( 16 ) 
Owing to the less permanent nature of the employ- 
ment, the provisions for mines are more general but 
the accommodation must fulfil all reasonable sanitary 
requirements and sick labourers must be sent to the 
nearest Government Hospital. 
20. In the course of the negotations with the 
Government of India in connection with the Emigra- 
tion act of 1922 various amendments of the Labour 
laws in this country were decided on, many of them 
of an important character. 
The Code in the Federated Malay States had already 
been amended no less than twelve times and a complete 
revision of both the Straits Settlements and Federated 
Malay States laws was accordingly put in hand. The 
new Enactments were passed in July, 1923, and came 
into force on 1st October, 1923. Similar action is 
being taken in the Unfederated Malay States and new 
Codes are. already in draft for the States of Johore, 
Kedah and Brunei. 
The principal changes introduced by the new Code 
are 
(1) The abolition of fines for labour offences. 
Imprisonment having already been 
abolished, the contract between employer 
and labourer becomes a purely civil one, 
except in the case of subsisting contracts 
of Javanese labourers and certain “con- 
structive ” contracts of Chinese Labourers 
on Mines. 
(2) The power to compel employers to provide 
schools for labourers’ children. 
(3) The provision for payment of maternity 
allowances to female labourers. 
