USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Attleboro > Reports of town officers of the town of Attleborough 1888 > Part 6
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SECT. 4. The certificate of a child under fourteen years of age shall not be signed until he presents to the person authorized to sign the same, an employment ticket, as hereinafter prescribed, duly filled out and signed. The certificate and the employment ticket shall be separately printed, and shall be in the following forms respectively, and the blanks therein shall be filled out and signed as in- dicated by the words in brackets :
EMPLOYMENT TICKET, LAW OF 1888.
When [name of child], height [feet and inches], com- plexion [fair or dark], hair [color], presents a certificate duly signed, I intend to employ [him or her].
[Signature of intending employer or agent]. [Town or city and state].
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ANNUAL REPORT.
AGE AND SCHOOLING CERTIFICATE, LAW OF 1888.
This certifies that I am the [father, mother or guar- dian] of [name of child], and that [he or she] was born at [name of town or city]. in the county of [name of county, if known], and state [or country] of [name], on the [day and year of birth,] and is now [number of years and months] old.
[Signature of father, mother or guardian.]
[Town or city and date.]
Then personally appeared before me the above named [name of person signing] and made oath that the foregoing certificate by [him or her] signed is true to the best of [his or her] knowledge and belief. I hereby approve the foregoing certificate of [name of child], height [feet and inches], complexion [fair or dark], hair [color], having no sufficient reason to doubt that [he or she] is of the age therein certified.
[Signature of person authorized to sign, with official character or authority.]
[Town or city and date.]
In case the age of the children is under fourteen, the certificate shall continue as follows, after the word " certi- fied " :- And I hereby certify that [he or she] can read at sight, and can write legibly, simple sentences in the Eng- lish language, and that [he or she] has attended the [name] public [or private] day school according to law for [number of weeks, which must be at least twenty] weeks during the year next preceding this date, and that the last twenty weeks of such attendance began [date]. This certificate expires [date, one year later than above date].
[Signature of the person authorized to sign, with official character or authority.]
If attendance has been at a private school, also signa- ture of a teacher of such school, followed by words,-certi- fying to school attendance.
[Town or city and date.]
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ANNUAL REPORT.
In case a child cannot read and write as above stated, the following may be submitted for the clause beginning " and I hereby certify " through to and including the word "language": "and I hereby certify that [he or she] is a regular attendant at the [name] public evening school "; but in such case the certificate shall only continue in force for as long a time as attendance of such child at such evening school is endorsed weekly during the session of such evening school, not exceeding the length of the public school year minus twenty weeks in place of attendance at day school as now provided by law, with a statement from a teacher thereof certifying that his attendance continues regular. If attendance has been at a half-time school, forty weeks of such attendance must be certified to instead of twenty. The foregoing certificate must be filled out in duplicate, and one copy thereof shall be kept on file by the School Committee. Any explanatory matter may be printed with such certificate in the discretion of the School Com- mittee or Superintendent of Schools.
SECT. 5. In cities and towns having a Superintendent of Schools, said certificate shall be signed only by such Superintendent, or by some person authorized by him in writing ; in other cities and towns it shall be signed by some member or members of the School Committee authorized by vote thereof : Provided, however, that no member of a School Committee, or other person author- ized as aforesaid, shall have authority to sign such certifi- cate for any child then in, or about to enter, his own em- ployment, or the employment of a firm of which he is a member, or of a corporation of which he is an officer or employee. The person signing the certificate shall have authority to administer the oath provided for therein, but no fee shall be charged therefor ; such oath may also be administered by any justice of the peace.
SECT. 6. The certificate as to the birthplace and age of a child shall be signed by his father if living and a resi- dent of the same city or town ; if not, by his mother ; or if his mother is not living, or if living is not a resident of the same city or town, by his guardian ; if a child has no father, mother or guardian living in the same city or town,
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ANNUAL REPORT.
his own signature to the certificate may be accepted by the person authorized to approve the same.
SECT. 7. No child who has been continuously a resi- dent of a city or town since reaching the age of thirteen years shall be entitled to receive a certificate that he has reached the age of fourteen unless or until he has attended school according to law in such city or town for at least twenty weeks since reaching the age of thirteen, unless exempted by law from such attendance. Before signing the approval of the certificate of age of a child, the person authorized to sign the same shall refer to the last school census taken under the provisions of section three of chapter forty-six of the Public Statutes, and if the name of such child is found thereon, and there is a material difference between his age as given therein and as given by his .parent or guardian in the certificate, allowing for lapse of time, or if such child plainly appears to be of materially less age than that so given, then such certifi- cate shall not be signed until a copy of the certificate of birth or of baptism of such child, or a copy of the register of its birth with a town or city clerk, has been produced, . or other satisfactory evidence furnished that such child is of the age stated in the certificate.
SECT. 8. The truant officers may, when so authorized and required by vote of the School Committee, visit the factories, workshops and mercantile establishments in their several cities and towns, and ascertain whether any children under the age of fourteen are employed therein contrary to the provisions of this act, and they shall re- port any cases of such illegal employment to the School Committee and to the chief of the district police or the inspector of factories for the district. The inspector of factories, and the truant officers when authorized as aforesaid, may demand the names of all children under sixteen years of age employed in such factories, work- shops and mercantile establishments, and may require that the certificates and lists of such children provided for in .. this act shall be produced for their inspection. Such truant officers shall inquire into the employment, other- wise than in such factories, workshops and mercantile
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establishments, of children under the age of fourteen years, during the hours when the public schools are in session, and may require that the aforesaid certificates of all . children under sixteen shall be produced for their inspection ; and any such officer, or any inspector of factories, may bring a prosecution against a person or corporation employing any such child, otherwise than as aforesaid, during the hours when the public schools are in session, contrary to the provisions of this act, if such em- ployment still continues one week after written notice from such officer or inspector that such prosecution will be brought, or if more than one such written notice, whether relating to the same child or to any other child, has been given to such employer by a truant officer or inspector of factories at any cime within one year.
SECT. 9. Every parent or guardian of a child under fourteen years of age who permits any employment of such child contrary to the provisions of this act, and every owner, superintendent or overseer of any factory, work- shop or mercantile establishment who employs or permits to be employed therein any child contrary to the provisions of this act, and any other person who employs' any child contrary to the provisions of this act, shall for every such offence forfeit not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars for the use of the public schools of the city or town. Every parent, guardian, or per- son authorized to sign the certificate prescribed by section four of this act, who certifies to any materially false statement therein, shall be punished by fine not ex- ceeding fifty dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment. A failure to produce to a truant officer or inspector of factories the certificate required by the provisions of this act shall be prima facie evidence of the illegal employment of the child whose certificate is not produced.
SECT. IO. The expressions "factory " and " work- shop " used in this act shall have the meanings defined for them respectively by chapter one hundred and three of the acts of the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty- seven.
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ANNUAL REPORT.
SECT. II. Within one month of the passage of this act the chief of the district police shall cause a printed . copy thereof to be transmitted to the School Committee of every city and town in the Commonwealth.
SECT. 12. Sections one to six, inclusive, of chapter forty-eight of the Public Statutes, chapter two hundred and twenty-four of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three, chapter two hundred and twenty-two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-five, and section one of chapter four hundred and thirty-three of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven are hereby repealed.
SECT. 13. This act shall take effect on the first day of July in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty- eight. [Approved May 17, 1888.
DANIEL H. SMITH, WM. H. GOFF,
JOSEPH M. BATES,
CHARLES E. BLISS,
CLARENCE L. WATSON,
EVERETT S. HORTON,
FRANK I. BABCOCK, GEORGE F. IDE,
Selectmen of Attleborough.
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