(H. B. 159.) AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS ONE (1) AND EIGHT (8) OF AN ACT ENTITLED Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of SECTION I. Section one of an act entitled "An act to amend chapter seven of the General Laws, entitled 'An act to establish a state board of agriculture and define its duties,"" approved February 9th, 1881, is hereby repealed, and the following adopted in place thereof: SEC. I. They Shall meet at shall meet at the state agricultural college on the Wednes- state agricultural day preceding commencement day of said college, in June, and annually on the second Wednesday of December, and may meet at other times and places at the call of the president, who shall have the power, in case of an emergency, to call special meetings of the board. college. December, what SEC. 2. Section eight of said act is hereby repealed, and the following adopted in place thereof: SEC. 8. The head of each department in the college, through the president of the faculty, shall make a report to the board at the regular meetings held in June and December of each year. The report in December shall be an annual report, and shall The report in comprise a thorough and comprehensive history and state- it shall contain. ment of the work of the department for the year closing at that time. The report of the president of the college at each meeting of the board shall embrace matters relating to the college not otherwise reported, and may contain a summary of the whole. The president shall cause an inventory to be taken annually in December, and shall embody a summary of the same in his annual report to the board of agriculture at their annual meeting, such inventory to embrace all property belonging to the state agricultural college at that time. Approved April 2, 1885. (S. B. 113.) AN ACT CONCERNING APPRENTICES. Males to the age of 21 years, females to the age of 18 years. Who minors may be bound by. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of SECTION I. All minors may be bound to some appropriate industry, art, calling or trade, males to the age of twenty-one years, and females to the age of eighteen [years] or to the time of their marriage within that age, in the manner prescribed in this act, and not otherwise. SEC. 2. Minors under the age of fourteen years may be bound by their father, or in case of his death or incompetency, or when he shall have wilfully abandoned his family for six months without making suitable provisions for their support, or has become an habitual drunkard; by their mother, or legal guardians; and if illegitimate, they may be bound by their mother, and if they have no parent competent to act and no guardian, they may bind themselves, with the approbation of the county court of the county wherein they reside; but the power of a mother to bind her children, whether legitimate or illegitimate, shall cease upon her subsequent marriage, and shall not be exercised by herself or her husband at any time during such marriage. SEC. 3. Minors above the age of fourteen may be bound in the same manner; Provided, That when they are bound by their parent or guardian, the consent of the minor shall be expressed in the indenture and testified by his signing the same. SEC. 4. The executive or testamentary guardian who by the will of the parent is directed to bring up such parent's child to some trade or calling, shall have power to bind such child by indenture, in like manner as the parent, if living, might have done, or shall raise such child according to such direction. who have not SEC. 5. Every orphan minor who has not estate sufficient Orphan minors for his maintenance may be bound by his guardian, under estate sufficent, the order and direction of the county court; and the coun- etc. terpart of the indenture binding such minor shall, for the benefit of the minor so bound, be deposited with the clerk, or if there be no clerk, with the judge of the county court in which such binding shall take place, for safe keeping. When any poor child is charge SEC. 6. When any poor child is, or may be, chargeable to the county, or shall beg for alms, or whose parents are able to county. or may be chargeable to the county, or shall beg for alms, or when the parents of such children [child] are poor and the father an habitual drunkard, or if there be no father, when the mother is of bad character, or suffer her children to grow up in habits of idleness, without any visible means of obtaining an honest livelihood, it shall be lawful for the superintendent of the poor of the county wherein such child resides, who for this purpose shall be considered ex officio guardian of such child, to bind such child under the order and direction of the county court of such county in like manner, and with like effect, as is provided in section five of of this act for the binding of orphan minors by their guardians. decide facts of in SEC. 7. Facts of incapacity, desertion or drunkenness shall be decided in the county court by the judge thereof, County court to or by a jury, if one be demanded, before the indenture shall capacity, etc. take effect, and an indorsement on the indenture, under the seal of the court that the same are proved, shall be sufficient evidence of the mother's or guardian's power to bind or to consent to the binding of such minor; but, if the judge or jury do not find the charge of incapacity, drunkenness or desertion to be true, the person at whose instance such proceedings may have been had, shall pay all costs attending Costs. the same, except in the cases where the superintendent of the poor officially institutes or causes to be instituted such proceedings, in which cases the costs shall be paid by the county. bound unless by SEC. 8. No minor shall be bound as aforesaid unless by No minor to be an indenture of two parts, sealed and delivered by both an indenture. parties, and when made with the approbation or under the order and direction of the county court or the judge thereof, its approval shall be certified in writing, under the seal of the court, indorsed upon each part of the indenture. Indenture, where kept. denture. SEC. 9. One part of the indenture shall be kept for the use of the minor by his parent or guardian, when executed by them respectively, and when made with the approbation or under the order or direction of the county court, shall be deposited with the clerk, or if there be no clerk, with the judge, and be safely kept in his office for the use of the minor. SEC. IO. The age of every apprentice shall be inserted in the indentures, and all indentures entered into otherwise than as is in this act provided, shall be as to all apprentices under age, utterly void. SEC. 11. In all indentures for binding out any minor as Covenants of in- an apprentice, there shall be inserted among other covenants clauses to the following effect: That the master shall furnish to such minor at all times and seasons suitable clothing, food, and attention in sickness and in health, and shall teach him the industry, art, calling or trade, to learn which such minor shall be bound, as fully and completely as the same may be in the power of the respective parties, to teach and receive; and shall cause such minor to be instructed in the common English branches of education, in some public or other school, at which such branches are taught, at least three months in every year until such minor shall arrive at the age of fourteen years, and until such minor shall have received a common school education, and shall, at the expiration of such apprenticeship, give to such apprentice at least a new Bible, and two new suits of clothes to be worth each fifteen dollars, and twenty-five dollars in current money of the United States; Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to limit or restrict the parent, guardian, court or minor executing such indenture, from requiring other or further covenants to be incorporated in such indentures. SEC. 12. No indenture of apprenticeship or service, Indenture shall made in pursuance of this act, shall bind the minor after the death of his master; but the apprenticeship or service shall be thenceforth discharged, and the minor may be bound not bind after death of. Parents, etc., shall inquire into treatment. out anew. SEC. 13. Parents, guardians, the superintendents of the poor, and the judges of the county courts, shall inquire into the treatment of the minors bound by them, respectively, or with their approbation, or by their order or direction, and of all who shall have been bound by or with the approbation of, or by the order or direction of their predecessors in office, and defend them from all cruelty, neglect and breach of contract on the part of their masters. shall hear com tices. SEC. 14. The county courts shall hear the complaints County court of apprentices who reside within the county, against their plaints of apprenmasters, alleging undeserved or immoderate correction, insufficient allowances of food, raiment or lodging, failure to provide proper attention in case of sickness, want of instruction in their industry, art, calling, or trade, or in the common English branches of education, or that they are in danger of being removed out of the state, or any violation of the indenture of apprenticeship, and may hear and determine such cases, by a jury or otherwise, and make such order therein as will relieve the injured party in the future. shall, upon com filed by master. SEC. 15. The county court shall also be empowered, County courts upon complaint being filed by the master that an appren- plaint being tice has, without cause, left his service, to cause the same to be inquired into by a jury or otherwise, and make such order or orders in the premises as may be just and proper; and for the proper execution of such order or orders such court may, upon due notice, as justice shall require, compel any person or persons employing such apprentice, or using the labor or services of such apprentice, to pay to such master the reasonable value of the services and labor of such apprentice during the time of such employment or use, and within the term of such apprenticeship. shall have power SEC. 16. The county court shall have power, when County court circumstances require it, to discharge an apprentice from to discharge. his apprenticeship, and in case any money or anything has been contracted to be paid by either party in relation to such apprenticeship, the court shall make such order concerning the same as shall seem just and reasonable. If the apprentice so discharged shall have been originally bound by or under the order and direction of the county court, it shall be the duty of the court, if it shall judge necessary, to again bind, or order to be bound, such apprentice if under age. liable to an action on indenture. SEC. 17. Every master shall be liable to an action on Masters shall be the indenture for the breach of covenants on his part therein contained, to be brought and prosecuted by a guardian ad litem to be appointed by the county court for that |