(a.) in England and Ireland, such members of the workman's family specified in the Fatal Accidents Act, 1816, as were wholly or in part dependant upon the earnings of the workman at the time of his death and

(b.) in Scotland, such of the persons entitled according to the law of Scotland to sue the employer for damages or solatium in respect of the death of the workman, as were wholly or in part dependant upon the earnings of the workman at the time of his death.

(3.) A workman employed in a factory which is a shipbuilding yard shall not be excluded from this Act by reason only that the accident arose outside the yard in the course of his work upon a vessel in any dock, river, or tidal water near the yard.

8.-(1.) This Act shall not apply to persons in the naval or military service of the Crown, but otherwise shall apply to any employment by or under the Crown to which this Act would apply if the employer were a private person.

(2.) The Treasury may, by warrant laid before Parliament, modify for the purposes of this Act their warrant made under section one of the Superannuation Act, 1887, and notwithstanding anything in that Act, or any such warrant, may frame a scheme with a view to its being certified by the Registrar of Friendly Societies under this Act.

9. Any contract existing at the commencement of this Act, whereby a workman relinquishes any right to compensation from the employer for personal injury arising out of and in the course of his employment, shall not, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to continue after the time at which the workman's contract of service would determine if notice of the determination thereof were given at the commencement of this Act.

10. (1.) This Act shall come into operation on the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight.

(2.) This Act may be cited as the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1897.

SCHEDULES.

FIRST SCHEDULE.

SCALE AND CONDITIONS OF COMPENSATION.

Scale

(1.) The amount of compensation under this Act shall be

(a) where death results from the injury

(i.) if the workman leaves any dependants wholly dependant upon his earnings at the time of his death, a sum equal to his earnings in the employment of the same employer during the three years next preceding the injury, or the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds, whichever of those sums is the larger, but not exceed ing in any case three hundred pounds, provided that the amount of any weekly payments made under this Act shall be deducted from such sum, and if the period of the workman's employment by the said employer has been less than the said three years then the amount of his earnings during the said three years shall be deemed to be 156 times his average weekly earnings during the period of his actual employment under the said employer;

(ii.) if the workman does not leave any such dependants, but leaves any dependants in part dependant upon his earnings at the time of his death, such sum, not exceeding in any case the amount payable under the foregoing provisions, as may be agreed upon, or, in default of agreement, my be determined, on arbitration under this Act, to be reasonable and proportionate to the injury to the said dependants;

and

(iii.) if he leaves no dependants, the reasonable ex

penses of his medical attendance and burial, not exceeding ten pounds.

(b.) where total or partial incapacity for work results from the injury, a weekly payment during the incapacity after the second week not exceeding fifty per cent, of his average weekly earnings during the previous twelve months, if he has been so long employed, but if not, then for any less period during which he has been in the employment of the same employers, such weekly payment not to exceed one pound.

(2.) In fixing the amount of the weekly payment regard shall be had to the difference between the amount of the average weekly earnings of the workman before the accident, and the average amount which he is able to earn after the accident, and to any payment not being wages he may receive from the employer in respect of his injury during the period of his incapacity.

(3.) Where a workman has given notice of an accident, he shall, if so required by the employer, submit himself for examination by a duly qualified medical practitioner provided and paid by the employer, and if he refuses to submit himself to such examination, or in any way obstructs the same, his right to compensation, and any proceeding under this Act in relation to compensation, shall be suspended until such examination takes place.

(4.) The payment shall, in case of death, be made to the legal personal representative of the workman, or, if he has no legal personal representative, to or for the benefit of his dependants, or, if he leaves no dependants, to the person to whom the expenses are due; and if made to the legal personal representative shall be paid by him to or for the benefit of the dependants or other person entitled thereto under this Act.

(5.) Any question as to who is a dependant, or as to the amount payable to each dependant, shall, in default of agreement, be settled by arbitration under this Act.

(6.) The sum allotted as compensation to a dependant may be invested or otherwise applied for the benefit of the person entitled thereto, as agreed, or as ordered by the committee or other arbitrator.

(7.) Any sum which is agreed or is ordered by the committee or arbitrator to be invested may be invested in whole or in part in the Post Office Savings Bank by the registrar of the county court in his name as registrar.

(8.) Any sum to be so invested may be invested in the purchase of an annuity from the National Debt Commissioners through the Post Office Savings Bank, or be accepted by the Postmaster-General as a deposit in the name of the Registrar as such, and the provisions of any statute or regulations respecting the limits of deposits in savings bank and the declaration to be made by a depositor, shall not apply to such sums.

(9.) No part of any money invested in the name of the registrar of any county court in the Post Office Savings Bank under this Act shall be paid out, except upon authority addressed to the Postmaster-General by the Treasury or by the judge of the county court.

(10.) Any person deriving any benefit from any moneys invested in a post office savings bank under the provisions of this Act may, nevertheless, open an account in a post office savings bank or in any other savings bank in his own name without being liable to any penalties imposed by any statute or regulations in respect of the opening of accounts in two savings banks, or of two accounts in the same savings bank.

(11.) Any workman receiving weekly payments under this Act shall, if so required by the employer, or by any person by whom the employer is entitled under this Act to be indemnified, from time to time submit himself for examination by a duly qualified medical practioner provided and paid by the employer, or such other person; but if the workman objects to an examination by that medical practioner, or is dissatisfied by the certificate of such practioner upon his condition when communicated to him, he may submit himself for examination to one of the medical prac

tioners appointed for the purposes of this Act, as mentioned in the Second Schedule to this Act, and the certificate of that medical practitioner as to the condition of the workman at the time of the examination shall be given to the employer and workman, and shall be conclusive evidence of that condition. If the workman refuses to submit himself to such examination, or in any way obstructs the same, his right to such weekly payments shall be suspended until such examination has taken place.

(12.) Any weekly payment may be reviewed at the request either of the employer or of the workman, and on such review may be ended, diminished or increa sed, subject to the maximum above provided, and the amount of payment shall, in default of agreement, be settled by arbitration under this Act.

(13.) Where any weekly payment has been continued for not less than six months, the liability there for may, on the application by or on behalf of the employer, be redeemed by the payment of a lump sum, to be settled, in default of agreement, by arbitration under this Act, and such lump sum may be ordered by the committee or arbitrator to be invested or otherwise applied as above mentioned.

(14.) A weekly payment, a sum paid by way of redemption thereof, shall not be capable of being assigned, charged, or attached, and shall not pass to any other person by operation of law, nor shall any claim be set off against the same.

(15.) Where a scheme certified under this Act provides for payment of compensation by a friendly society, the provisions of the proviso to the first subsection of section eight, section sixteen, and section forty-one of the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, shall not apply to such society in respect of such scheme.

(16.) In the application of this schedule to Scotland the expression "registrar of the county court" means 'sheriff clerk of the county," and "judge of the county court" means sheriff."

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(17.) In the application of this Act to Ireland the