on any particular way a speed greater than the speeds specified in section eight of chapter four hundred and seventy-three of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and three may be permitted with safety, they may make such special regulations as may appear to them to be necessary: provided, however, that no such special regulation increasing or lessening the speed at which automobiles and motor cycles may be run on the public highways, or excluding them therefrom, shall be effective unless such regulation shall have been published in one or more newspapers, if there be any, published in such city or town, otherwise in one or more newspapers published in the county in which the city or town is situated. The act contains provisions for protest before the Massachusetts Highway Commission, in which case such special regulation is not valid until approved by such Board, and then continues: Such special regulations shall be posted conspicuously by or under the direction of the Massachusetts highway commission on sign boards at such points as the board may deem necessary. The cost of such sign boards and the expenses in connection with their erection and maintenance shall be paid out of the appropriation for expenses in connection with the registration of automobiles and motor cycles and the licensing of operators thereof. This act was amended by St. 1906, c. 412, § 9, which changed the words "fifteen days," the period allowed after publication for protest, to "sixty days." Assuming that the regulation referred to by the Massachusetts Highway Commission in their communication has been duly passed and published, as required by the statutes above quoted, I am of opinion that it is to be treated as a "special regulation as to the speed of automobiles and motor cycles," which it was within the power of the selectmen to pass, by authority and in accordance with the provisions of St. 1905, c. 366, and as such it becomes the duty of the commission to post such regulations conspicuously "on sign boards at such points as the board may deem necessary." It is to be observed that the selectmen of a town are authorized by the statute to make special regulations of two distinct classes: first, as to the speed of automobiles and motor cycles; and, second, as to the use of such vehicles on particular roads or ways. From the language of the statute, it would seem that the regulations as to speed need not necessarily be limited to specific roads or ways, but may be made generally applicable either to the thickly settled or business portion of the town, or to that part of the town without the thickly settled or business portion. Moreover, the statute imposes no limitation as to the regulation of speed, and it would seem that a regulation limiting the speed to nine miles an hour (only three miles less than the rate which the statute makes prima facie evidence of improper driving) would not be an unreasonable regulation. For these reasons I conclude, as above stated, that the regulation is within the terms of the statute. CONTAGIOUS DISEASES-STATE BOARD Under R. L., c. 75, § 8, providing in part that "if smallpox or any other contagious State Board 1907 Your Board asks my opinion upon the question whether or To the not by R. L., c. 75, § 8, it is given co-ordinate powers with of Health. local boards of health throughout the Commonwealth, or January 18. whether such powers are created only when contagious disease exists or seems likely to exist in any given place, and are confined to such place and to the duration of the contingency above referred to. R. L., c. 75, § 8, is as follows: If smallpox or any other contagious or infectious disease dangerous to the public health exists or is likely to exist in any place within the commonwealth, the state board shall make an investigation thereof and of the means of preventing the spread of the disease, and shall consult thereon with the local authorities. It shall have co-ordinate powers as a board of health, in every city and town, with the board of health thereof, or with the mayor and aldermen of a city or the selectmen of a town in which there is no such board. It appears from this section that the principal duty of the Board created by this section of the statute, with relation to matters of health, was the investigation of contagious or infectious diseases and the prevention of such diseases, and it is therefore provided that the Board shall consult with the local authorities thereon. Then follows the phrase under consideration, "and shall have co-ordinate powers as a board of health, in every place, with the board of health,” etc. The strong reason for assuming that the powers referred to are conferred only where contagious disease exists or is likely to exist is the fact that they are mentioned in a section which purports to treat only of contagious or infectious diseases. Upon the whole, I am of opinion that the words as used in R. L., c. 75, § 8, are applicable only to places throughout the Commonwealth where contagious disease exists or seems likely to exist, and are confined to such place. To the Insurance Commissioner 1907 February 13. INSURANCE ASSESSMENT INSURANCE-FOREIGN TION CORPORA CHANGE FROM ASSESSMENT TO OLD LINE BUSINESS-VALUATION OF POLICIES. A foreign insurance company admitted to this Commonwealth under the provisions of St. 1890, c. 421, an act relating to assessment insurance, which transacted business therein under the provisions of such statute until June 9, 1899, when it was authorized to transact the business of old line life insurance and since such date has transacted such business, is entitled to have its policies valued and to have a reserve maintained thereon on the basis of renewable term insurance, in accordance with R. L., c. 118, § 11, cl. 4, par. 2. You request my opinion as to whether the Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, which was admitted to Massachusetts in 1893 under the provisions of chapter 421 of the Acts of 1890, and transacted business in this Commonwealth as an assessment life company until June 9, 1899, when it was authorized to transact business as an old line life com pany, and which has continued to transact such business in that way since that date, is entitled to have its policies valued in accordance with the second paragraph of the fourth clause of section 11 of chapter 118 of the Revised Laws. This paragraph is as follows: All policies or certificates of insurance issued before the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-nine by corporations which formerly transacted a life insurance business under the provisions of chapter four hundred and twenty-one of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety and acts in amendment thereof, and which now have authority to do business in this commonwealth under the provisions of this chapter, which policies or certificates are in force on the thirty-first day of December of any year and which contain a provision for a payment other than the premium stipulated therein and under which the duration of the premium payment is the same as the duration of the contract, except in endowment certificates and endowment policies, shall be valued and shall have a reserve maintained thereon on the basis of renewable term insurance as fixed by attained age in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. To the reserve liability determined as above the insurance commissioner shall add the determinate contract reserve under any other policies or certificates issued by said companies, before said first day of July and remaining in force on the thirty-first day of December of any year, and in the absence of such contract reserve shall value them as contracts providing similar benefits are to be valued under the provisions of this chapter. But under no policy or certificate shall a greater aggregate reserve liability be charged than is otherwise required by this chapter. All policies of life insurance issued by any such corporation subsequent to the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, including those which contain a provision for a payment other than the premiums specified therein, shall be valued and a reserve maintained thereon according to the provisions of this chapter, but all such policies issued by said former assessment corporations prior to the first day of January in the year nineteen hundred and three, shall be valued taking the first year as one-year-term insurance. Chapter 229 of the Acts of 1899 was passed April 1, 1899, but by section 8 was to take effect July 1, 1899. This company changed its business from an assessment to an old line form of business on June 9, 1899, as it was entitled to under the law as it stood prior to the passage of chapter 229 of the Acts of 1899. To the Superintendent of State Adult Poor. 1907 March 5. I am of opinion that the Legislature did not intend to limit. the benefits conferred by the portion of the section above quoted to those companies that changed from an assessment to an old line form of insurance upon or subsequent to July 1, 1899. Consequently, R. L., c. 118, § 11, cl. 4, par. 2, does not exclude this company simply on the ground that on the first day of July, 1899, it was already engaged in transacting old line insurance. Therefore, the company is entitled to have its policies valued in accordance with the provisions of the above quoted section. PAUPER-DERIVATIVE SETTLEMENT - RETROACTIVE STATUTE. A pauper born in 1830 who derived a settlement from his father in 1843, which became fixed when such pauper became of age, had acquired a settlement before the first day of May, 1860, and such settlement was therefore defeated and lost by the retroactive provision of R. L., c. 80, § 6, notwithstanding the fact that the settlement of the father came within the exception contained in such statute, and was not defeated thereby. You request my opinion upon the following statement of facts: The pauper was born in Wareham, Mass., 1830; removed to Fairhaven, Mass., in 1833, where he derived a settlement from his father, who acquired a settlement in same place in 1843. The pauper since his majority has performed none of the acts necessary to acquire a settlement. His father continued to reside in Fairhaven until his death, July 6, 1874, owning and occupying a freehold estate each year since 1843. Under the provisions of R. L., c. 80, § 6, "Any settlement which was not fully acquired subsequent to the first day of May, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty, is hereby defeated and lost, unless such settlement prevented a subsequent acquisition of settlement in the same place; As the father's settlement was saved under the exception, and that settlement acquired when the son was a minor, does it follow that the settlement of the son, the pauper, is not lost? The settlement of the pauper in question, derived from his father in 1843, became fixed when the pauper became of age in 1851, and thereafter was unaffected by any subsequent loss or acquisition of settlement by his father. He had, therefore, a settlement in the town of Fairhaven, acquired before the first |