1068 OYSTERS—SHIPPING COMMISSIONERS. [ART. 72.

First. To superintend the engagement and discharge of all

persons engaged or employed in vessels or boats of ten tons, or
over, used for the catching of oysters in the waters of this State
in the manner hereinafter prescribed.

Second. To make and certify under his hand and seal in tripli-
cate all contracts of engagement as hereinbefore provided, on
blanks, to be furnished by him gratutiously, which said contracts
shall contain the name of the vessel and the number of her State
oyster license, if she has one; the names of the owners and master;
the names, places of birth, ages and residences of the various
members of the crew, with the amount of wages to be paid to
each respectively, and the date of employment of each man, the
expiration of the period of such employment and the place where
such employment is to terminate, the amount of advances, if any,
made at the time of such contract, and whether in money or
articles furnished, and the respective prices of such articles; one
of said triplicate contracts shall be entered in a book, to be kept
by said commissioner in his office expressly for said purpose, and
shall be delivered at the termination of his office to his successor,
and said book shall be open, for inspection at all times. One of
said triplicate contracts shall be delivered by the commissioner to
the captain of the boat or vessel, and the third of said triplicate

contracts shall be sent by the commissioner by the first mail to
the office of the bureau of labor and statistics in Baltimore, to be
preserved in his office.

Third. The crew or any member of the same of any such boat
or vessel shall be discharged and paid off before the commissioner
of the district named as the place of such discharge in the contract,
and if such place shall be before a commissioner other than the
one before whom such member was engaged, then it shall be the
duty of the commissioner before whom the discharge was made
to inform the other commissioner, by letter, of such discharge;
and it shall be the duty of any commissioner thus appointed, to
near and determine all complaints of the non-performance of said
contracts, and his certificate, under his hand and seal, to be fur-
nished on demand shall be prima facie proof of the violation of
the contract, and of the amount of damages suffered thereby, in
any court or before any justice of the peace of this State.