Here the sum payable upon a loss would be on the principle set out above, with reference also to the rules relating to specific insurances contained in the article ASSESSMENT. There would be more difficulty in averaging when the property is covered by different policies, subject to average, in different offices, and relating to different portions of the property. In such a case the liability of each office would be in the proportion in which its insurance covers the property, the assured himself being taken to be the insurer of the difference, if any. We will take as an example a warehouse and goods insured by separate policies as follows : One upon the warehouse and goods for £3000, one on the warehouse alone for £3000, and one on the goods alone for £3000. Let the value of the warehouse be £5000, and that of the goods £5000 also, making the total value £10,000, whereby £1000 of the whole is left uninsured. Proportionately, the insurers of the warehouse and goods would be liable for three-tenths of the £10,000 ; the insurers of the warehouse, of £5000 ; the insurers of the goods, three-fifths of 25000 ; and the owner, as his own insurer, one-tenth of the whole. Out of the salvage one-tenth part would be Live to the assured, the rest being pro portionately distributed amongst the companies. See FIRE INSURANCE.
or the retaining or receiving for hire of infants for the purpose of their maintenance is now regulated for England, Ireland, and Scotland by the consolidating Children Act, 1908. In reading this article, Scotch readers should substitute the sheriff for a justice of the peace, the procurator-fiscal for the coroner, and au inquiry by the procurator intd the cause of a death for an inquest ; the poorhouse for the workhouse ; and the parish council for the guardians. The provisions of the Act dq not extend to the relatives or guardians of any infant retained or received by them for the purpose of nursing or maintenance; the term " relatives" meaning and including the parents, grandparents, and uncles or aunts by blood or mar riage of such infant ; and in the case of illegitimate infants, the persons who would be to related if the infant were legitimate. Nor does the Act affect any person who receives an infant for its nursing or maintenance under a poor-law authority ; nor any hospital, convalescent home, or institution established for the protection and care of infants, and conducted in good faith for religious or charitable purposes, or boarding-schools at which efficient elementary education is provided.
Any person, not excepted as above, who retains or receives for hire or reward one or more infants under the age of seven years, for the purpose of nursing or maintaining them apart from their parents, or where they have no parents, for a longer period than forty-eight hours, must within forty eight hours from the undertaking to receive g:ve notice to the local authority.
In the county of London the local authority is the London County Council ; in other places in England and in Ireland it is the board of guardians; in Scotland it is the Parish Council. The notice must state the name, sex, and date and place of birth of the infants, the name of the person receiving them, the dwelling within which they are being kept, and the names and addresses of the persons from whom they are received. Notice must also be given of any change of such dwelling and of the death of an infant. Male and female inspectors are appointed for the purpose of inspecting these infants, and the dwellings in which they arc kept ; and it is the duty of such an inspector to satisfy himself that the infants are properly maintained, and to give any necessary advice or directions as to their maintenance. Institutions for the maintenance of children may, at the discretion of the local authority, be exempted from inspection, if they appear to be so conducted that it is unnecessary that they should be visited. The local authority has also power to fix the number of infants under seven years of age which may be kept in any dwelling.
Should an infant in respect of which the above notices are required (a) be kept in any house or premises which are overcrowded, dangerous, or insanitary ; or (b) be retained or received by any person who, by reason of negligence, ignorance, inebriety, immorality, criminal conduct, or other similar cause, is unlit to have its care, the infant may be removed to a place of safety, until it can be restored to its relatives or guardians, or he otherwise lawfully disposed of. No person who has been convicted of any offence under the Act, or from whose premises an infant has been removed under the Act, or whose premises are dangerous awl from which an infant has been so removed, may retain or receive an infant for hire or reward. In the case of the death of any infant who comes under the protection of the Act, notice thereof must be given to the coroner within twenty-four hours of the death ; and if there is no certificate of a registered medical practi tioner that he has personally attended or examined the child and specifying the cause of its death, an inquest will be held. The coroner will require tin certificate to satisfy him that there is no ground for holding an inquest.
Policies bf life insurance of infants kept for reward are now illegal.