the case of employees in the public service and other occupations in which Sunday is not suitable for the day of rest, a 36-hour rest on a week-day, and also a free Saturday afternoon for women. In the following year a Permanent Committee on Sunday rest was formed, which met in Milan on the invitation of the Labour Council. The Catholic Group also voted in favour of Sunday Rest at a meeting at Milan. As soon as the Chief Labour Council had declared in favour of the question of legal regulation being again raised, the Minister of Agriculture (Rava) instructed the Italian Labour Department to institute inquiries. The results of these inquiries are given in "Materiali per una legge sul riposo festivo. Pubbl. dell'Ufficio del Lavoro, serie B, Roma, 1906. This report deals separately with each branch of industry, and gives the reasons, as stated by witnesses, why work is carried on on Sundays, and particulars of foreign Sunday rest legislation. As a result of this inquiry, Deputy Cabrini and others moved, on 27th March, 1906, a motion relating to the necessity for a Day of Rest law. This demand was supported by the 11th International Conference on the Weekly Rest, held at Milan on 31st October, 1906. On 27th November, the Minister of Commerce (Coccu-Ortu) introduced in the Senate a Bill to establish a day of rest, which was adopted in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies and became law on 7th July, 1907. (E.B. II., p. 288.)

Under this Act all persons, other than members of the employer's family, engaged in industrial or commercial occupations, must be allowed a period of rest of not less than 24 consecutive hours in every week. In order to prevent evasion of this rule, employers are expressly prohibited from extending the hours of work on the day before or the day following the weekly day of rest. The remaining provisions of the Act follow in many respects those of the French and Belgian Weekly Rest Acts. The Act does not apply to (a) shipping, chiefly because the conditions of work of persons employed in this industry were being investigated, at the time when the law was passed, by the Committee on the amendment of the Merchant Shipping Act; (b) (following the French, Belgian, German and Danish example) agriculture, hunting and fishing, because Sunday rest is already observed amongst the agricultural population as an old institution and religious custom, and the diversity existing in conditions of work could not be regulated by a single uniform law; (c) (following the French, German and other examples) railways and tramways, principally in order not to place difficulties in the way of State undertakings in their early days. Certain branches of public service and State undertakings originally added were later deleted; a weekly day of rest has already been introduced in most cases in the royal tobacco factories, arsenals, wharfs, salt works, etc. Exceptions to the rule requiring a weekly rest to be allowed are provided for as follows: in industries which deal with raw materials of a perishable nature, as often as required (in France, 15 times in a year); in industries liable to interruption by wind or water (e.g. saw-mills, cotton-spinning mills, woollen spinning mills, nail factories) during ten weeks in the year (in Belgium, 12 times in a year), in which case the period of rest must be allowed every fortnight; in industries subject to periods of extraordinary pressure, during 6 weeks in the year (in Belgium, 12 times a year; in France, 15 times a year.). The weekly rest must, on principle, be on Sunday. But necessary processes such as cleaning, repairs, stocktaking, watching, etc., may be carried on on Sunday (in Belgium, processes necessary in order to prevent damage to raw material is added). In the following industries the rest may be allowed by rotation on another day, instead of Sunday (exactly as in France and Belgium, where the day of rest may also be divided into two half-days): Industries with continuous fire, electric ovens, continuous processes, cheese-making,

seasonal industries-where Sunday work is necessary for technical reasons; industries which satisfy public needs, where work is necessary in the public interest, such as gas works, water works, bakeries, transport undertakings, except railways, work at docks and repair of ships; where work is necessary for reasons of hygiene-in hospitals, baths, chemists' shops, undertakers' businesses; in trades dealing in necessaries, such as restaurants, milk businesses, places of sale for "monopoly" goods; and various other occupations, such as billiard saloons, chair-hiring and jobmasters' businesses, florists' businesses, photographic establishments, theatres, public pleasure resorts. A day of rest after the English model is not the custom in our country, and could never be introduced; it is therefore expedient to respect the old customary amusements, which are the very things which constitute the charm of Sunday." (Report of the Government to the Senate, §4, paragraph 8.) In spite of keen opposition, newspaper businesses were also exempted from the obligation to observe the weekly rest on Sunday. The rest may be allowed on a day other than Sunday to the whole staff of undertakings carried on in the open-air and subject to interruptions from unfavourable weather (in Belgium Sunday work may, in such cases, be carried on 12 times in a year, and in France the day of rest may be suspended 12 times). A Sunday afternoon holiday is imposed in the case of establishments for the supply of food and fuel, hairdressers' shops, provident institutions, emigration bureaux, pawnbrokers' businesses, advertising agencies, all of which used to remain open the whole day (in France this rule applies in the case of caretakers, engineers and retail establishments for the sale of provisions). Work is also permitted (as in the Belgian and French laws) on Sunday morning in those districts where the inhabitants of country villages are in the habit of making their purchases on Sundays. The Act also sets up a standard as to compensating periods of rest. Hotel-keepers must allow their employees a period of 10 consecutive hours' liberty, and at least 8 hours' rest in the hotel itself (in Belgium, a whole holiday every fortnight or a half-holiday every week; in France, rest in rotation.)

In place of the police regulations of 21st May, 1882, a new Act relating to public holidays, dated 12th-27th May, 1907 (E..B. II., p. 294) has come into force in the Canton of ZURICH, which treats the subject from the point of view of social reform. The Act declares Sundays and seven festivals to be public holidays. Official business may only be carried on such days in urgent cases. The Act prohibits employment on holidays in any industrial or commercial establishment, in any trade or handicraft, or in public and private offices, and also occupations which create noise, and the making up of accounts. Exceptions are allowed in the case of agricultural work, industries with continuous processes, industries which serve daily needs, stock-taking, and emergency work. Sunday work is restricted to certain hours in hairdressing and photographic businesses. The regulation of Sunday work in certain occupations, such as the work of porters, cabdrivers and pleasure-boat owners, and service in bathing establishments, is left to the local authorities. Other provisions regulate the closing of shops on Sundays. Assistants, employees and workmen who may be employed within certain limits on Sundays, must be allowed a holiday at least every third Sunday, and in weeks when they work on Sunday, they must be allowed a free afternoon during the week. In the towns of Zürich and Winterthur a rule is in force which enables them, subject to the sanction of the State Council, to enforce Sunday rest more strictly than is required by the Act.

In the Canton of BERNE an Order relating to Sunday rest, dated 17th April, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 297), and issued in pursuance of the Act of

19th March, 1905 (G.B. III., p. 444), allows exemptions from the prohibition of Sunday work in the case of industries regulated by special State laws; undertakings and industries carried on continuously (such as transport undertakings), cheese-making, horticulture, confectioners' businesses, bakeries, milk trade, household work, tending domestic animals, tending plants, getting in crops where they are in danger of being damaged by bad weather, passenger traffic, doctors, chemists, midwives, operations which are necessary on account of natural occurrences, etc., and the sale of newspapers. Cattle may not be sold in public places on holidays. Shops must be closed from 10 a.m. till 2 p.m.; bakeries, confectionery businesses, florists' businesses, kiosks, photographic studios, and (in places frequented by visitors) carved-wood shops, may remain open the whole day; butchers' and provision merchants' shops and milk businesses, in the morning and from 5 to 8 p.m.; and hairdressers' businesses, in the morning. Goods on order may be delivered during the same hours. Hawking is prohibited, but fruit and other articles of food, flowers, mineral waters, etc., may be on sale at certain places designated by the Parish Council.

The Act, dated 14th May, 1907, which has been introduced in the Canton of VAUD (E.B. II., p. 299) to amend the Acts of 18th May, 1876, and 15th May, 1906, relating to the duties and powers of communal authorities, imposes upon these authorities the duty of issuing, subject to the ratification of the State Council, police regulations relating to rest on Sundays and religious festivals, and empowers them to issue regulations for the protection of employees, workmen, and workwomen not subject to the Factory Act.

4. Homework. §§ 107, 108 and 110 of the BRITISH Factory and Workshop Act of 1901, which relate to lists of outworkers, employment in unwholesome premises, and work in places where there is infectious disease, may be extended by the Secretary of State to other industries. The Home Secretary made use of the powers so given him in an Order, dated 23rd May, 1907, (E.B. II., p. 259) which repeals the old Homework Order, dated 15th August, 1905.

5. Payment of Wages. The provision of §116 of the BRITISH Factory and Workshop Act of 1901, the object of which is to enable piece-workers to calculate the wages due to them by requiring employers to give them particulars of the work given out (Particulars Clause), may be extended by the Secretary of State, with any modifications which may seem good, to any kind of non-textile factory and workshop. The Home Secretary has made use of this power in two Orders, dated 23rd May, 1907. (E.B. II., pp. 262, 263.)

6. Right of Association and Assembly. In France, an Act, dated 28th March, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 237) amends the law relating to the right of assembly in the sense that, in future, public meetings may be held without any previous declaration of purpose, whereas under the Act of 1881 a notice stating the place, hour and purpose of a meeting had to be forwarded to the prefect or mayor, as the case might be, twenty-four hours beforehand.

7. Contracts of Work. Collective Agreements. The AUSTRIAN Act of 5th February, 1907, amending the Industrial Code (extracts given in E.B. II., p. 189) contains in §1146 provisions authorising the compulsory guilds organised for small establishments to enforce collective agreements which may, in certain cases, have the force of law. In such cases agreements relating to the beginning and end of the daily period of employment of workers, the intervals at which wages are to be paid, rates of wages, and terms of notice must be adopted by a two-thirds majority both in the masters' and in the assistants' assembly. The agreement must then be transmitted to the Provincial

Government for ratification after consultation with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Federation of Guilds, if any such exists. Such agreements are legally binding on the parties, unless any particular employer has come to a different agreement with his assistants, either in the form of a collective contract or rules of employment. The official report on the Bill stated in this connection: "The new section 1146 by no means directly solves the problem of collective contracts for small businesses, for this would not be practicable with §72 of the Industrial Code in its present form [independent manufacturers and their workpeople shall be free to determine their mutual relations within the limits set by law]. Notwithstanding, by this means it will be possible, somewhat on the analogy of the rules of employment in factories, to enforce effective contracts touching those aspects of working conditions contemplated in §1146, which do not seem to be regulated by direct contracts between the parties.'

"

8. Public Works and Contracts. The determination of minimum wages for workmen in the public service formed an item on the orders of the day of the sitting of certain sections of the BRUSSELS Council of Industry and Labour, convened by the Royal Decree dated 28th January, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 217).

A SPANISH Order, dated 15th March, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 221), orders a review to be made of partially incapable workmen employed at the arsenals. Those with more than 10 years' service are not to be dismissed, but to be paid a lower wage.

9. Employment Bureaux. §38 of the German Industrial Code empowers the central authorities to issue regulations respecting the extent of the privileges, duties and business of registry-office keepers and employment agents, and, in particular, to restrict and prohibit the business of travelling agents and agencies carried on conjointly with the business of an inn or publichouse. In pursuance of this power, the PRUSSIAN Minister of Commerce and Industry issued regulations, dated 10th August, 1901 (Ministerialbl. der Handels- u. Gewerbeverwaltung, p. 184) which were replaced by stricter regulations on the 5th March, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 170). The new regulations provide for the careful supervision of the businesses in question by the local police and require them to be visited by surprise visit at least twice a year in towns with a population exceeding 10,000. Registers have to be handed in for examination not later than 14 days after the conclusion of each calendar year. On examining the registers the authorities have to consider whether any ground exists for withdrawing the licence. The regulations impose both the prohibitions contemplated in §38 of the Industrial Code.

In AUSTRIA the Act of 5th February, 1907, amending the Industrial Code, regulates afresh the business of private employment agencies and employment agencies attached to Guilds (E.B. II., p. 189). Formerly, private employment agencies came under §5 (f) of the notification of 20th December, 1859, which exempted private employment agencies, other than those in connection with commercial occupations, from the provisions of the Industrial Code. About the same time a Decree of the Minister of State, dated 28th February, 1863 (Z. 2306) provided that permission to carry on private employment agencies should be granted by the Provincial Governments or Administrations only in cases especially worthy of consideration. Licences might not be issued applying broadly to the work of private employment agencies in general, and any unauthorised extension of business beyond the limits set was punish able by withdrawal of the licence. On the other hand, the Amending Act of 8th March, 1885, made it obligatory on compulsory guilds organised for small establishments to institute and maintain guild labour shelters and to introduce

rules for workmen travelling in search of work (§114 of the Industrial Code), and required guilds to register applications for work and to keep the registers in the journeymen's homes open to public inspection (§116 of the Industrial Code). Since then, provincial, parish and institutional employment bureaux have developed. The keen desire expressed in labour circles for the complete suppression of private employment agencies in view of the serious abuses frequently brought to light, and the creation of public employment bureaux organised on the system of equal representation of employers and employed, could not be complied with (as is pointed out in the explanatory appendices to 2141, App. of the Shorthand Report of the Chamber of Representatives, XVII.,Session, 1905), in view of the backward state of development of the system of public employment bureaux. Consequently, the new legislation on the subject merely makes the granting of licences for employment agencies carried on by way of trade depend upon the fulfilment of further and stricter conditions. A licence cannot now be granted to any person unless he possesses sufficient general education and is sufficiently reliable to carry on the business, unless he occupies suitable business premises, unless the authorities in charge of sanitary affairs and morals have no objections to raise, and unless State and local authorities and societies having instituted employment bureaux have been consulted as to the desirability of granting the licence. If the licence is granted in spite of objections raised by such bodies, appeal may be made within 14 days, and such appeals have suspensory effect. Particular branches of business (notably theatrical agencies and agencies for midwives) may be specially regulated by Order. The combination of an employment agency with any other business, particularly inn-keeping, is specially restricted. An agency may not be sub-let, and advances and guarantees in respect of situations are prohibited. The fees chargeable must be determined in rules of business submitted with the application for a licence, and any alteration of the rules requires the sanction of the Provincial Government. Licencees are also required to supply statistical data relating to their business. The new regulations apply to persons already carrying on such businesses. As regards employment bureaux attached to guilds it was felt that the law needed amendment in view of the inadequate development of these bureaux.-in 1898 only 393 out of 5,317 guilds had organised bureaux. §116 of the new part of the Industrial Code makes it obligatory upon guilds to organise free employment bureaux, the business of which has to be regulated by a set of rules requiring the special sanction of the Provincial Government. Guilds with at least 200 workpeople attached to them as associates (i.e. about 398 guilds altogether) are required to place the management of their employment bureaux in the charge of a committee consisting of an equal number of employers and employed elected by the guild assembly and the assistants' assembly respectively. Guilds are exempt from the requirement to organise employment bureaux in this manner if they transfer their duties in this respect to a federation or to any existing public bureau. The latter procedure is specially recommended in the case of small and joint guilds" (Erl. Bem., p. 323). As a matter of fact, more than half the guilds (3,504) possess less than 50 associates (assistants).

10. Housing. An Act, dated 3rd April, 1907 (E.B. II., p. 188) regulates the inspection of dwelling places in the Grand-duchy of GOTHA. The Act institutes a Housing Committee with the duty of inspecting dwellings, of preventing and removing nuisances and of generally improving housing conditions, especially amongst the poorer classes.