PART IV.

Children unfit for

asylum to

directors of the said asylum would render expedient and proper a discharge of such child from the said asylum, having a due regard to the welfare of the child, and the purposes of the asylum, the said board of directors on the application of the parents, guardian or protector of such child, may, in their discretion, discharge the child from the said asylum and restore it to its parents, guardian or protector, on such reasonable conditions as the said board of directors may deem right and proper.

$17. The said corporation shall have power, and it shall be their duty, whenever any child entrusted or committed to be returned. their charge, shall, by the commission of any infamous crime, or by confirmed habits of vagrancy, have become so degraded and debased as to be an improper subject for their care and management, to return such child to the committing magistrate, or other proper authorities, to be disposed of in due course of law.

Binding out childгед.

Indonture

not to be assigned.

Child may be reclaim

treatment.

$ 18. The said corporation shall have power, in its discretion, to bind out or indenture, as clerks or apprentices, to some profession, trade, or employment, the children entrusted or committed to its charge; and for a shorter or longer period, not exceeding, however, in the case of girls, the age of eighteen years; and, in that of boys, the age of twenty-one years.

S 19. No person receiving an apprentice under the provisions of this act, shall be at liberty to assign or transfer the indenture of apprenticeship, or to let out or hire for any period the services of such apprentice, without the consent in writing of the directors of this corporation. In case the master of such apprentice shall be dissatisfied with his or her conduct or behavior, or for any other cause, may desire to be relieved from said contract upon application, the said directors may, in their discretion cancel the said indenture of apprenticeship; and resume the charge and management of the child so apprenticed, and shall have the same power and authority in regard to it, as before the said indenture was made.

$20. If any master shall be guilty of any cruelty, mised for cruel usage, refusal or neglect to furnish necessary provisions or clothing, or any other violation of the terms of indenture or contract towards any such child so bound to service, such child may make complaint thereof to the board of directors of this corporation, or to two justices of the peace of the county in which such child is so bound to service, or to the mayor, recorder or aldermen of any city in which such child is bound to service, or to any two of them who shall summon the parties before them, and examine into, hear and determino the said complaint; and if upon such examination the said complaint shall appear well founded, they shall by certificate under their hands, discharge such child from his obligation of service, and restore him or her to the charge and management

of this corporation in the same manner, and with like powers as before the indenture of such child.

CHAP. IV.

against

prentices

$21. No person shall accept from any journeyman or ap- Prohibition prentice, indentured as aforesaid, any contract or agreement, binding ap nor cause him or her to be bound by oath or otherwise during not to sit his or her term of service, that such journeyman or appren- up trade. tice shall not set up his or her trade, profession or employment in any particular place, shop or cellar; nor shall any person exact from any journeyman or apprentice, after his or her term of service is expired, any money or other thing for using or exercising his or her trade, profession or employment in any place.

contrary to

section

S22. Every security given contrary to the provisions con- Security tained in the last preceding section of this act, shall be void, foregoing and any money paid or valuable thing delivered for the con- ve sideration, in part or in whole, of any such agreement or exaction, may be recovered back with interest, by the person paying the same; and every person accepting such agreement, causing such obligations to be entered into, or exacting money or other thing as aforesaid, shall forfeit one hundred dollars to the apprentice or journeyman from whom the same shall have been received.

of master

may be

S 23. Upon the death of any master to whom any child Upon death may have been bound to service, under the provisions of this indenture act, the executors or administrators of such master may, with assigned. the consent of the child so bound to service, signified in writing, acknowledged and approved by the board of directors of this corporation, assign the indenture or contract of such service to some other person, which assignment shall transfer to and vest in such assignee all the rights of the original master, and also make him subject to all his obligations.

clared

of children

$ 24. The board of directors of this corporation shall be the Board deguardians of every child, bound or held, for service, by virtue guardians and in pursuance of the provisions of this act. They shall take care that the terms of the contract be faithfully fulfilled, and that such person be properly treated; and it is hereby made their special duty to inquire into the treatment of every such child, and redress any grievance in manner prescribed by law. And it shall be the duty of the master or his assignee, to whom any such child shall be bound to service, and he shall, by the terms of the indenture, be required, as often as once in every six months, to report to the said board of directors, the conduct and behavior of the said apprentice or child so bound to service, and whether such apprentice is still living under the care of the person to whom he was originally bound, and if not, where else he may be.

the legis

$25. The board of directors of the said corporation shall, Report on or before the fourth Monday of January, in each and lature. every year, make a detailed report to the legislature of the state and to the common council of the city of New York of the whole number of children received into the asylum during

the year, specifying their sex, place of nativity, age, residence, health at the time of admission, state of education, religious instruction, whether their parents are living or dead, temperate or intemperate, the time devoted to instruction, the nature and amount of punishment, the cases of disease, the number apprenticed or who shall have escaped, died, or been restored to parents or guardians or returned to the committing magistrate during the year, and also such information as they may have received of those who have been bound out or apprenticed, as well as the facts generally in relation to the performance of their duties, also their industrial occupations, with their results, the receipts and expenditures and financial condition of the corporation and its general operations, with their results.

As amended by Laws of 1854, ch. 387.

S26. It shall be the duty of the common council of the city of New York, by committee or otherwise in its discretion, to visit and inspect the said New York juvenile asylum twice at least in each year.

S 27. To provide the pecuniary means for the establishment and support of the said New York juvenile asylum, whenever it shall be proved to the board of supervisors of the city and county of New York, by the affidavit or affirmation of the president and secretary of the said asylum, that fifty thousand dollars in money or approved securities, have by voluntary subscription or otherwise, been raised for the purposes of such asylum, and deposited to the credit of that corporation in one of the incorporated banks of the city of New York, or of the banks formed under the general banking law, the said board of supervisors may, in their discretion, raise and collect a like amount of fifty thousand dollars by tax upon the real and personal property of the said city and county, to be so levied and collected at the same time and in the same manner as the contingent charges and expenses of the said city and county are levied and collected. Such moneys so raised by this corporation, and the said board of supervisors, to be together expended by said corporation in procuring the necessary buildings, sites and lands, in erecting and furnishing the necessary buildings, and in defraying the current expenses of the said asylum, until its permanent buildings shall be completed.

[For 28 see Laws of 1858, ch. 43, and Laws of 1863, ch. 94. Post, vol. 6, p. 76.]

$29. Whenever any child, properly chargeable upon the fund placed by law at the disposal of the commissioners of emigration, shall, agreeably to the provisions of this act, be received, supported and instructed in the said New York juvenile asylum, the said corporation shall be entitled to receive therefor from that fund sixty dollars per annum, and proportionally for any fraction of a year, for every such child so received, supported and instructed in said asylum; but in no case shall the sum so received exceed the lowest expense

to the city and county of New York, of a child of the same age in any of the public institutions under the charge of the ten governors of the alms house and prison department of the said city and county.

A's amended by Laws of 1854, ch. 387.

CHAP. IV.

share in

$30. The schools established and maintained by the New Schools to York juvenile asylum, shall participate in the distribution of common the common school fund in the same manner and degree as the common schools of the city and county of New York.

CHAP. 387.

AN ACT to amend the "act to authorize the establishment of a house of refuge for juvenile delinquents in western New York," passed May eighth, eighteen hundred and forty-six.

PASSED April 16, 1852.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

school fund.

section ro

$1. So much of the sixteenth section of the act hereby Part of 16th amended as provides for the raising, collection, and payment pealed. to the treasurer of the said house of refuge of fifty cents per week for the support, maintenance and care of persons sentenced to confinement therein, shall be and is hereby repealed.

courts of

S2. It shall be the duty of the courts of criminal juris- Duty of diction in the several counties which now are, or shall be criminal hereafter designated as the counties from which juvenile Jurisdiction delinquents are to be sent to the said house of refuge, to ascertain by such proof as may be in their power, the age of every delinquent, by them respectively sentenced to the said house of refuge, and to insert such age in the order of commitment, and the age thus ascertained shall be deemed and taken to be the true age of such delinquent.

court omits

age of any

S 3. In cases where any such court shall omit to insert in In case the the order of commitment the age of any delinquent committed to insert the to the said house of refuge, the managers shall, as soon as delinquent. may be after such delinquent shall be received by them, ascertain his age by the best means in their power, and cause the same to be entered in a book to be designated by them for the purpose. And the age of such delinquent thus ascertained shall be deemed and taken to be the true age of such delinquent.

Ante, p. 217.

PART IV.

Duty of keepers of house of refuge.

Corpora tion.

Kamo.

Powers.

CHAP. 608.

AN ACT in relation to the confinement of juvenile offenders under sentence of the courts of the United States..

PASSED July 21, 1853.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

1. It shall be the duty of the respective keepers of the house of refuge in the city of New York, and the western house of refuge, to receive and safely keep in their respective houses, subject to the regulations and discipline thereof, any criminal under the age of sixteen years, convicted of any offence against the United States. sentenced to imprisonment therein by any court of the United States sitting within this state, until such sentence be executed, or until such convict shall be discharged by due course of law; the United States supporting such convict and paying the expenses attendant upon the execution of such sentence.

CHAP. 123.

AN ACT to incorporate the Buffalo Juvenile Asylum. PASSED April 7, 1856; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

$1. Jesse Ketchum, Gaius B. Rich, Jason Sexton, George S. Hazard, Cyrus P. Lee, George W. Clinton, George Palmer, Lester Bruce, Nathan K. Hall, John Hauenstein, Oliver G. Steele, Aaron Remsey, Samuel N. Cadwallader, Bradford A. Manchester, John R. Evans, Frederick P. Stevens, George A. Moor, Douglass W. Williams, E. P. Door, Samuel G. Walker, F. H. Root, Henry W. Rogers, Wm. Ashmun, George Howard, and their associates, are hereby constituted a body corporate by the name of the "Buffalo Juvenile Asylum," and by that name shall have the powers which by the third title of the eighteenth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes, are declared to belong to corporations; and shall be capable of taking, by purchase or devise, holding and conveying any estate, real or personal, for the use and purposes of said corporation: but such real estate shall not exceed the yearly value of twenty thousand dollars, nor be applied to any other purposes than those for which this corporation is created.

[For § 2 see Laws of 1857, ch. 759.] Post, p. 235,

$ 3. The estate and concerns of said corporation shall be