The National Provident, Invalidity, and Old-Age Fund for Workmen shall advance the requisite funds for the establishment of the Maternity Fund and for the management and working thereof during the first financial year. Amounts so advanced shall be refunded, plus interest at the rate of 4 per cent. in five yearly instalments out of the receipts during the first five working years of the Maternity Fund.

13. The present Act shall come into force three months after the publication of the Regulations referred to in §II.

4. Legge 17 luglio 1910, n. 487, che modifica gli articoli 98, 99, e 108 del testo unico della legge sanitaria 1o agosto, 1907, n. 636 (articoli 27, 28, e 29 della legge 16 giugno, 1907, n. 337, sulla risicoltura). (Bollettino dell' Ufficio del lavoro XV., 398.)

Act No. 487, of 17th July, 1910, amending §§98, 99 and 108 of the Codified Text of the Health Act of 1st August, 1907 (No. 636) (§§27, 28 and 29 of the Act of 16th June, 1907,* No. 337, relating to the cultivation of rice).

1. §§27 and 28 of the Act of 16th June, 1907, Nc. 337 (§§98 and 99 of the Codified Text of the Health Acts No. 636 of 1st August, 1907, are hereby repealed, and the following substituted in their stead:

"§27. In every commune of lands on which rice is cultivated, every year and until the appointment of agricultural communal arbitrators (probiviri), a Board of Conciliation shall be appointed on the dates, terms, and in the manner indicated by the Order in pursuance of the present Act.

"Should it be shown to be advisable, the sphere of action of the Board may be extended to all communes comprised in a circuit, in the manner and on the terms indicated in the Order, by a Decree issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, when petitioned for by interested communes.

"The Board of Conciliation shall be entrusted with the investigation of all disputes of an individual or general character between workmen and employers on territory coming within their sphere, even when relating to the interpretation, application, and execution of contractual conditions or customs ruling.

The said Board shall, moreover, be entrusted with the investigation cf all disputes of an individual or general characters between local labour contractors and immigrant labour contractors, pertaining to the execution of the respective labour contracts.

"§28. The Board of Conciliation shall be composed of nine members, whereof four (two officiating and two deputies) shall be appointed by the labour contractors of the commune, or of the communes comprised within their district, and another four (two officiating and two deputies) shall be appointed by the workpeople on local rice-fields, whilst the ninth, whose duty it shall be to call meetings of the Board and preside thereat, shall be elected by arrangement between the delegates of the interested parties, and, should they fail to agree, by the Judge of the circuit, whose duty it shall also be to appoint members of the Board in the event of an election falling through owing to non-attendance of electors at two duly convoked consecutive meetings

64

'In those communes wherein, for the operation of weeding and of gathering and threshing rice, an immigration of workmen takes place, the latter, on commencing any of these operations, shall elect four delegates (two officiating and two deputies) belonging to their own class, who shall form part of the Board throughout the working period in which they were elected.

* Text E.B. II., p. 578, No, I.

"In the event of an election falling through owing to non-attendance of electors at two duly convoked consecutive meetings, the appointment of delegates shall be entrusted to the Judge of the circuit.

"The appointment of members to the Board to replace those elected by the interested parties who decline to accept or who resign office, or who are not promptly replaced by the party which elected them, shall devolve upon the Judge of the circuit.

"The Board shall officiate with five members-i.e., by the attendance of the Chairman, two delegates of the labour contractors, and two delegates of the local workpeople or of the immigrant workpeople, according to whether the controversy (in the judgment of the Chairman) affects those belonging to the one or other class of workpeople. When the dispute (in the judgment of the Chairman) affects both classes of workpeople, a delegate of the local workpeople and a delegate of the immigrant workpeople shall take part in the meeting of the Board.

When the controversy does not relate to the employers, but is only between the local and the immigrant labourers, two delegates of the local labourers and two delegates of the immigrant labourers shall take part in the meeting of the Board.

"The deputy-delegates shall take the place of the official delegates when the latter are absent for any reason."

For the first paragraph of §108 of the Codified Text of the Health Acts of 1st August, 1907, No. 636, the following shall be substituted:

"Breaches of §§77, 78, 80, and 81, and breaches of the Orders laid down in $72, shall be punishable by a fine ranging from 50 to 1,500 Lire."

5. Regolamento speciale per l'elezione, la nomina e la funzione delle Commissioni di conciliazione per le controversie relative al contratto di lavoro nelle risaie, approvato con R. decreto 5 gennaio, 1911, n. 41. (Bollettino dell'Ufficio del lavoro, XV., 399.)

Special Order, sanctioned by Royal Decree No. 41*, dated 5th January, 1911, relating to the election, nomination, and sphere of action of the Boards of Conciliation in cases of disputes respecting contracts of work in rice fields.

[EXTRACT.]

PART I.-Concerning the Drawing-up of Electoral Lists and the Qualifications for Election.

1. In every commune where the cultivation of rice is carried on, two lists shall be drawn up for the purpose of electing representatives to the Conciliation Board specified in §98 of the Codified Text of the Health Act of Ist August, 1907 sanctioned by Royal Decree No. 636 and amended by Act No. 487 dated 17th July 1910†; on the one list shall be set down the names of all employers who cultivate rice-fields situated within the territory of the commune, and on the other shall be set down the names of all workmen residing in the commune or outside it, who are employed in the cultivation of rice within the territory of the commune.

* In accordance with §2 of the above-mentioned Royal Decree, the provisions of 9, 10, 11 and 13 et seq., with regard to the drawing up of the lists and to employers and workmen's elections, came into force for the year 1911 on 1st February.

† Text E.B. VII., p. 32.

2. The following persons shall be included in the list of employersnamely:

(1) Persons being freeholders, tenants, usufructuries, or otherwise owners of land lying within the territory of the commune on which rice is cultivated, who themselves directly cultivate the same.

(2) Persons who, as tenants or as cultivators, have for the purpose of cultivating rice rented land within the territory of the commune, by means of contracts which are already in process of execution on 1st January of the year on which the lists are to be drawn up.

If the owner does not ordinarily reside in the commune he may transfer his electoral rights to the agent or manager appointed by him to carry on his agricultural business.

The inclusion of any person in the list of owners, usufructuries, tenants, or cultivators shall depend on his employing agricultural labourers and workmen paid in currency or in kind by the year, month, or day for the purpose of cultivating the land in any manner or in any form whatsoever.

Freeholders, usufructuries, tenants, cultivators, or any other occupiers of land on which rice is cultivated who, for the purpose of cultivating rice, only employ their own labour, or that of members of their family, shall not be included in the list.

Similarly, middlemen who undertake to find and engage workmen for weeding, gathering, and other agricultural occupations in the cultivation of rice shall not be included in the list.

3. Minors, persons not in enjoyment of their civil rights, and persons placed under control, who are freeholders, tenants, usufructuries, or, by any other title, owners of land within the meaning of §2, Sub-section (1), shall be represented on the list by their guardians or trustees; limited liability companies by a manager or representative; joint stock companies by a partner of the firm appointed by i; and unlimited liability companies by a member having unlimited liability; in addition, all companies shall be represented by the managers; public benevolent institutions, which may be in the conditions provided for in the aforesaid Sub-section (1) of §2, by one of the administrators or the manager of the agricultural business.

4. In the list of workmen shall be entered, in two distinct classes

(1) Workmen resident in the commune at least three months prior to the 31st December of the preceding year;

(2) Workmen residing in other communes or even in other provinces who, by individual or collective written contracts drawn up in conformity with the terms of §§88 and 89 of the Codified Text of the Health Acts, have agreed to do work for one entire rice season (weeding, gathering, and threshing), to be completed within the commune during the year, and during which they reside continuously in the said commune.

5. No person shall, at the same time, be included in the list of workmen and in the list of employers.

6. In order to be registered in the lists referred to in the preceding Sections, the persons specified therein must

(1) Have completed the twenty-first year of their age or must complete the same not later than the 15th February of the current year, if they are employers, and must have completed the fourteenth year of their age on 31st December preceding, if they are workmen ;

(2) Be citizens of the State or have been placed on an equal footing with these in accordance with §12, last paragraph, of the Commune and Province Act, Codified Text, approved by Royal Decree of 21st May, 1908, No. 269;

(3) Not be included in any of the classes specified under Sub-sections (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i) of §22 of the Commune and Province Act mentioned above. An exception shall be made with respect to persons who are in receipt of temporary relief from public benevolent institutions and from the charity boards (Congregazioni di Caritá); such persons shall retain the right to be registered in the list.

Women may also be included, both in the lists of employers and of workers. Foremen of gangs may not be registered in the lists of workers.

7. All persons registered in the two lists of the commune shall be eligible for the office of delegate, provided they can read and write, and have completed their twenty-fifth year.

The President of the Board of Conciliation may be elected even from among persons who are not registered in either of the two lists, provided the other conditions laid down above, as well as those specified under Sub-sections (1), (2), and (3) of the preceding Section are complied with.

8. On the 1st January of every year the Municipal Council, by a notification published at the notice board of the Court of the commune, shall invite the employers and workmen of local rice plantations to register their names in the respective lists within a period of fifteen days.

9. Within the month of January, the Municipal Council shall provide for the drawing-up of the lists of local employers and labourers, entering those who, having presented an application, are found to possess the necessary qualifications. It shall, in addition, inscribe officially the local employers and workmen who have not presented an application and who are found to possess the necessary qualifications.

It shall then provide for the cancellation of the registered persons who are deceased or who have lost the necessary qualifications for election.

Whenever the Council shall not have provided, within the prescribed period, for the drawing-up of the electoral lists, the Prefect shall order the execution thereof officially by means of a special commissioner delegated for the purpose, and at the expense of the commune.

10. The lists of local employers and of workmen, drawn up by the Municipal Council, shall be published on the 1st February at the notice board of the commune for seven days. Claims with respect to omissions or improper registration or cancellation in the said lists must be presented within the same period, such claims being deposited at the secretary's office of the commune, which must, on request, give a receipt for same.

Claims, by which an inscription or a cancellation are impugned, must be notified by the Municipal Council within two days next following the deposit, to the interested party, who shall have three days wherein to give his reply.

By the 15th February the Municipal Council must decide upon the claims which have been presented, and definitely settle the lists. An appeal to the Civil Court within a period of five days shall be permissible against the decisions of the Council with respect to claims presented, and in general with regard to electoral capacity; but the appeal shall not suspend the validity of the electoral lists decided upon.

The lists of local employers and labourers, with such alterations as may be introduced in consequence of claims presented, shall be once more published between the 17th and 22nd February at the notice board of the

BULLETIN

3

commune, and they may no longer be modified until the revision of the following year, unless by decision of the Tribunal, but the appeal shall not have a suspensive effect.

12. In every commune in which, for the periods of weeding and harvesting of the rice, there is an immigration from other communes of labourers, who remain there for the whole period of labour, the Municipal Council, at the beginning of the weeding and at the beginning of the harvesting in the territory of the commune, shall attend to the drawing-up of the register of immigrant labourers.

For this purpose, by a notice to be published at the notice board of the commune between the 1st and 31st May, and between the 1st August and 15th September, the Municipal Council shall invite the employers of the commune to deposit in the office of the secretary of the commune, within twenty-four hours after the arrival of the respective gangs of labourers for the weeding or for the harvesting and threshing of the rice, the lists giving the names of the labourers composing the gangs, countersigned by their gangers.

The lists shall be immediately published at the notice board of the Communal Court for twenty-four hours; and within such a period any claims which may be made with respect thereto must be deposited in the municipal secretariat.

With such lists, bearing in mind the claims presented, the Municipal Council shall immediately proceed to draw up the register of the labourers who have immigrated for the weeding and the register of the labourers who have immigrated for the harvesting and threshing of the rice. These registers shall be published at the notice board of the Communal Court within five days after the commencement of weeding and the commencement of the harvesting of rice in the territory of the commune.

An appeal may be lodged with the Civil Tribunal, within three days, against the decisions of the Municipal Council, but the appeal shall not have a suspensory effect.

Whenever the Municipal Council does not see to the compilation of the lists within the prescribed period, the Prefect shall order its execution officially by means of a Commissioner delegated for the purpose, at the expense of the

commune.

PART II.-Concerning the Election of Members and of the President of the

Board.

PART III. Concerning Electoral Recourse.

PART IV.-Concerning the Renewal of the Board.

PART V.--Concerning the Working of the Board.

The

21. The Board shall act when five members are present. President of the Board shall call upon the delegates of the local labourers or else the delegates of the immigrant labourers to form part of the Board which is to act, according to whether the controversy relates to persons belonging to the one or to the other class of labourers. If it refers to persons belonging to both classes, then he shall call upon one delegate of the local labourers and one delegate of the immigrant labourers to form part of the said Board.