'shop' includes any premises where any retail trade or business is carried on.

The expression retail trade or business' includes the business of a barber or hairdresser, the sale of refreshments or intoxicating liquors, and retail sales by auction, but does not include the sale of programmes and catalogues and other similar sales at theatres and places of amusement.

The expression shop-assistant' means any person wholly or mainly employed in a shop in connexion with the serving of customers or the receipt of orders or the despatch of goods.

CHAPTER X

THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN

No general statement can be made as to the age below which a person is, for the purpose of employment, regarded by the law as a child. But just as the age of 14 is, subject to various exceptions, the age for leaving school, so that age tends to become the accepted age after which a person is no longer to be regarded as a child for the purpose of employment. Historically, there is a close connexion between the educational needs of children and the hours of their labour.

The general employment of children is regulated by the Employment of Children Act, 1903. There are special enactments for Factories and Workshops, and incidentally for certain dangerous industries within the meaning of the Factory and Workshop Act, for coal mines, and for metalliferous mines.

THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN ACT, 1903

This Act applies to both boys and girls under the age of 14 years, and its third section contains the following general restrictions on their employment, viz. :

(a) A child is not to be employed between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M. except where a local authority has passed a Bye-law in variation of those hours;

(b) Half-timers under the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, are not to be employed in any other occupation;

(c) A child is not to be employed to lift, carry, or move anything so heavy as to be likely to cause injury to the child; (d) A child is not to be employed in any occupation likely

to be injurious to his life, limbs, health, or education, regard being had to his physical condition.

(e) A child under eleven years of age is not to be employed in street trading.

Under the same Act local authorities have power to make Bye-laws (A) prescribing for all children, or for boys and girls separately, and with respect to all occupations or to any specified occupation, (1) the age below which employment is illegal, (2) the hours between which employment is illegal, and (3) the number of daily or weekly hours beyond which employment is illegal; and (B) prohibiting absolutely or permitting, subject to conditions, the employment of children in any specified occupations.

In Appendix V. some particulars are given as to the exercise of these powers by the 127 local authorities which have exercised them.

It should also be noted that certain sections of the Cruelty to Children Act, 1904, restrict and regulate singing, playing, and performing by children, and that under the Children (Employment Abroad) Act, 1913, a license must be obtained before a young person can be allowed to go out of the United Kingdom for the purpose of singing, playing, performing, or being exhibited for profit. The form of license and regulation is fixed by S.R. and O., 1913, No. 885.

FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACT, 1901

Meaning of 'Child.'-Under Section 156 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, a 'child' means a person who is under the age of 14 years, and who has not, being of the age of 13 years, obtained a certificate of proficiency or attendance at school, which is commonly called an educational certificate.

Educational Certificate.-The Home Secretary has power to fix the requisite standards of proficiency and attendance for the granting of these certificates. By an Order taking effect from July 1, 1901, the required standard of proficiency is the 5th standard of reading, writing, and arithmetic as fixed by the Code in force for the time being, or any higher standard which may be attained by the child, and the

standard of previous due attendance at a certified efficient school is 350 attendances after such child has attained 5 years of age in not more than two schools during each year for five years, whether consecutive or not.

It should be noted that in districts where the school authority under the Elementary Education Acts have power to make Bye-laws for children between 13 and 14 years of age, a child must also satisfy the conditions of total exemption prescribed by the Bye-laws before he can be legally employed full-time in a factory or workshop. Thus in Birmingham total exemption from school attendance is dependent on passing a written examination held at stated times.

Age and Fitness.-Under Section 62 a child under the age of 12 years must not be employed in a factory or workshop.

Under Section 63 a child over the age of 12 years must not be employed for more than 7 work-days (in certain districts for more than 13 work-days) unless the occupier of the factory has obtained a certificate in the prescribed form of the fitness of the child for employment in that factory. The occupier must, when required, produce to an inspector at the factory the child's certificate of fitness.

Under Section 64 the main provisions as to certificates of fitness are as follows:

(a) They are granted by the certifying surgeon for the district after a personal examination of the child.

(b) The certificate must be to the effect that the certifying surgeon is satisfied, by the production of a certificate of birth or other sufficient evidence, that the child is of the age therein specified, and has been personally examined by him, and is not incapacitated by disease or bodily infirmity for working daily for the time allowed by law in the factory named in the certificate.

(c) The certificate may be qualified by conditions as to the work on which a child is fit to be employed, and if it is so qualified the occupier shall not employ the child otherwise than in accordance with the conditions.

(d) A certifying surgeon shall have the same powers as an

inspector for the purpose of examining any process in which a child presented to him for the grant of a certificate is proposed to be employed.

The regulations as to the grant of certificates of fitness are given in full in Appendix V.

Certificates of fitness are not required for children employed in workshops, but to better secure the observance of the Act and prevent the employment in their workshops of children who are unfitted for the employment, an occupier of a workshop may, under Section 65, obtain, if he thinks fit, certificates of fitness in like manner as if that workshop were a factory.

The Home Secretary has power, under Section 66, to put any class of workshops, by reason of special circumstances affecting them, on the same footing as factories in respect of certificates of fitness, and by an order coming into force on January 1, 1907, nine classes of workshops were so dealt with. They are as follows: File-cutting, carriage-building, rope and twine making, brick and tile making; making of iron and steel cables, chains, anchors, grapnels, and cart gear; making of nails, screws, and rivets; baking bread, biscuits, or confectionery; fruit-preserving; making, altering, ornamenting, finishing, or repairing of wearing apparel by the aid of treadle sewing machines.

A factory inspector has power, under Section 67, to have a child re-examined if he is of opinion that the child is by disease or bodily infirmity incapacitated for working daily for the time allowed by law in the factory or workshop in which he is employed.

Hours of Employment.-The regulations as to the hours of employment of children differ somewhat according as they are employed (a) in textile factories or (b) in non-textile factories or workshops.

Under Section 25 in textile factories children are not to be employed except on the system of employment in morning and afternoon sets, or of employment on alternate days only. This is known as the half-time system. Under Section 27 in non-textile factories and workshops the rule is the same except that employment on alternate days is only permissible