allowed (s. 25). A Board may, in lieu of fixing a lowest piecework rate fix piecework prices (s. 26), based on the average earning of an average worker working under similar conditions at wages rates fixed by the Board (s. 27). Payment in goods is prohibited (s. 32). Agreements to accept less than the fixed rates are invalidated (s. 33).

No premium is to be paid in respect of female apprentices or improvers in the manufacture of clothing or wearing apparel (s. 35). No person is to be employed at less than a minimum weekly wage of four shillings (s. 38). Passages past moving machinery are to be a clear eighteen inches wide." (s. 39). Dangerous machinery has to been fenced and safeguarded (s. 40). Every inspector of machinery under the Act is to be a qualified mechanic. (s. 41), and may require machinery (s. 42), and vats, pans, etc., to be safeguarded (s. 43), and the Minister may, on the report of the inspector, prohibit the use of dangerous machines until repaired or altered, and the Governor may prohibit the employment in or about dangerous machinery

of any person under sixteen years of age (s. 44). Hoists and lifts are to be protected (s. 45), and shall not be worked in any factory by any female or by any male under the age of sixteen years (s. 46). No male under eighteen years of age, nor any female, shall clean machinery in motion (s. 47). Notice of any accident is to be given to the inspector (s. 48), who is to enquire and to report to the Minister (s. 49).

Lavatories and fire-extinguishing appliances have to be provided (s. 51). The aggregate hours of labour of women and young persons employed partly in shops and partly in factories are limited (s. 53). The Minister may, in certain cases, require a separate dining or eating room to be provided for employés (s. 54), and may prohibit the use, as a factory, of unsuitable premises (s. 55). Justices, in addition to inflicting penalties for non-conformity, may order the employer to adopt certain means to bring his factory into conformity, non-compliance with which will involve continuing daily penalty (s. 56). In proceedings under the Act the onus of proof as regards important particulars is placed on the defendant (s. 57). Early Closing. The Early Closing Act, No. 749 of 1900, constitutes Adelaide and the surrounding country a "metropolitan shopping district" (s. 6), in which any building, stall, tent, vehicle, or pack in which goods are offered or exposed for sale by retail (s. 2), except chemists, eating-houses, restaurants, ham, fish, fruit, tobacconists', hair-dressers' and confectioners' shops, railway news-stalls, undertakers' and public-houses and wine-shops (Sched. I), shall not remain open for trade after six o'clock p.m. on more than one day in each week; shall close at one o'clock p.m. on either Wednesday or Saturday, at the option of the shopkeeper, and may, if Wednesday is chosen, remain open until nine o'clock on Saturday evening, or, if Saturday is chosen, till nine o'clock on Friday evening. The day chosen for closing at one o'clock may not be altered for three months, and one month's notice of intention to alter must be given (s. 7). Country shopping districts may be proclaimed and times for closing fixed (s. 10) upon a memorial of a majority of the shopkeepers resident therein (s. 9). All assistants in exempted shops are to be allowed a half-holiday from one o'clock on some one weekday of every week except in a week in which there is a public holiday allowed to such assistants (s. 14). Managers and servants are liable for breaches of the Act (s. 16), and a shopkeeper charged with an offence may lay an information against the actual offender, and on proof of due diligence is to be exempt from conviction or fine (s. 17).

Fertilisers. The Fertilisers Act, No. 747 of 1900, repeals the Acts of 1894 and 1898 and substitutes fresh provisions (s. 2). Every dealer in fertilisers has to notify the Inspector of Fertilisers his place of business and the distinctive names or brands of fertilisers dealt in (s. 4), pay an annual fee in respect of each different fertiliser, with an aggregate maximum of £5 55. per annum, and furnish a certificate of minimum percentages of soluble constituents (s. 5), which may be amended on a week's notice

and payment of a further fee (s. 6). Every person who sells any fertiliser has to give the purchaser an invoice, which is to have the effect of a warranty, showing the origin, description, and soluble constituents of the fertiliser (s. 7). Every package of fertiliser is to be distinctively marked (s. 8). It is made an offence to omit giving such invoice or to give a false invoice or description, or to describe as bone-dust or bone-meal any fertiliser containing less than forty per cent. of tricalcic phosphate derived from bone, or to sell or describe as superphosphate or super any fertiliser containing less than fifteen per cent. of water soluble phosphate and a less total than thirty per cent. of water soluble phosphate and citrate soluble phosphate (s. 9), or to sell a fertiliser which falls short of its certificate of constituents by more than a specified margin (s. 10). Inspectors may be appointed (s. 12), with powers of entering and sampling (s. 13) and analysing (s. 14), and the result may be published in the Journal of Agriculture, with the name of the dealer and a copy of his certificate of constituents (s. 16). A buyer of a fertiliser has the right to procure an analysis by an analyst (s. 17) appointed under the Act (s. 21), who is to give a certificate of result (s. 18) which is to be primâ facie evidence in proceedings in respect to the article analysed (s. 19), and the cost of the analysis is to be borne by the seller or buyer according to the result of the analysis (s. 20). Tampering with samples is punishable by fine or imprisonment (s. 22). A person convicted in respect of a sale under the Act is to have recourse over against the person from whom he bought (s. 24). The Act applies only to sales of parcels of fertilisers exceeding fifty-six pounds in weight (s. 31).

Distillation. The Distillation Amendment Act, No. 742 of 1900, authorises the Treasurer to grant licences to distil eucalyptus oil on payment of an annual fee of ten shillings and the licensee's giving security that eucalyptus oil only will be distilled.

Mining. The Mining Act Amendment Act, No. 751 of 1900, provides for the surrender of salt leases granted under the Crown Lands Act, 1888, in exchange for new leases under the Mining Act, 1893 (ss. 2-6), allows the issue of licences granting a right of search over an area not exceeding five square miles for precious stones, mineral phosphates, oil, and rare metals (s. 6) for twelve months, and to remove not exceeding twenty tons for testing purposes only (s. 10), the licensee keeping employed, for six months at least of the term, one man for each square mile and reporting any payable discoveries (s. 11), and to have a preferential right to a mineral lease, mineral (phosphate) lease, or oil lease of forty acres, one hundred acres, or six hundred acres respectively (s. 12). In future coal, oil, or salt leases, in addition to the annual rent, there is to be reserved a royalty of sixpence in the pound of net profits (s. 14).

Water Conservation. The Water Conservation Amendment Act, No. 736 of 1900, is incorporated with the other Water Conservation Acts, and fixes a maximum rate of interest to be charged upon loans by the State

Government to Local Water Conservation Boards, and also fixes maximum and minimum rates to be levied by such Boards.

Drainage Works.-The South-Eastern Drainage Amendment Act, No. 737 of 1900, provides that a majority of land-holders, representing threefourths in value of the land to be improved, may request the construction of certain drains specified (s. 3 and Sched. I.), which, if approved by the Commissioner of Crown Lands (s. 5), may be constructed out of moneys voted by Parliament (s. 7), the cost being deemed an advance from the Commissioner to the landholders to be benefited (s. 7). A Drainage Assessment Board is constituted (s. 8) to assess, within two years of the completion of the drain, the increase in value of land benefited thereby (s. 9), with an appeal within two months (s. 10) to a local Court (s. 11), and to apportion the cost of construction amongst the landholders (s. 12), and, in cases where the land is leased, between landlord and tenant, unless they have agreed (s. 15), such cost being made a first charge upon the land and repayable with interest by forty-two equal annual instalments of £5 11s. 6d. per cent., commencing three years after the date of the advance, the first three years' interest being capitalised (s. 14 and Sched. VII.).

Bird Protection. The Birds Protection Act, No. 745 of 1900, declares a perpetual close season for certain species, no close season at all for other species, and various close seasons of part of the year in respect of all other species, and empowers the proclamation of portions of Crown lands. and the seashore and public reserves as "bird protection districts” (s. 3). Killing, possessing, selling, or exporting protected birds, and destroying or selling their eggs, or selling articles made from their skin or feathers, are made offences (s. 4) punishable by progressive fines (s. 8), which, when recovered, are payable one-half to the South Australian Zoological and Acclimatisation Society and the other half to the Government (s. 9). Swive and punt guns and the like are declared illegal devices and forfeited (s. 5).

Vermin Destruction.-The Vermin Districts Amendment Act, No. 746 of 1900, alters the definition of a vermin-proof fence (s. 3), regulates the liabilities and obligations of adjoining owners in respect of such fences (ss. 5-12), regulates the constitution, functions and duties of vermin district boards (ss. 14-27), provides for the payment of rewards for the destruction of foxes in fox-infested districts (s. 28), and reduces the number of persons necessary to constitute a "vermin trust" from six to three (s. 29), and allows new members to join in existing "trusts (s. 30) and receive loans from the Government for vermin-proof fencing purposes (s. 31).

Seed Wheat.-The Seed Wheat Amendment Act, No. 743 of 1900, provides that in cases of hardship the time for repayment may be extended over a further term of five years, and that interest may be remitted wholly or in part.

Renmark Irrigation Settlement.-The Renmark Irrigation Trusts Loan Amendment Act, No. 733 of 1900, increases the powers of the Renmark Irrigatian Trust No. 1 in respect of lands on which rates are in arrear, and assimilates the trust in its powers and functions to a "district council," authorises a further loan of £16,000 to the trust for the construction of irrigation works, and reduces the rate of interest and postpones the payment of principal moneys secured by existing mortgages of lands within the trust.

7. TASMANIA.

[Contributed by J. W. FEARNSIDES, ESQ.]

Acts passed-Public, 52; Private, 26.

Imprints.-No. 1 requires that every person possessed of a printing press shall give notice of the fact to the Chief Secretary of the colony. The printer's name must appear upon every published work, and he must keep a record of the names of those who employ him; no person is allowed to distribute unauthenticated printed matter. Newspapers are exempt from the last three provisions, and there are general exemptions in respect of bank notes, bills of exchange, bills of lading, and similar documents.

Demise of the Crown (No. 2).—A Parliament shall not be determined, nor shall any appointment made by the Governor be vacated, nor any civil or criminal proceeding or any contract made with or on behalf of the Crown be in any way affected, by the death of the Sovereign.

Constitution Amendment Act.-No. 5 enacts that no member of either House of the Parliament of the Australian Commonwealth shall be capable of sitting as a member of either House of the Tasmanian Parliament. Appropriation Acts.-Nos. 6 and 74.

Married Women's Property.-No. 7, an amending Act. Every contract entered into by a married woman on her own behalf shall be deemed to bind her separate property, whether she is or is not possessed of any at the time of making the contract, provided that she be not restrained from anticipating. A married woman may be ordered to pay costs out of property which is subject to a restraint upon anticipation, such payment being enforced, if need be, by the appointment of a receiver and (or) sale of the property. A husband shall not be liable for any tort committed by his wife.

Interpretation of Acts of Parliament. No. 8 consists of rules for the construction of Acts of Parliament of the colonial Legislature which will tend to make the language used more concise.

Explosives (No. 15). An amending and consolidating Act, which concerns itself minutely with the importation, carriage, and storage of explosive substances, including those used for blasting purposes.

Crown Lands.-No. 21 facilitates the sale of Crown lands. No