408 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 219

cessor in title of said property the privilege of purchas-
ing said property from said County Commissioners and pro-
viding the price thereof.

(Vetoed. )

CHAPTER 219.

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact with amendments Sections 706
and 707 of Article 27 of the Annotated Code of Maryland
(1924 Edition), title "Crimes and Punishments, " sub-title
"Penal Institutions—Pensions, " making all employees of the
Board of Welfare, or of any institution under its control,
eligible for pensions under certain conditions and providing
the amount of pension which may be paid.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That Sections 706 and 707 of Article 27 of the Annotated
Code of Maryland (1924 Edition), title "Crimes and Punish-
ments, " sub-title "Penal Institutions—Pensions, " be and they
are hereby repealed and re-enacted with amendments to read
as follows:

706. Whenever any employee of the Board of Welfare or
of any institution under the control or management of the
Board of Welfare shall have given meritorious service as such
employee for a period of twenty years, of which the last ten
years shall have been continuous, or who shall have become
permanently disabled and unfitted for active duty due to in-
jury received in such employment arising out of and in the
course of his or her employment, he or she, as the case may be,
shall, in the discretion of the Board of Welfare, be eligible for
retirement and may thereupon make application to the Board
of Welfare to be retired; whereupon it shall be the
duty of the Director of Welfare to make a prompt and
impartial investigation (and upon request of the applicant to
give him or her a hearing) as to the merits of such applica-
tion, and thereafter, if the Board of Welfare shall find the said
applicant to be eligible for retirement under the terms 'of this
sub-title, it shall have power, in its discretion, to retire such
applicant, and thereafter to pay him or her, during his or her
natural life, a monthly salary not to exceed one-half the
average monthly salary received by such employee during the
year immediately preceding the granting of his or her appli-
cation for retirement.